I spent last Thursday travelling to and from Madrid in a day! It was a tiring episode, to say the least, and it would have been nice to have actually had a couple of days there to soak up a gallery or two, however the trip did have a purpose… and that was to find out more about our role as coordinator for the Comenius project, Understanding Our Environment.

Basically, we were informed that we could pretty much reorganise our entire planning, as long as we do not deviate from the initial topic of the project.

We were also informed of the importance of the first meeting, which we are currently planning for our project, and how we need to put together a proper programme for the meeting, and make sure we share out tasks between all partners, so that all of us do an equal share of the work for the project.

We also have to think about the ‘Products’ of the project. Each partner needs to produce their own products, as well as shared ones, and they all need to be added to a huge shared database entitled the ‘European Shared Treasure’ (EST). The EST is in existence so that future projects and schools across Europe can benefit from the products of all the projects.

Products include dictionaries, recipe books, videos, CDs, PDFs, basically anything and everything that is a physical product of the project in each of the partner schools.

‘Difusión’ was mentioned a lot! Basically, this is what we would call ‘marketing’ in English. It involves sharing and promoting the project to our peers, children, parents, and the whole community… and how we use the media available to us to do this to the best of our ability.

Finally, the subject of ‘mobilities’ was covered. Our project was approved based on 24 mobilities over 2 years. A mobility is defined a 1 person making 1 trip outside their own country. Our 20,000€ of approved funding MUST cover 24 mobilities. This is the minimum we can make, however if we can do more, then that’s fine too.

On the subject of mobilities, every teacher that makes a mobility MUST sign up for a Europass. Apart from it being compulsory to have a Europass if you are making mobilities as part of a Comenius project, it actually looks like a great project… as it’s purpose is the make qualifications recognised throughout Europe easily. So, if you have a degree from a UK university, for example, it will make it easier for you to use your degree throughout the European Union if you get a Europass.

Anyone can sign up for a Europass, so why not?

Trying to think of better ways to make lessons more engaging, and having to do both a Comenius project on the environment and start working in the CLIL project in 2 schools, my thoughts went to finding simple experiments that could be done in a 30 minute  class and also be simple enough for the children to take part in themselves.

Surfing the net, I came across many sites with suitable experiments, however http://www.kids-science-experiments.com seemed to list quite a lot that fitted the bill immediately!

I have copied some of my favourites and added them to a zip file of today’s materials to download and use with ease in the classroom. Click the link below to download it.

CLIL Experiments for the Primary Classroom

Conversational games are used in every ESL classroom to promote speech, pronunciation and understanding. In this week’s lesson we covered a few activities that could be fun and interesting to your class, encouraging the children to chat to one another in English.

we also looked at Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night as a Cultural English Event which could be used in the classroom in lieu of Halloween, as it happens at the same time of year, plus the story of St. George as both a play, for older children and a story for the youngsters.

The materials from today’s lesson can be downloaded here if you require a copy.

At a development meeting the other day, changes were mentioned about the new European legistlation being introduced in order to improve compulsory education within the Eiropean community.

The idea, or should I say, the plan is to integrate a social context into the curriculum across the European Union.

So… what does it really mean and why are we being forced to do it? Well, it nor only will enable parents to take a more active role in their child’s ongoing education, but it makes the learning process at primary and secondary levels much more relevant and therefore successful for the students.

By introducing a activities that actually utilise the skills learned in real tasks, such as communicating in a foreign language in the real world with real foreigners, they hope that the students will not only see that they will need their studies in life, but will also show them how to apply them to situations and involve parents, families and the community in the wider lifelong learning environment.

Is it good? Will it work? Who knows… but it certainly seems a lot more fun than when I was at school and all this European funding for travel it brings doesn’t seem to be a bad thing!

For Halloween this year we made these charming bats that we hung up in the school.

They are really easy to do and are suitable for all primary. I have added a downloadable PDF containing the instructions and the template for the wings.

All you need are enough toilet roll tubes!!!

 

Download Templates

Bat instructions

Bat wings