Valentines ESL Vocabulary Lesson – Love Words

http://canada-esl.com/valentinescrafts/valentines-esl-vocabulary-lovewords.html

Valentines Crafts – Love Rocks – Kids ESL Valentines Vocabulary

http://canada-esl.com/valentinescrafts/valentinescrafts-esl-loverocks.html

Valentines Craft for ESL Kids / Children – Making Valentines Cards

http://canada-esl.com/valentinescrafts/valentinescrafts-esl-cards.html

Here is an excellent Valentines Day ESL Lesson – printable, and classroom ready!

http://canada-esl.com/valentinescrafts/valentinescrafts-esl-love.html

CHRISTMAS WORDS

This is a further list of Christmas words.  Our original list of Christmas vocabulary is here.  This new list of ESL Christmas vocabulary words are an excellent way to teach your students to enjoy learning about the Christmas culture that their teachers grew up with, and hold so close to their heart.  Also, when I was teaching English overseas, I found it was such a nice feeling to be able to celebrate by teaching Christmas words, and therefore the culture of the season, even if I wasn’t with my family back home. Enjoy these Christmas words with your students.

Christmas is a holiday in the western world which is celebrated by putting up a Christmas tree, decorating it, and by giving gifts.  The meaning of the holiday is really to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, and is therefore a religious holiday celebrated by Christians.  Not all people or religions celebrate Christmas of course, but it is still a holiday across the western nations.

CHRISTMAS WORDS

Advent: The month leading up to Christmas.

Angel: An angel is a nice Christmas symbol, which you usually see as a Christmas decoration on Christmas trees.  Kids also like to make ‘snow angels’.

Bethlehem: A small town in the Middle East that is believed to have been the birthplace of Jesus Christ.  This is often spoken of in the story of the first Christmas, the three wisemen, etc..

Christianity: The religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Christmas: The annual Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25^th.

Christmas Cake: A rich fruit cake covered with icing that is traditionally eaten on Christmas day.

Christmas Candle: A cylinder shaped object made from wax, with a central wick, made from string. Lit as decoration during Christmas.

Christmas Card: A greetings card that people send to friends and family at Christmas.

Christmas Carol: A religious song that people sing during Christmas.

Christmas Day: The birthday of Jesus Christ, 25th December.

Christmas Eve: The day before Christmas day, 24th December.

Christmas Present: A gift that is given to a friend or family member, to be opened on Christmas day.

Christmas Tree: An evergreen tree, decorated with lights and displayed during Christmas, either inside or outside. Sometimes an artificial version of these trees will be used indoors.

Christmas Cracker: A decorated tube of card, containing small gifts, that makes a cracking noise when pulled apart. Traditionally, two people will share a cracker on Christmas day, each pulling from one side of the cracker. The person who ends up with the largest piece of the cracker keeps the gifts inside.

Christmas Decoration: Paper or foil cut into Christmas themed shapes, draped over Christmas trees, or from ceilings, walls or on top of houses and other buildings. Can also be solid ornaments that are Christmas themed and placed upon any surface indoors.

Christmas Turkey: A large bird, similar to a chicken that is traditionally baked in an oven and served as the main meal on Christmas day. Normally, the Turkey will be carved and served by the head of the family.

Snowman:  a large man or woman made of snow.

Eggnog: A traditional alcoholic drink, made from milk and beaten eggs and drunk by some during Christmas.

Father Christmas: Young children believe in this imaginary person, who is said to deliver Christmas presents to children on the night before Christmas day. Also known as Santa Claus, he is portrayed as an old man in a red suit, with long white hair and a white beard.

Holly: The prickly dark green leaves and red berries of this plant and used to make decorations during Christmas. Often used to create holly wreaths. A circular ornament that is pinned to doors during Christmas.

Mistletoe:  The leaves and white berries of this plant are traditionally hung  overhead during Christmas. Traditionally, when two people pass under the mistletoe at the same time, they are expected to exchange a kiss

The Star of Bethlehem: The star that announced the birth of Jesus and guided the wise men to find him.

Have fun learning these Christmas words.

Here are some link directories

• Canada Webdir - Directory

• ESL Basics – free ESL Resources - http://www.eslbasics.com/

Halloween Vocabulary

Spook – this is a verb which means to scare.  I will spook the kids on Halloween night.

spooky – if something is spooky it is scary, or strange.  That house is spooky.

Skeleton – the bones of a human body.  A common Halloween costume.

Witch – another spooky Halloween symbol.  A witch is usually on a broom.

Haunt – a verb – this is what ghosts do when they stay, or continue to live in a certain place.  That house is haunted by a ghost.

Trick or treat – this is how kids get Halloween candies on Halloween night.

Jack-o-lantern – a carved pumpkin which usually has a face in it and candle inside it.

Haunted house – a spooky house with ghosts in it.

Spider web – a typical spooky Halloween symbol.

Ghost – the dead soul of a former life.  A spooky Halloween symbol.

Goblin – a little scary monster.

Ghoul – a little scary monster.

Black cat – a typical spooky Halloween symbol, brings bad luck by legend.

Pumpkin – a typical Halloween symbol that isn’t spooky.

Frankenstein – a monster.

Vampire – like Dracula.  Vampires eat blood and suck your neck and come from Transylvania.

Zombie – the living dead.

Costume – kids wear costumes for trick or treating.  Adults wear costumes at Halloween parties.

Scared – verb – same as frightened.

Bat – a flying animal at night.

Skull – bones from a persons head – a typical spooky Halloween symbol.

Creepy – icky, scary.  That haunted house looks very creepy.

