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Ideas to practice English at home

Good websites for young readers to practice at home:

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Good websites for more experienced readers to practice at home:

Merriam Webster Dictionary This website is much more than just a dictionary- it has vocabulary and visual literacy quizzes, and articles about words (for example the top ten words that come from "mother" for mother's day coming up).

Free online children's books at this website: @http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksbytitle.php

News articles- once you go to an article, you can change the text's level of difficulty to easier or harder to read. @http://www.newsela.com/

Cool websites for advanced ESL students:

TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">TED used to stand for Technology, Entertainment, Design, but now the website has over 1000 inspirational talks from different people over almost any topic imaginable. You can search by subject, length or rating. Many videos have subtitles in other languages!

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Here is one example of a poetry teacher performing a poem and talking about teaching poetry.

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">How Stuff Works

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">This website is run by the Discovery Channel. They have articles and videos about how different things work, different topics about science and engineering, unsolved mysteries in history and more. Here is one example about the origins of the ninja.

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">All subjects:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[] - donate rice to Cambodia for every correct answer- you can change the subject from English vocabulary to math, science, art and more. The questions get harder and harder as you go.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Khan Academy. There are thousands of videos about almost every school subject imaginable. For example, during Grade 5, students learn about Impressionism- here is a beautiful video about Monet's Water Lillies.

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<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18.6667px;">Writing at home:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Writing at home should be fun and interesting. Students will write more and get better with practice if they enjoy it. One of the simplest ideas is to keep a journal- especially if something special happens. You can remind them of something exciting and say, “You want to remember that when you are older, right? Why don’t you write it in your journal?” They should also be encouraged to write stories and letters or pretend to write for a newspaper or magazine. If students bring me writing they did at home, I am happy to correct it or talk to them about it. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Here are some fun “What if” questions to start a journal entry: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if you could fly whenever you wanted? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What if all the streets were rivers? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if animals could talk? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if you could become invisible whenever you wanted to? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if you grew taller than trees? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if children ruled the world? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would happen if there were no cars, buses, trains, boats, or planes? How would this change your life? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">What would you do if you ordered an ice cream cone and you forgot to bring money? <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">You can find more of these here: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 18.6667px;">Different activities:

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Watching movies in English, making play dates with other students who don’t speak the same mother tongue and playing games like “20 Questions” in English are all great ways to improve. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">You can also take a sentence that your child says and write it down (with correct English), cut out each word, mix them in an envelope and then have the student put it back together in order. This activity seems easy, but it can really help if students are using incorrect word order or need reading practice at a low level. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There are also many games online if you google “ESL games.”