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?

LUNCH BOX

Laura Lorenzo12/02/26  

Studying about how to make the school menu accesible, we discovered that lunches in the school are not the same in all the countries.


In the USA, for example, EVERYBODY has lunch in the school. Children DO NOT have lunch at home!
In the USA you decide if you BRING your own food or take the food from the cafeteria. Watch this video to see the lunch in the USA.

The food we see is very different but we discussed about it (using “I like” “I don’t like”) and… we generally love the food! We imagined what would be our perfect lunch box and we drew it. What is your perfect lunch box? In ours there are pizzas, pasta, chocolate and fruit!

Looking at some real photos of real lunch boxes we discovered that, in general, lunch boxes are NOT HEALTHY and we started to check the contents using a checklist. It was a great way to practise English vocabulary!

Now that we knew that a lunch box needs DAIRY, FRUIT, VEGETABLES, WHOLEGRAINS and MEAT, FISH, EGGS or PULSES, it was time to analyse OUR lunch boxes...

What a surprise that most are not healthy at all!

OUR FAVOURITE PANELLET

Laura Lorenzo17/11/25  

 “Recognizing that food is more than sustenance—it is an expression of culture, heritage, and creativity.”

Chef Vikas Khanna

We really liked cooking panellets in the school; we shared moments with other children and we got to meet new friends but our favourite part was eating them. There were 5 different panellets 

  • CHOCOLATE PANELLETS      
  • COCONUT PANELLETS
  • ALMOND PANELLETS
  • CHOPPED ALMOND PANELLETS
  • CHERRY PANELLETS

Talking about these flavours, we realised that all of us had different tastes. The question arose just then… What is our favourite panellet?

First, we needed to organize the information about our likes and dislikes. We had a poster of each of the panellets types in the classroom and a set of symbols expressing I LIKE or I DONT LIKE.  We had to walk around the class sticking our opinion under the poster. It was fun and very interesting because we used the very same expressions when talking to our friends! 

With the posters ready, it was time to count to see what panellet had the most LIKES. Again, we found another opportunity to practise counting in English. 

Here you can see the results. Are you surprised? It was very fun to do this poster… Do you know that we selected what sentences went with it? We were offered a set of sentences and we had to found that ones that matched the real information. We thought it was difficult, but understating the key words is what makes it possible. 

We also learned a song about how to talk about food that you like or… not. Click here to see it? Anyway, the song inspired us to create and invent our panellets. We had to ask the teachers for colored plasticine…a great opportunity to practise demands and gratitude expressions like THANK YOU. 

What is your favourite panellet?

THE TOOTH FAIRY

Laura Lorenzo27/10/25  

“Languages aren’t just made of words. They’re modes of looking at the world.”

R.F.Kuang

Talking about teeth we also talked about what happens when a tooth falls… 

For most of us it is “Ratoncito Pérez” who comes and leaves a present under our pillows while in other houses it is “la fada de les dents”. 

We discovered that the tradition in England is very similar and that it is also the TOOTH FAIRY who comes and changes the teeth for money.  We listened to a story about a boy who has a wobbly tooth, just like some of us, and he can’t find the tooth when it falls! Where is the tooth?

The images and all our previous ideas about tooth traditions helped us understand the story and imagine how the story would end.  

No one guessed the ending!

After listening and reading the story again it was time to express our opinions about the story both orally and in writing.  We really liked the story! What about you? Click and read. Did you guess the ending?

We also pretended that we were tooth fairies searching for the tooth with a game. Click to play!

PLAYING WITH NUMBER 20

Laura Lorenzo19/10/25  

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” — Fred Rogers

As you know, we are the “20 Pack,” and we’ve been doing lots of fun activities related to this number. We discovered that half of 20 is 10, and we explored different ways to represent it.

We had a great time playing with cubes. Without looking, we had to pick twenty cubes and use them to create our own imaginative shapes. It was really fun and gave us the chance to practice counting in English and review colours. We even learned some new ones, such as brown, white, and purple.

We also practiced recognising quantities at a glance when Laura showed us strings of cubes — we had just five seconds to count them!All in all, these playful and engaging activities helped us listen to and talk about numbers and colours in a relaxed and enjoyable way. Moreover, because the vocabulary was naturally repeated and used in meaningful contexts, it supported a more natural and lasting acquisition of new words.