ELL Bulldogs ELL class blog for ELL students and parents 

Hurricane

Hurricanes are very dangerous natural disasters. The can cause major destructions. Luckily we do not have hurricanes in the northwest!

Watch these videos and photos of hurricanes on National Geographic to get an idea of how dangerous they are.  Then, take the quiz to check how much you know about hurricanes.

Hurricane

Photos from different hurricanes

Have you experienced a big storm before?

What are the names of some major hurricanes that have hit the United States?

What would you do to prepare for a hurricane?

The Executive Mansion

4th grade ELL students are learning about the White House and the different pets that have lived there. Visit the following websites to learn more about the inside of the White House, the pets that have lived there and perhaps you can even write an email to the president. Let us know if he writes you back!

Tour of the White House

White House Pets

Write a letter or email to the president

What is the name of our president? 

Where does the president work?

What is another name for the White House? 

Which presidential pet is your favorite?

Poetry is a beautiful way to express your thoughts. Many songs are actually poems! However, sometimes it can be challenging to create a poem from scratch. Take a look at these websites that Mrs. Hembree, our librarian, found that can help you create your own poem.

Instant Poetry Forms - Just fill in the blanks to make a poem about your favorite title.

Poetry Splatter - Lots of fun sounds and color while writing a fun poem.

What do you call a person that writes poems?

What do you call words that sound the same and  make most poems rhyme?

Before spring break, my students in 3rd grade learned about friends and different cultures.  We also learned that in our class we all come from different countries and therefore our cultures are different. After sharing about desserts we eat in our countries, we made a very easy dessert from Mexico called Bananas and Cream. Below is the recipe so you can try it at home. Ask your mom or dad for help. It is quite the treat!

Ingredients:

bananas

6 bananas

1 ounce of sugar

1 ounce of butter

1/4 pint cream

1 ounce of cinnamon

vanilla extract to taste

cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Cut bananas into slices, put them into a glass dish, and sprinkle with sugar.
2. Warm cream and butter together, add cinnamon and vanilla, and let stand in saucepan five minutes.
3. Pour hot cream over bananas, and serve with finger biscuits.

sugar

We want to specially thank Hitu and Mrs. Alma for provinding most of the ingredients to make our dessert in our class. We all enjoyed it thanks to you!

What dessert do you enjoy from your country of orgin? 

What ingredients do you use?

Students and teachers had so much fun on Favorite Character Day. The day before, I opened the costume trunk in my room to get my students inspired to dress-up as their favorite character. We found wigs, necklaces, hats, belts, glasses, capes, crowns, crazy hats and so much more! And that is how Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland and so many others came to life.

David as Woody from Toy Story, Mrs. Woodruff as Mad Hatter, Brandon as Danny the Dinosaur and Sabina as Harry Potter

   Brandon as Danny, the Dinosaur

Sabina as Harry Potter

Russel as Woody from Toy Story, Jenny as the Princess, and Ralph as The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Yun as Jacky Chan

Diana as Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy, Bijoe as Tigger, Jacky Chan, Mad Hatter and Mrs. Banchero as the King from Many Moons.

Mrs. Hembree as Fancy Nancy and Mad Hatter

We hope that we can get to dress up again next year. I only need to make sure I have the costume ready from my next book character. Who could that be?

Do you have a favorite book character?

Who is it and from which book?  

After my 2nd grade ELL students read the story Dan and Gramps, they had to write a short paragraph describing how they help at home and at school.

Here are Levon, Marcus and David reading their paragraphs.

Do you help your family at home?

How do you help your Dad and Mom?

Do you help at school? What do you do?

Money is a very important topic to learn when you come to a new country. My newcomers are learning different words related to money. They are learning the names and value of each coin and bill. They are also learning the names of the important people and places found on the US money.

Check out these websites so you too can learn about the US money!

Count Money

The United States Mint

Presidents on the dollar bill money

In 4th grade, students are working with these new English words:

memorabilia

dedicated

museum

reside This word has other meanings.

executive

unusual

Read the words and complete the sentences below with the correct word.

1. It was an ________________ night when we did not watch TV.

2. The runner trained every day and was ________________ to winning the marathon.

3. She works as an ________________ in the corporation.

4. Our class visited the nation’s _____________, and we toured the White House.

5. The __________________ has a new exhibit on dinosaurs.

6. I collect _________________ from my favorite team.

Complete the sentences and write a comment with the correct answers.

In my 6th grade ELL class, my students are learning about biomes and the animals that live in each biome.  This week they read an informational text about an orphan baby killer whale. The story is called Springer, the Killer Whale. This is a fantastic true story that happened not too long ago in our own backyard, the Puget Sound. Scientists in Seattle did an amazing job to help this little calf find its pod (orca family).

Here is the documentary about Springer found on Youtube.

Springer Part 1

Springer Part 2

Springer Part 3

What do you think about this documentary? What did you like? What did you learn?

These scientists helped this amazing wild animal. Have you helped a wild animal before? Do you know of anyone who has helped a wild animal? Tell us about it.

Irish people celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th. People who are not Irish like to celebrate it too.

Games

Lots of St. Patrick’s Day Activities

Some vocabulary words related to this holiday include:

snake

seventeenth

leprechaun

shamrock

pot of gold

clover

bagpipe

parade

How did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Did you eat something green?

Did you wear something green?