FLOWERS AND THEIR FUNNY NAMES

Laura Lorenzo02/05/26  

“The earth laughs in flowers”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

After discovering the importance of flowers and the relationship between flowers and insects, we became quite curious about flowers! They are very beautiful but we do not know many of their names in our language…. imagine in English!

To discover some of the names, we were faced with a challenge… could we discover the name of some flowers by reading their descriptions?

We were not convinced at first, but we realized that reading a text in English is just a matter of putting into practice some simple strategies. 

The first strategy, and quite obvious, is to identify the topic and activate the vocabulary that may appear. If we are reading about flowers… the flower parts must appear in the texts! To recall the vocabulary and familiarize with its written form (you know that English words are written very differently!), we played a game on the screen. It was very fun!

After, it was time to work in pairs to read the texts and match the names to the correct pictures.  Knowing the parts of the flower and identifying words that we know very well like colours and numbers, we could do the activity with no important difficulties. Another strategy some of us used was finding words in catalan that are very similar to English! 

As we discovered, it is not necessary to know all the words in a text to understand its general idea. Follow these strategies and try to name the flowers in the picture. It is not as difficult as it may seem!

SAYING HELLO, NOT A SIMPLE ROUTINE!

Laura Lorenzo19/04/26  

“Effective speaking routine in language classrooms help scaffold learners’ talk, making oral language development more accessible and less intimidating”

Andrew Wilkinson

Greetings are one of the first things you learn to say in a foreign language. When you travel to another country and already know how to say “hello!”, “good morning”, or “good afternoon”, you show respect for the other speaker’s culture and help create a more relaxed and friendly environment.

In English sessions, greetings play a very important role. Everyone is greeted and given an opportunity to express themselves and share anything they want or need within a routine that marks the start of every session.

Once everybody is sitting in a circle, the teacher throws the “world plushie” to a child, and the conversation begins: “Hello! Good morning! Good afternoon! How are you?” When the child has answered, it is their turn to ask another classmate, and the activity continues until everyone has spoken.

Although the conversation starts in English, when children want to express something for which they do not yet have the vocabulary or grammar, they naturally switch to Catalan or Spanish. This does not mean that the activity has failed—quite the opposite: they express what they want or need, and in doing so, they reveal the vocabulary they most need to acquire. The teacher, as an active participant in the routine, listens and monitors the conversation, asking questions, rephrasing and introducing the necessary vocabulary. Over time, through repetition, children gradually acquire the structures and vocabulary needed to say things like “Today I am going to the park with my sister” or “I am nervous because I am playing an important football match.”

Another important aspect is that they learn to recognise their emotions and expand their vocabulary to express themselves—not only in English, but also in Catalan. They learn to distinguish between being nervous and excited, bored, tired, or exhausted, and even between being happy and “over the moon.”

A familiar routine like this, with a clear, simple, and predictable structure, offers a great opportunity for everyone to practise speaking and listening in English. Simple, guided repetitions gradually evolve into real conversations in which all learners “build” knowledge together.

LET’S GO TO THE THEATRE!

Laura Lorenzo22/03/26  

“Don’t worry about the bits you can’t understand. Sit back and allow the words to wash around you, like music.”

Roald Dahl

Last week we had a lot of fun while practising English by going to Can Papasseit to watch a theatre play: Little Red Rocks.

Because watching a theatre play in English can be a bit difficult; we have been preparing this challenging activity for weeks in class. By meeting the characters and reading the summary of the story we realized it was an adapted version of Little Red RIding Hood, a fairy tale that we all know.

In this version of the story Little Red is a brave girl who lives in Barcelona that has to fly to London to help her grandma, a famous music star who needs an important document. In her adventure she meets Lupita and Olenka, a flight attendant and a perfumist that help her. She also meets Mr.Wolf, a greedy person who wants to steal grandma’s money and jewells.

