Any suggestions for ELD (English Language Development) activities for elementary school students?

Question:I'm teaching summer school and I'm looking for hands-on activities such as reading a recipe and following the directions, doing short plays, singing songs and learning lyrics, putting something together by reading directions, etc. I'd rather not teach straight out of the teacher's manual, but these kids need major ELD help (most are native Spanish speakers). Thanks for the help!



Answers:
Try posting some directions, like 2 -3 sentences on trees...around the garden or the school park. In that way, students could go out from their classroom, breathe some fresh air and exercise their limbs and muscles. As for the directions, you can have a treasure hunt from one place or another. You can also put some quotations or saying from famous persons. Let them copy the sayings and after the activity ask them about the saying which they like best and let them read and discuss about it.
About the recipies- make some cupcakes. Not only would measurements help with math (probably fractions and portions), but recipies deal with abbreviations as well. They also introduce healthy eating vs. unhealthy eating.
Short plays- try a short story or fable like the one about the troll under the bridge and the three billy goats. Maybe you could make costumes or masks?
Singing songs and learning lyrics- Baa Baa Black Sheep, The ABC Song, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star come to mind. Maybe you could get one of those CDs where kids sing popular songs...I think it's called Kids' Bop or something like that. Not only would this connect kids to the real world around them, but kids are actually singing the songs. They might be more comfortable learning from other children.
Making something- How about kites? I made a kite in kindergarten. It's summer afterall (sp?). Just make sure that they don't get tangled; that's the biggest problem that we had. The kites would also entail a field trip out of the classroom, something that the kids are probably dying for right now.

I hope this helped!

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