My CLIL Science Corner

 HELLO, HELLO! Some days ago I told you about some of my life hacks as a teacher, did you read the post? It is available in this blog. If you want to read it, click here    Creating all our resources is time-consuming, so why not investing some money in ready-to-use games?  Some weeks ago I found these memories in the supermarket Aldi . They are perfect for playing in small groups or to use them in learning stations. (click on the image to see the memory games)  Apart from playing a memory game you can also plan other activities such as classifying in categories, finding the odd one, finding out which card is missing... The one about animals also includes facts about the animals, so these cards can also be used for a reading activity. But... why using memories in your classes?  Playing memory games improves attention, concentration and focus.  Memory games improve visual recognition.  You need short-term memory to play memory games, so this brain ...

HIYA! 😊 Today I have a question for you: "What's the perfect age to implement CLIL?". Many times in schools CLIL is thought to be perfect for older students (10-11 year-olds) and implementing CLIL  in the first grades (6-7 year-olds) is not considered appropiate. We tend to think that CLIL is better for the third cycle because students have a better command of the target language. They have been studying the target language for some years so they have learned more vocabulary and grammar if we compare them with younger students. But... is it possible to teach 6-7 year-olds with a CLIL approach? My answer is it is! I have taught Science with a CLIL approach in the first cycle of primary school and I must confess it is highly rewarding 💖 Teaching CLIL in the  first grade (6-7 year-olds) can be challenging, but also very gratifying. At this age, kids get easily involved and if you provide them with the vocabulary and structures they need, they start using the language in a ...

  GOOD AFTERNOON! 💕 Well... or good evening or good morning, depending on when you are reading this post 😊 In this blog, I have already dealt with the following principles of CLIL: ☑ The 4 Cs ☑ Scaffolding ☑ Bloom's Taxonomy Today's post is about " The 3 As tool in CLIL ". Are you ready? 😉 The 3 As tool is used for planning CLIL lessons. Whereas the 4 Cs helps us in the overall planning of the unit, the 3 As tool is of great help when we plan the language our students will need in the activities we have planned. The 3 As stands for A nalyse,  A dd and A pply. Let's have a look at the three stages: 👉 Stage 1 : ANALYSE content for the language OF learning. This means the key phrases and the vocabulary needed. 👉 Stage 2 : ADD to content language FOR learning. This refers to metacognitive or learner's strategies, language for group/pairwork, understanding instructions, how to deal with not understanding... To me, this stage is highly important. If we wa...

Hi teachers! How are you doing?💖 Today I would like to ask you a question: do you bear in mind the 4 skills ( listening, speaking, reading and writing ) when planning your CLIL units or projects? I try to do so, even if sometimes it is a bit tricky. From my point of view, it is highly important that our students have time to practise the 4 skills in their CLIL class because, in fact, they are using a language to learn in a similar way they would if they were learning content in L1. Whenever they are learning contents from any subject in L1 they are also using the 4 skills: maybe they are watching a video and they are listening to information they need for a purpose (listening) ; they are discussing a topic (speaking);  they are searching for information in books or on internet (reading) or they are writing a report (writing). So, why not practising the 4 skills in our CLIL lessons?  Would you like to find out what activities I use in my CLIL lessons to practise the 4 skill...

  Hi teachers, Today I would like to talk to you about teaching VOCABULARY and GRAMMAR in CLIL . Should we teach vocabulary and structures before starting a Science or Arts unit?  After years of teaching with a CLIL approach, I confess there isn't a specific way to do so. I am going to tell you about my experience as a CLIL Science teacher. From my point of view, it depends on the age you are teaching and your students' level of English. When I teach 6-9 year-olds , I usually spend the first two sessions to teach and revise the new vocabulary that they are going to need in the new unit. And you may wonder how I do it. At these ages, I like using flashcards or realia and to play games with them. You can find some ideas about how to use flashcards in the post my dear friend and colleague Núria and I prepared: Let's see it with an example. The CLIL unit " A Healthy Mind into a Healthy Body " was divided into differents parts: 1) Introduction to Food 2) Where does it ...