We had a lot of fun singing the songs and helping Little Red write the end of the story… Our favourite moment, though, was when three colleagues went on the stage to take part in a smelling competition!

Watching a play or a film in English may seem difficult but, if we are familiar with the story and know all the basic language it can be a fun and motivating activity. Why don’t you try watching your favourite film in English?

MOVING LIKE ROBOTS

Laura Lorenzo16/02/26  

These days we have been playing while learning a bit about computational thinking.

Computers? We did not touch any computer but we solved problems just like computers do: analyzing the problem, breaking it in small parts and sequencing instructions.

To be more precise, we focused on sequencing by giving instructions. First, we pretended to be robots and we moved when we heard the precise instructions. It seemed an easy task but it implied a lot of positional knowledge! We also learned the words GO FORWARD, GO BACK, TURN RIGHT and TURN LEFT.

Once we had this clear, it was the moment to give the instructions to our colleagues. We built a maze in the class with little squares and we had to give instructions to one of the alicies to get to the destination. Experimenting all this instructions giving and receiving was vital not only to memorize the vocabulary but also learn about position and perspective. My right is not always your right!

To finish the lesson we had a special treat… 3D mazes! This material consists of a board in which we have different mazes. In the mazes, we have to move a cat to help him eliminate the aphids.

The difficult part was that, like a robot, we had to program the cat with wooden pieces that follow the block programming system SCRATCH Jr. Not as easy as it seems! What is the correct solution to this maze?

OUR INVERTEBRATES

Laura Lorenzo14/01/26  

Now that we know a lot about invertebrates, it was time to be creative… We invented invertebrates!

Each Alicia decided if we wanted to create an insect, myriapod, arachnid or crustacean and we made it with plasticine. It was very fun! Do you like our art pieces?

But the activity did not finish here because we also needed to write a text about the invertebrates… in English! At first we thought it would be impossible but we found that, with the appropiate guide to help you with the letters (you can not write in English just like it sounds) it is not so difficult.

We were so happy with the exhibition that we decided to transform it into a game. We recorded our texts and then we listened to them to later choose the correct image. Click here if you want to play!

All in all, the perfect way to practise READING; WRITING; SPEAKING and LISTENING in English!

BUTTERFLY OR MOTH?

Laura Lorenzo29/11/25  

“The moth prefers the moon and detests the sun, while the butterfly loves the sun and hides from the moon. Every living creature responds to light.”

Suzy Kassem

While we wait for our chrysalis to open and see the butterfly, we want to learn a little bit more about them. Just the other day we discovered an insect that is very similar to a butterfly… the moth.

After doing some activities to remember vocabulary we watched a video about the difference between butterflies and moths. The video in English was not as difficult as we thought: we were familiar with the topic of the video and the images helped us understand the general idea. 

To reinforce the ideas and practice a bit of reading strategies, we did some activities together on the digital screen and individually on paper. Again, reading is easy if you know the topic and the important words are marked.

Do you want to try? Click on the image and try to put the sentences in the correct space. If you do it correctly you will have a digital infographic (just like our paper version) with all the differences between butterflies and moths! 

INSECTS AND OTHER “BUGS”

Laura Lorenzo09/11/25  

“Every kid has a bug period”

E.O.Wilson

In Alicies we are fascinated by invertebrates. Now that we know what a “bitxo” is and that we are much more precise in naming them, it was time to learn the names in English for our little zoo. 

We already knew some of the names thanks to the cartoons and comics (spider and ladybug, for example) but we were very surprised when we realized a lot of insects had the word FLY with them like BUTTERFLY; DRAGONFLY, FIREFLY or simply FLY. Did you know that? 

We did several activities to recognise the written form of all the words that have appeared in our conversations these days. Online games, word searches and matching games are ideal to get familiarized with the words. We know now that the written words are pronounced very differently than in Spanish or Catalan and the best way is, sometimes, to “memorize” it. Do you want to try? Click here and try the different games!