On Friday's lesson, we saw another project' example. This time, the topic was "Pets" and it was a project made by students from the 3rd grade.
First of all, we saw a different way to start a project without using the Magic Box or asking the children what do they know about the topic of the project. In this case, we could start the project by showing the children pictures of many types of animals (all mixed together). We could print some pictures and, as we show the picture to the students, they would have to say the name of the animal (if they know it) and we will put the picture on the board and write its name under it. In this way, students will remember or learn the vocabulary of these animals.
After having clear which animal is each one, we could ask the students to classify them however they want. As we saw in the example of the project we were working on, some students classify them according to their abilities such as jumping, flying, ... etc. Once they would have classified them, we would show students another way to do it: the "scientific classification" (mammals, birds, amphibians, fishes, reptiles, insects). Until now, we had been working on the same vocabulary (animals), but in different ways, so that children are repeating, again and again, the same vocabulary to integrate it deeper but, as this repetition is not always in the same way, they do it without being aware of this repetition and they don't get bored. Moreover, with the last classification, we would have introduced cross-curricular content about science.
The next step, in order to start focusing the animals in general to the pets, could be to make students do another classification: farm animals, pets, and wild animals. By this classification, we would introduce the topic we want to work on (pets) without having to tell students about it. They will review again the vocabulary said before and they will see new characteristics of animals too (CLIL content).
We could extend this activity suggesting children find differences between these 3 kinds of animals. In this case, the vocabulary changes and it could be more complex, so it is recommended that the teacher asks the children which ideas do they want to put, but he or she is the one who writes them on the board so that students can copy them. In this activity, the most important thing is the ideas that children have (the content) and after that, it comes to the language (the form). It's important to prioritize what do we want to work because students can't do everything at one time.
Another activity we could do in this project is to make children think what animal would they like to be. Doing this exercise, students will develop their cognitive skills by imagining themselves as animals and moreover, they will also work on grammar structures such as "I would like to...". Again, some of the students won't know how to express their ideas in the CLIL language, but the teacher can write this idea on a paper and children can copy it.
As we also saw in the "Jobs project", a good way to do CLIL and work with mathematics is doing a survey. In this project, we could count how many children of different classes have different types of pets (cats, dogs, fishes, birds, rabbits, ...). But, as we saw at class, doing a survey it's not that easy. It implies a very good organization!
1. First of all, we should think how many groups of students will be asked (for example, 4 classes of 25 students: 2 from the 3rd grade and 2 more from the 4th grade).
2. According to this, we will make the students group themselves in a way that everybody will go to another class and ask some children (for example, making 3 groups of 6 students and 1 group of 7 students).
3. Then, we will think and agree with the other teachers when are you going to do the survey in their classes and how (for example, at the end of the classes, before the break, make a line and while the students are going out of the class, each member of the group will ask 4 students of the class).
In this way, students will do maths not only counting the results but also organizing themselves to do the activity.
4. Once they will be all organized in groups and will they know how, when and what do they will have to do, make them think what do they want to ask and collect it in a grid.
5. Finally, we'll do the survey and collect all the results.
By analyzing the results and doing the graphics, of course, they will do maths, but they will also develop their speaking and writing skills doing the questions and afterward writing some conclusions of the survey.
To work with more CLIL content related to science, we could also investigate what do pets eat (omnivores, herbivorous, ...) or where do they live (types of shelters, differences between the shelters of pets and the wild animals, ....).
Finally, in relation to the idea that we saw the other day on the Jobs project that written activities are mainly introduced with a previous oral activity, in this project we could see this point if we work on how to take care of a pet. To introduce this wide aspect, we could start talking about what do pets need to be healthy and write down all the ideas so that we will do a grid with all the options said before.
Considering all the possible activities we have previously described, we can say that "pets" is another great topic to work with students and do CLIL in a fun and meaningful way.
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