The ESL Corner

1. The ESL Corner First graders enjoy learning about Fairy Tales this quarter. Every child has a natural attraction for fairytales as the story helps them reflect on their own feelings and instincts. Sharing fairytale content is therefore of great value to the growth of the child. This natural interest also offers a good framework for children to learn new vocabulary, language structure and spelling. Your child has been exploring some of the classic Fairy Tales. In the classroom your child starts to identify the elements of fairy tales. Soon your child will make comparisons between the tales. Please tell some of your own favorite fairy tales from your own country and discuss the characters and story events. Your children will transfer this background knowledge and skills to their second language learning. Every child enjoys listening to family stories. Reading aloud proves to be an effective way to help children develop language skills in all academic areas. When retelling stories, remind your child to include all characters’ names, give a detailed setting, include problems/solutions, and use a variety of time words to sequence the story. Check out the samples of student work: -Susan Chen & Virginia Blais 3 Billy Goats Gruff 3 Little Pigs Gingerbread Man Goldilocks and The 3 Bears

2. Vocabulary

3. VocabularyGames Continued Stories The object of this oral story game is to tell an original story, each player contributing a part in turn. The stories may be about anything at all, such as animals, people, and so on. One player is chosen to start the story, and he might say, “Once upon a time, there was a dog named ___ .” The next player names the dog, and adds, perhaps, “He lived with a girl named ___,” or, “He was a brown dog, with a white tail, and he liked___.” And so on around the players. Each player must remember the details supplied by the other players, and abide by the developing plot. Make funny stories and have some fun with this game. Buzz Players in turn recite numbers from one to one hundred. But when seven, or numbers containing seven (seventeen, twenty-seven, etc.) fall to a player, the player must sayBuzzinstead of the number. Failure to do so without sayingBuzzmeans that the player is out of the game. The faster this game goes, the better the fun is.Buzz/Pumpkin/Cherry Pie/Pizzacan be played with any high frequency words, theme topic vocabulary and any household items at home. Fairy Tales Jeopardy Have fun over the holiday playing ‘Jeopardy’ with your children. It’ll give you an opportunity to play a game, while at the same time, learn the concepts and vocabulary that Grade 1 students are exposed to in the Fairy Tale curriculum. Your children will love showing you how much they know. Emotional attachment to new concepts and vocabulary enhances memory retention.

4. VocabularyGames (cont.) • Connect Four: • 2 players, 2 colored markers • Starting with an empty 5x5 grid of dots • Fill up with topic theme vocabulary in the boxes • Directions: • Each student takes turns draw one line to connect any two dots. Say the word out loud at each time. Whoever connects the box first puts the name inside the box. Each person counts the boxes that are filled up with their names. • The person that gets the most boxes is the winner 

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9. Fairy Tales 1 The Gingerbread Man The Three Little Pigs Jack and the Beanstalk Rapunzel The Three Billy Goats Gruff The Three Billy Goats Gruff Cinderella Goldilocks and the Three Bears Red Riding Hood

10. Fairy Tales 2 The Princess and the Pea The Ugly Duckling Hansel and Gretel Rumpelstilskin Sleeping Beauty The Elves and the Shoe Maker The Frog Prince Snow White