Halloween vocabulary resources / Halloween ESLwebsites

Happy ESL Halloween!Halloween vocabulary and Halloween ESL Lessons.

 Canada-ESL.com’s collection

• Halloween Vocabulary Lesson
• Halloween Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle
• Halloween Vocabulary Word Search
• Halloween Party decorations and crafts

Halloween Vocabulary Theme Party planning ideas / Halloween decorations / Halloween crafts  

Being able to teach Halloween vocabulary and come up with classroom Halloween party ideas at the same time can be loads of fun for an ESL class of all ages.  These ideas will help you to make a “spooky” classroom for the party.

Do you teach in an ESL school?  Do you want to teach Halloween vocabulary and have an ESL Halloween theme party with your class?  Here are some ideas that you can use to make the party lots of fun, and have fun with the whole ESL class preparing for the party.  Students can get involved in the preparations  and enjoy learning language and culture at the same time.  These Halloween ESL vocabulary table decorations will be a hit with the class.

1) Pumpkins and Jack-o-lanterns

This is the first thing people think of when planning for a Halloween party, a real ‘must have’ of course.  Every Halloween party should have a pumpkin carving contest.  You can try googling jack-o-lanterns for get some great ideas. Additionally, you can decorate the classroom with small pumpkins in all corners of the room.

There are lots of creative ideas ways you can adorn your jack-o-lantern.  Try using pretty fall leaves around the bottom, (be careful not to light the pumpkin where the leaves could burn), never leave the jack-o-lanterns lit and unattended.  You could also use a jack-o-lantern as a flower holder, or paint the pumpkin, or make a Cinderella carriage out of it.

2) Parts of a Zombie Body

What foods can you find to make creepy eyeballs?  How about grapes…  The class would love to brainstorm these ideas.  You can create Halloween body part dishes and the students can take turns being blondfolded while they are told a creepy zombie Halloween story and touch each different plate fo fake zombie parts.

3) the cloak, hat and broom of a wicked witch

This is another great idea for a Halloween table decoration.  You can go to the market and buy a cheap make-shift witch hat for a Halloween costume and decorating it with spiders webs or, bats and any other Halloween-themed ideas.   You can them make up a story about what happened to the witch, or if she will come back.  Better yet, you can have the ESL students create a story, and have a short contest telling it, the scariest one wins…

4) Spooky Tablecloths

It will be lots of fun making a spooky table cloth for the centrepiece of the party where you have your snacks and other items displayed on.  You can buy a cheap table cloth and decorate it with spiders, bats, witches hats and other Halloween symbols.   It may be best to buy a black one to start and then decorate it with grey and white decorations you also make or buy.

5) Zombie Skulls

You can make wall décor or buy platic skulls as traditional Halloween decorations as well.  You can use them as candy jars for Halloween treats.

6) Halloween music

You should get online and buy some Halloween music such as the Monstermash, for dancing, or you can also buy spooky sounds for good background atmosphere setting.

These ideas will get you going, and if you do only these, you will have a good Halloween party.  However, feel free to do more than this.  You can comment below if you have any other ideas for a Halloween vocabulary themes ESL class party.

Happy Halloween!

How to write a perfect paragraph:

Understand what a paragraph is:  A paragraph is a series of sentences.  These sentences include a topic sentence, and a series of supporting sentences.

Part 1: Topic sentence

The topic sentence is the overall idea you want the paragraph to communicate.  In other words, the topic sentence is the purpose of the paragraph, or the reason for the existence of a paragraph:

                Topic Sentence Example:

Drawing on her experiences as an English teacher overseas, Eleyna was able to identify the difficulties students from different countries and cultural backgrounds have.

Topic sentence’s job:  To define the purpose of the paragraph.

Part 2: supporting sentences

The ‘other’ sentences in the paragraph (other than the topic sentence) are supporting sentences.  These sentences provide the support for the topic sentence.  Without them the topic sentence is weak, and an undeveloped idea.  They are the necessary content to complete a paragraph.

Therefore, if our topic sentence is as follows:

Eleyna is an effective language teacher because she is able to identify the difficulties that students from different countries and cultural backgrounds have, which is a skill she developed after having spent several years teaching English in various countries.

The supporting sentences could be as follows:

For example, she knows that Northeast Asian students often pronounce /r/ as an /L/, making the word “rice” sound like “lice”.  She also knows that Spanish speaking students from Mexico often replace the soft /sh/ sound, as in the word shower, with a hard /ch/ sound, which makes it sound like “chower”.  This special knowledge allows her to address these language learning impediments early.

The whole paragraph would therefore be:

Eleyna is an effective language teacher because she is able to identify the difficulties that students from different countries and cultural backgrounds have, which is a skill she developed after having spent several years teaching English in various countries.  For example, she knows that Northeast Asian students often pronounce /r/ as an /L/, making the word “rice” sound like “lice”.  She also knows that Spanish speaking students from Mexico often replace the soft /sh/ sound, as in the word shower, with a hard /ch/ sound, which makes it sound like “chower”.  This special knowledge allows her to address these language learning impediments early.

Your topic sentence can go at the beginning of the paragraph, or it could go at the end of the paragraph, which also works well, as you will see below:

Eleyna knows that Northeast Asian students often pronounce /r/ as an /L/, making the word “rice” sound like “lice”.  She also knows that Spanish speaking students from Mexico often replace the soft /sh/ sound, as in the word shower, with a hard /ch/ sound, which makes it sound like “chower”.  This special knowledge allows her to address these language learning impediments early.  Thus, Eleyna is an effective language teacher because she is able to identify the difficulties that students from different countries and cultural backgrounds have, which is a skill she developed after having spent several years teaching English in various countries.