Project 366: What's cooking?

Images by C. Pang. More of the same here.

Yeah, what's cooking, people? Literally and non-literally. Do you know that to be cooking can mean to be happening or planning (often secretly)?

In case you're wondering...mmm... how come only 7 photos? You may be thinking that I haven't been able to keep up with the project. Well, you're wrong! Here's 36 from February. To see more, click here.

Why there are only 7 in the first mosaic is to do with my lesson idea to go with these images. Set a task for your students. Write K-I-T-C-H-E-N on the board. Their task is to take pictures of what they can find in their kitchen beginning with those letters. Scroll back to the top image - can you guess the names of those objects?

Answer:

Knives, iodised salt, tea canisters, cereals, heat, eggs and nuts.

When they bring in their photos, they compare them with each other's collection. What's the most common? The most unusual? Check vocabulary, check spelling.

How far you can take this lesson depends on the level of your class. Here are some suggestions:

• Who cooks in the family?
• Do you eat in the kitchen?
• What's the size/shape of your kitchen? Describe it.
• Which is your favourite meal?
• How many meals do you eat in a day? What do you eat?
• What is your favourite food?

You can take it a step further like this (I got this idea from Brad Patterson, although his may be a little different): Mine is CLIL-influenced. ;-) Think ecosystem. Instead of you asking the question, get the students to do it after demonstrating it first.

What did you have for breakfast?

Ham sandwich and a coffee with milk.

Where does the milk come from?

Cows.

What do cows eat?

Grass.

What does grass need to grow?

Water.

Where does water come from?

And on and on it goes.

You can do cooking verbs (click to see an example), and if yours is an advanced class, you can venture into idioms (such as "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen) and phrasal verbs (cook up). I have quite a few activities on idioms. Go to the index file, and search (Ctrl F) for "idioms".

Food is a topic you can do so much with. You can have them write their own recipes (good for imperatives and linking words), you can discuss food expenditure, health, marketing, etc.

If this is successful with your class, you can, naturally adapt this for the other rooms of the house. You may like them to do my activities on Objects in the house either before taking the photos or after. For other activities go to the index file, search (ctrl F) for "houses".

For other ideas on using images in the classroom, search for "Project 366" or "Images" in the index file.

  

How to create an interactive mind map for use in the classroom, Mark II

When I published this the first time, Blogger had a crash, which lasted for two days. They had to delete some posts (including mine), but subsequently restored them. I'm not sure if the restored version is trustworthy, so I'm re-publishing this article. I also decided to add more ideas on how to use mind-maps as I know a lot of teachers just want all their stuff served on a silver platter! ;-)

I have just discovered this nifty mind-mapping tool, so I decided to put it to a quick test. It's called Bubbl.us.There are lots of things you can do with it and it's user-friendly, so it's quite easy to use. In any case, if you're in doubt, they have a comprehensive help page. If you still have problems, just write a comment below or email me.

You don't need to have an account with them to start using it. Click start, and begin clicking and typing! Among the things you can do are undo (but not redo), copy & paste, drag, change colours and size of bubbles, and linking manually.

When you've finished, you can print it.

However, if you have an account - it's free and easy as pie to set up - you can save your mind map, and share it by linking or embedding it on your own site.

I won't go into all the details as they do it better on their help page. As an example, I did a map on Asking Questions, first seen on Teaching students to ask questions, and embedded it here. To enlarge, click on the + sign on the top left, or try the scroll knob on your mouse.

There's just a slight niggle I have about it, though. When you start the tool, you may get, like I did, Adobe Flash Player asking permission to store information on your PC. I'm not sure why, so I refused it permission, but, as you can see, it didn't prevent me from creating a mind map.

So, what do you think? Do you like it?

Here are some ideas on how you can use mind-maps:

• Use it to teach pronunciation: you can do phonetics (see example of partial mind-map below), rhyming words, etc.
• Pronunciation of the ending of regular past simple
• Spelling rules, for example, plurals (see my post on plurals)
• Irregular past tenses (group similar verbs, e.g., grew-grown, flew-flown, knew-known)
• Get to know each other by doing a personal mind map (hobbies & interests - past & present, family, places travelled, etc.). Students can do it at home, then in class, beam it up and have them guess who the map belongs to.
• Group tasks. You can also map the tasks first, and the students decide themselves which tasks they prefer.
• Phrasal verbs
• Idioms
• and the most common usage - vocabulary. Encourage them to do their own at home. You can review them at random in class, and brainstorm additions to their lists.

