Learn English with Lucky

Okay, so who isn't tired of singing, "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" (HSKT) with the kiddos?  Sure, it's a great song, but I needed something else. I wanted something that is also just as fun to act out, and I wanted a song that included important body parts like arms and legs that aren't in HSKT... As I often do when I can't find something, I just created something to fit my needs. In this case, it was the short song, "Ten Fingers." (Disclaimer: I'm no singer, but you can get the tune!)  You can find a video of "Ten Fingers" on the fifth card of these Boom Cards until Feb 19, 2022. (Boom's system enables the links to work for a two-week period. If you're finding this blog post later, drop me an email for a fresh link .)  https://boom.cards/fastplay / mwqw If you're not sure what Boom Cards are, please take a look at my post from July 24, 2020.   If you check out the rest of my Boom account you can see that I make a variet...

I've posted Lucky's advent calendar videos through December 13th.  Learn English with Lucky YouTube Channel Be sure to hit like and subscribe, so you'll know when I post the next videos! And please share them with friends! Here is Lucky's website: www.learnenglishwithlucky.com. He also has fun games on Boom Learning at https://wow.boomlearning.com/author/learnenglishwithlucky?collection=FeaturedAuthor. Please tell your friends about our channel!

Lucky's got an advent calendar! I am a bit behind in posting about it, but the first three days are posted. These can be useful in teaching non-native speakers about ordinal numbers. I focus on them in each post. Please note that Lucky isn't getting what's inside the calendar. It's probably not high quality stuff, and after day one of listening to his stomach gurgle, I decided he needed something healthier. Today, he's got some red pepper. One of his favorites! Please check back for a new video tomorrow!

My Favorite Preschool Book Authors by Kelly Bostrom Robic I love, love, love children's books!  There is nothing more enjoyable to me than sitting down and reading a favorite story to my students. Parents often ask me for recommendations of books that could fit their children's ages and interests. These are many of the books that I use when teaching English to children in preschool, though they can also work for older children, depending on their level. I chose these based on my own personal favorites, but also for how well they have done over the years in keeping my students' attention with their engaging stories and delightful illustrations.  10.  Margaret Wise Brown . My all-time favorite book to read to my own children was Good Night Moon . It’s a soothing story about a room with a small “child,” a rabbit, who is going to sleep. The narrator says good night to everything in the room, such as a red balloon, a telephone, a pair of socks, two kittens, etc. The vocab...

Fourteen Tips for Raising Bilingual Children This post is geared to the parents on my blog here, but many of these tips can work for teachers as well… Make it relevant. Kids need a reason to want to learn another language. If they see no connection, they’ll be far less interested. Can you point out cousins they’ll want to talk to? Games they’ll be able to play? Have engaging materials on-hand. Check out the local bookstore/toy store, visit Goodwill, Salvation Army or Emmaus, Facebook used items pages and ask friends if you can borrow or buy up their older children’s old comic books and popular series. Learning should be natural. What child likes sit-in-a-chair-and-memorize-type lessons? Let her take an art, dance, music or cooking class in the target language! Lockdowns brought about new online opportunities… Or watch a favorite movie! Do you sing together? Learn a new song! Create something educational based on your child’s interests in the target language. Make your own movie...

I love the classic song, "We Wish you a Merry Christmas," but I don't love teaching it EVERY year. Many of my students hear it elsewhere, already know it well enough and need a bigger challenge. So, I created this one for my youngest learners: "Good Times are Here!" Like WWYAMC, it has three lines that repeat and the fourth that is different. There are not many words, and it is focused on teaching them Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, the two goals of the song. The rest of the vocabulary is very limited. Here is a free link to the song: I've also made a free game using most of the words to this song on Boom Learning. These are online games that you can share with your students. I discussed them here. I hope you'll enjoy these!  Have great holidays!

In the 15 years I've been teaching English in France, I've found that my students (of all ages) are more and more interested in American politics, and of course in our elections. Awareness is at an all-time high. While talking with some students a few months ago, one child asked out loud what The United States was. Another replied, "You know, Donald Trump!" The other just said, "Oh!" clearly aware of the name.  They were five years old.     While I don't talk about politics with the young children, I also teach teenagers and adults, so I've spent time lately working on some non-partisan materials that I hope will help them to gain some clarity on the subject beyond just knowing the candidates.  I've made a few Boom Cards (online games) with videos that can be used to help explain how the elections work in very simple terms.  These are for feasible for use with non-native speakers and those who aren't familiar with the US election system.    H...

Perhaps my all-time favorite days of the school years have been when I've made brownies with my students. I'm not sure that will be a possibility this year, but the optimist in me has still wanted to go forward and share this recipe now... (Scroll down for the same recipe with metric measurements.) I've made some Boom Cards that go with them and there's a video embedded within it that teaches the eight ingredients.   This link will work for two weeks. If you're seeing it later than September 28th, 2020, drop me a note for a trial version... There is also a vocabulary handout for sale with the eight ingredients. For teachers with older/more advanced students, I've also made four-page versions of this recipe. They're in these PDFs with the short versions too from this blog post. You can print what you need... Click here for American measurements and here for metrics . Happy baking! Let me know if you try them!

