Using Geocam in the classroom

Geocam has, at the moment, over 1000 cameras stationed throughout the world, constantly streaming images to your computer. You navigate around Geocam as you would in Google Maps. See the image above. Since it's streaming live, it's perfect as a tool to get students speaking in the present continuous. Be warned that since it's streaming images, you'd need a decent internet connection.

Of course, you don't have to restrict yourself to the present continuous. Students can practise the simple present and adjectives by describing the image. You can always ask them to choose the location themselves.

You can work on simple past by freezing a couple of images and asking them to compare the differences. See below.

You can practise predictions (future or past, depending on the point you freeze the images) as in the picture below:

What do you think they had been doing/are going to do? (Actually, the baby had to pee!)

It can also be used to demonstrate differences between countries, such as the time, the weather, etc.

If you have other interesting ideas on how to use Geocam in the classroom, please do share them with us here. 

I stumbled upon Geocam @ Ana Maria's Blog

    

Daily Routines Tagging Game

Click on the image to test yourself in a simple point-and-click game on daily routines.

If you want to see your name appear on the scoring sheet, you'll have to register before playing. Remember your nickname & password for all my other games which are hosted on Purposegames.

Either way, please leave a comment, stating your score (percentage and time).

Other activities on daily routines you may be interested in:

Unscramble these jumbled sentences
Offline version

   

Unscramble these jumbled sentences (Adverbs of Frequency)

This activity was originally posted as a downloadable PowerPoint slide show in October 2009. You can see it here. There have been numerous requests for an online version, so here it is.

Unscramble these jumbled sentences (Daily Routines)

This activity was originally posted as a downloadable PowerPoint slide show in August 2009. You can see it here. There have been numerous requests for an online version, so here it is.

Present Continuous Activities

Here are a few activities for you to practice the present continuous. This one here is a fill-in-the-gap exercise. Use the present simple or the present continuous.Click here to begin.

This activity requires you to put jumbled words in their right order. There is also a dialogue exercise where you have to rearrange the jumbled sentences. Click here to begin.

Please note that there seems to be some bug in the software: when you've finished the quiz, it'll say 'sending email...'. This shouldn't take a long time. If you see that it keeps flashing that message, it's best to force the window to close or you and I will be bombarded with countless emails!

Present Tense Practice: Quiz

The objective of this quiz is for you to practise the simple present tense with emphasis on animal vocabulary. Please provide your name and class for us to be able to identify you. An email address is optional, but if you do provide it, you'll get feedback sent to your inbox. Have fun learning!

Please come back here to leave a comment after you've played the game.

Click here to start the quiz

Jumbled Sentences: Adverbs of Frequency (Elementary)

23 March 2010: The online version can be found here.

You probably already know about adverbs of frequency, so I won't say too much here, except to say that these adverbs tell us how often something happens. There are plenty of them, but the basic ones you need to know are the following:
never-->sometimes-->often-->usually-->always
If you grade them on a scale from 0 to 5, never is on grade 0 and always is on grade 5.

We normally put these frequency adverbs before the main verb, but after the verb 'to be'. For example:

Pedro usually goes to work by car.

Sam is always on the phone!

This activity is in a PowerPoint presentation hosted in Scribd. You can watch it in full screen mode by clicking on 'Fullscreen' on the top bar of the PowerPoint image below. If you prefer, you can download the file, but you'd need to be a registered member of Scribd.

All you need to do is to put the jumbled sentences in the right order. When you've done that, post them as comments below.

Jumbled sentence: Adverbs of Frequency (Elementary)

Jumbled Sentences: The States of Matter (Science, Secondary 1, Year 7)

This is an activity where what you see is a set or words in random order. What you have to do is to arrange them in the correct order. When you have done that, email me with your answers, and I'll correct them.

The activity is in a PowerPoint presentation hosted in Scribd. You can move from slide to slide interactively by just clicking on the 'next page' and 'previous page' arrows. If the image is too small, you can watch it in full screen mode by clicking on the 'toggle full screen' icon at the top right of the PowerPoint image below. If you prefer, you can download the file, but you'd need to be a registered member of Scribd.

Jumbled Sentence: Elementary Science - The States of Matter

Unscramble these jumbled sentences Part 3: Daily Routines (Elementary)

23 March 2010: The online version can be found here.

Here's one for the elementary level. The theme is daily routine. Pay careful attention to the instructions, and, as usual, comments are much appreciated. Answers are available in a separate post - you'll just have to look for it!

Have fun learning!

Jumbled Sentences: Daily Routines (Elementary)