Some people will say that digital mind maps defeat their original purpose, that each map is individualised: each one does it in their own way, the crazier it is, the better they will remember what was written. Well, if they prefer, they can print it out, and then add their own illustrations, for example.

If you only have 1 computer in class, you can make the mind-mapping a whole-class activity, but if there are more, do it in groups. Then, you can compare them and get the students to bounce ideas off each other.

 If you have other ideas on how to use mind maps in class, why don't you share it with us?

Related posts:

Pronunciation of regular past simple

Plurals Spelling Rules

Make or do

Idioms with nuts

Bathroom objects

*NEW* Index file to help with your browsing!

In spite of having a drop-down menu (For your browsing pleasure on the top of the left column of this page), some of you have remarked that it was still difficult for you to find certain activities! If we add to that the fact that some security systems, especially public systems such as MEDUSA), prohibit access to the free hosting site I use and, therefore, cannot access this menu, I decided I had to offer an alternative.

This alternative comes in the form of a comprehensive index file, hosted in Google Docs, listed in alphabetical order within each category. If you still can't find what you're looking for, use CTRL F to open up a search box, type in your search, and, hopefully, you'll find it! If you still can't, email me: acliltoclimb@gmail.com.

To access this index file, look at the top of the left column. Just under For Your Browsing Pleasure, you'll see a string of words beginning with 'If you don't like...'. Click on this and the index file will open up in a new window/tab. Alternatively, you can also reach it via the index page above.

Footnote: In the image, I wrote that you could send me suggestions, etc. by clicking on DISCUSSIONS. Unfortunately, this isn't true. You can only write in DISCUSSIONS if you are authorized to edit the document, which no-one can except me.

Objects in the House Part 9: Dinner Table Setting

  

How do we lay a table for a formal dinner? To go into detail here doesn't serve the purpose of this blog; there are other websites which know the subject better than I do. Suffice to say, for the moment, that, although there are rules, the way the table is set also depends on the meals that are going to be served.

What is important for us here is to know the vocabulary, and this game will help you remember some of the items you'll find in a formal dinner table.

Although you don't need to register at Purpose Games to play, doing so will enable you to keep track of your scores.

Objects in the House Part 8: Kitchen-5 (Tagging Game)

  

Identify these kitchen appliances as quick as you can. Register at Purpose Games (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores (or your students').

This is Part 8 of the Objects in the House series, and part 5 of Kitchen Objects.

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom

Part Two: Bedroom

Part Three: Living Room

Part Four: Kitchen 1

Part Five: Kitchen 2

Part Six: Kitchen 3

Part Seven: Kitchen 4

You may also like this one: Cooking verbs

Objects in the House Part 7: Kitchen-4 (Tagging Game)

Identify these small kitchen appliances as quick as you can. Register at Purpose Games (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores (or your students').

This is Part 7 of the Objects in the House series, and part 4 of Kitchen Objects.

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom

Part Two: Bedroom

Part Three: Living Room

Part Four: Kitchen 1

Part Five: Kitchen 2

Part Six: Kitchen 3

You may also like this one: Cooking verbs

Objects in the House Part 6: Kitchen-3 (Tagging Game)

Identify these objects as quick as you can. Register at Purpose Games (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores (or your students').

This is Part 6 of the Objects in the House series, and part 3 of Kitchen Objects.

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom
Part Two: Bedroom
Part Three: Living Room
Part Four: Kitchen 1
Part Five: Kitchen 2

You may also like this one: Cooking verbs

Sieve, Strainer or Chinoise? Objects in the House Part 5 - Kitchen Utensils

    

Identify these objects as quick as you can. Register at Purpose Games (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores (or your students').

This is Part 5 of the Objects in the House series, and part 2 of Kitchen Objects.

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom
Part Two: Bedroom
Part Three: Living Room
Part Four: Kitchen 1

You may also like this one: Cooking verbs

Objects in the House Part 4: Kitchen-1 (Tagging Game)

Identify these objects as quick as you can. Register at Purpose Games (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores.

This is Part 4 of the Objects in the House series, and part 1 of Kitchen Objects.

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom
Part Two: Bedroom
Part Three: Living Room

You may also like this one: Cooking verbs

Objects in the House Part 3: Living Room/Lounge (Tagging Game)

Identify these objects as quick as you can. Register (it's free; no spam) and keep track of your scores.

      

Others in this Objects Around The House series:

Part One: Bathroom
Part Two: Bedroom