The autumn season is now in full swing! Show your students how wonderful the “season of change” can be with these fun activities, all while strengthening their bilingual language skills.
Create a Cornucopia Picture
With the Thanksgiving holiday right around the corner, this crafty lesson can help your students be well prepared for the holiday with their family and friends.
First, you should go through the Little Sponges® Garden Adventure theme to introduce your students to the “fruits and vegetables” vocabulary. Let your students practice new vocabulary by listening, saying and reading words and sentences that are presented by Mishka and Frog in the videos, games and digital cards.
Once your students have a good grasp on the vocabulary, have them draw five of their favorite fruits and/or vegetables. After selecting and drawing their five choices, guide them through drawing a cornucopia. Once all the drawing is complete, monitor them while they cut their food items and cornucopia out.
On a separate sheet of paper (preferably colored paper), have your students glue the cornucopia to the page, then add their favorite foods to the cornucopia’s opening. If you feel your students are capable, ask each of them to stand and share their creation in front of the class, pointing out which fruits and vegetables they chose and why. Older students may also label each food item in the target language. If your students are old enough, they can use Little Sponges® digital vocabulary cards to help them label their fruits and vegetables in the target language(s).
Encourage students to take their creation home and describe it to their parents using the target language. Their parents will be impressed and excited to be part of the learning process!
Give Thanks
Autumn is the season of thanks, and what better way to approach Thanksgiving than to give thanks for all the good in our lives?
For this project, simply cut out colorful leaves and give one or two to each of your students. Have them write (with or without your help) something that they are thankful for using the target language(s). On a large piece of poster board, use brown paper to create a trunk shape.
Then, one by one, have your students tell the class what they wrote down before gluing their leaf to the poster board. After your whole class has gone, add your own and proudly display the tree in your classroom.
This is also a nice conversation topic with parents who visit your classroom and may see your tree.
Take a Virtual Field Trip
If your class cannot make it out to the forest this fall, don’t worry! You can take a virtual field trip by watching the Forest Adventure! Children will learn about foods that grow in the forest, spot a few animals and insects and even learn how to recognize different birds by the sounds they make. After watching the learning video and playing the games, revisit the very end of the learning video where Mishka and Frog ask the kids about their favorite insect. You can use this question for your activity or change up the sentence to include “animal” instead. Then, ask your students to draw their favorite insect or animal from the Forest Adventure and label their pictures in the target language using digital vocabulary cards to help them spell the words correctly. We suggest taping vocabulary cards that show different insects and animals on a nearby wall for students to reference. If you don’t have the vocabulary cards, you can project the visual from the learning video (that shows all of the animals and/or insects) on the smartboard. This will help them with their drawing.
After everyone is finished, go around the room and name each person’s favorite insect/animal in the target language(s). Encourage your students to respond using the complete sentence (see example below) instead of just one word.
Make Your Own Pine Cone Owl
Building on the learning from the Forest Adventure and the School Adventure themes, students can create their own little owl pals, all while reviewing the vocabulary in the target languages. Your students will need five things to complete this craft: a pinecone, construction paper, googly eyes, scissors, and glue.
First, have your students cut out two half circles for the wings of their owls. Then, have them cut out a small triangle for the beak of their owl.
After they have cut out these pieces, help them glue the pieces onto the pinecone in the appropriate areas, along with the googly eyes. Once finished, have your students set their owls in a safe spot to dry overnight.
When the owls have completely dried, try having your students role play conversations with each other using their owls. They can practice greeting each other and share what they saw and learned on their fun adventures with Mishka and Frog.
Play A Game With Leaves
This is a great game to help your students practice saying, reading and writing the words for colors. You will need construction paper (include different colors: red, yellow, brown, green, orange, etc), scissors, and a marker for each student.
After watching the Farm Adventure video, ask your students to cut out different color leaves and label the color of each leaf in the target language. They can use Little Sponges digital vocabulary cards in the Farm Adventure to help them spell the words correctly.
Then, name the color in the target language and ask students to hold up the leaf that matches that color while repeating what you said. The students who hold up the correct color get to continue in the game while students who show the wrong color are eliminated from the game. Do the same thing again and again until you have one or a few winners left. Your students will learn how to say and spell all of the colors in the target language in no time!
Read a Book with Mishka and Frog
You may already have an arsenal of autumn related books in your classroom library, and there’s no reason they should be left out this season! Use your Mishka and Frog hand puppets to help you tell the story. When you come across a word that has been covered in the Little Sponges® program, use the puppets to review that word in both languages.
Hold up Frog puppet and say: “If Frog says orange leaves…”
Hold up Mishka puppet and say: “…then Mishka says ________”