Spin off stories

This week has seen a variation of activities. Jordi started by showing his skills in subtracting and adding. He helped demonstrate these by using his manual calculator, as well as other objects such as counters from game boards. He has proved to be great in this area and does so with confidence.

Meanwhile, Sara and Judit have been focusing on a varied learning of science, maths and grammar each day, focusing particularly on grammar. We have learnt how to define a ´suffix´and a ´prefix´, and Sara and Judit have proved through exercises that they can identify each and provide examples. They had four worksheets to work through and eventually needed no corrections. Learning these had a side effect of improving their vocabulary, for example learning that using certain prefixes can form the opposite of a verb.

Jordi has also been developing his own skills by helping Sergi to learn new ones. They have been working hard on word searches. This helps develop their ability to identify individual letters, which is especially effective when surrounded by a variety of other letters. Original confusion between D and O, for example, began to iron out over time. Furthermore, the size of the font became smaller and the quantity of letters on the page greater.

Judit and Sra have been avidly listening to the BFG, continuing from last week. They show keen interest in narrative and they prove their listening by summarising the chapters they have heard. This would be done in two ways. They would take notes during the readings, helping to develop speed writing and key words. After they would also write a detailed summary by combining memory and their notes. We would also write some ´spin off stories´, such as what they imagined a dream to be that was left undescribed in the book, or what could be done if ´invisibility´was a possibility, as it is for one character. They would write these in short story or letter form.

We have also began to develop a new vocabulary sheet which will be cut up to use as learning cards. Jordi has been helping and has been developing his own writing of words, which he has done by either copying existing words on a page or looking at an object and writing it´s name. Sergi has shown interest in these areas, often watching or making his own puzzles using shapes and colours, and using language learning games to look at letters.

As well as written work we have also been discussing subjects, giving the group the chance to ask questions about certain subjects they are interested in and discussing them in detail. Some prompts came from encyclopaedias. This gives the opportunity to develop conversational English as well as some general knowledge. Hopefully they found it enjoyable as well!