Here are my latest Boom Card games. They have a song to teach eight body parts: chin, neck, wrist, elbows, hair, back, fingers, and ankles... There is a video of the song embedded... It's a familiar tune! I'm not a singer. Take a listen and get a laugh! 😃😄 The first one is for non-readers, the second for readers and the third is for children who want to test their knowledge without hearing the word. https://boom.cards/fastplay/qww2 https://boom.cards/fastplay/uyak https://boom.cards/fastplay/peyx I take suggestions if there is a particular vocabulary group your children would like... The links above are valid for two weeks... Have fun! 

If you've searched online for teaching materials at some point in your career, no matter how long you've been a teacher, you've surely come across Teachers Pay Teachers. It's a great site for getting lost on a Sunday afternoon, or at 2 a.m. if you're not careful. According to their web site, 5 million teachers used the site in the past year, there are more than 3 million resources on the site, and one billion resources have been downloaded since its inception. That's billion with a "B."  A former New York City school teacher, Paul Edelman started the site in 2006 and it's grown to be one of the highest traffic sites in the world. As of today, it's ranked 1,218 in the world and 449 in the United States. I've seen it rank as well as low 200s in the US... These are incredible stats when we consider the fact that there are about 400 million active sites in the world today! Earlier this year, I finally launched my own store on Teachers Pay Teach...

When we went into confinement here in France, I found myself browsing many American Facebook pages (mostly teaching) and spending way too much online. But among the gems I found during this time was www.boomlearning.com . Their “Boom Cards” are online interactive games created by teachers for their students. Teachers can monitor what games the students have played and see how well they have done. They can also share and sell the games they’ve made (and accompanying materials) on the same platform. I was immediately hooked. I needed something to help me keep my private students’ attention for hour-long classes once per week. We were doing live Bingo and “Treasure Hunts” where they found items around the house like socks and salt, but I knew I’d need something more exciting. Eventually, I increased classes to twice a week, and 1.5 hours; I credit the Boom Cards for keeping them actively engaged.  H ow do the cards work? Teachers either buy or create these online educational games. So...

Here's our latest video! I will post a few more over the summer... I hope you are enjoying your holidays!

We've got 50 videos now on YouTube, so if you haven't seen our channel lately, please take a look! I've recently added some themed videos on animals, food and the weather. Each has a version for maternelle/Cp/CE1 with no text and another for primary with text. I'm making them very simple, with the words repeated many times!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkjtingV03sD373QuLL_s-g/videos These videos also follow the same vocabulary in my most recent Boom Cards. I've explained more about them in this post, and here is a link if you want to see: https://wow.boomlearning.com/author/learnenglishwithlucky?ref=5 I've also added two GIFs that tell a child whether he or she has gotten something correct or not... The first one says "Sorry!" in a sad voice. They both have music. Please let me know what you think! I will continue to add more, especially  over the summer. I am working on another video with Lucky as the star...

Lucky et Kelly à la maison... C'est ma nouvelle video pour les enfants. Gratuit sur YouTube ! Lucky and Kelly at Home... This is my newest video for children. It's free on YouTube! Also, see Lucky's new Boom Cards!

With the confinement, I am struggling to find ways that I can hold my lessons without the children being stuck in front of a screen for an hour... The first week we played Bingo (Loto) and they enjoyed that, but they are just sitting there... This may be the solution: a Treasure Hunt in English! It's very simple... I created a short video that I showed, while pausing along the way. Each screen showed what item the children's team had to find. I used these words: sock spoon paper towels sponge pen pencil fork book shoe shirt soap eraser key tape hat coat You don't need a video to do this... You could surely just hold a page to the screen with the words to find... But if you want something with the words pronounced and a vocabulary sheet ready to print here is a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers store... Included: Individual Student Video #1 (eight words) + answer video Individual Student Video #2 (eight words) + answer video Team Video (8 words fo...

Bonjour!  (en anglais en bas) Voici une petite vidéo de 57 secondes que j’ai faite pour le plaisir après que le fils d’un ami a laissé une voiture Matchbox chez moi. Lucky est parti à l’aventure avec! Profiter! C’était amusant à faire... J’espère que mes élèves auront un peu de vocabulaire pendant nos vacances. Voici le scénario: Lucky, il est temps de rentrer à la maison! Allez! Lucky, où vas-tu ? Lucky, non. Pas le cirque ! Non, Lucky. Pas la ville ! Non, Lucky. Pas la caserne de pompiers ! Non, Lucky. Pas le match de foot. Oh, OK. Tu as besoin d’essence ? OK, tu dois aller à la pharmacie. D'accord. Non, Lucky ! Pas l’aéroport ! non! Pas l’espace ! Lucky! Ah, bon garçon, Lucky ! Reste à la maison ! J’ai posté une autre version (avec du texte) sur TpT ainsi. Merci d’avoir visité! De nouvelles vidéos sont affichées tout le temps. S’il vous plaît vérifier fréquemment! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ This is a little 57-second...