Adela's Realia

RUBBER BANDS

RHYTHM STICKS

SCARVES

WHAT is the use of Rhythm Sticks?

The use of rhythm sticks as learning tools enhances the development of auditory skills, fine motor skills, sense of rhythm, body awareness, and coordination of mind and body.

Examples of ACTIVITIES

WHY Rhythm Sticks?

WHAT is the use of Scarves?

Examples of ACTIVITIES

WHY Scarves?

WHAT is the use of Rubber Bands?

Examples of ACTIVITIES

WHY Rubber Bands?

Adela DinsoreanResources to teach English in Infant & Primary Education

REALIA

The use of rhythm sticks as learning tools enhances the development of auditory skills, fine motor skills, sense of rhythm, body awareness, and coordination of mind and body. Rhythm sticks are used for a range of songs, musical games, stories and early phonics activities. Songs The rhythm sticks are great for keeping the beat while you are singing simple songs (Who Took The Cookie? or Five Little Ducks). Simple Games These involve hitting the syllables in words, or hitting words in a sentence. Stories A lot of books have repetitive structures. The Children can hit the sound effects in it with the rhythm sticks. For example, you could have a giant going "stamp stamp" (hit the sticks hard). Here is a video on how to beat the rhythm with sticks while playing a song:

1. Chop Chop Choppity Chop This is a syllables game. You need a few pieces/cards of food in a bag. All children say the chant (Chop! Chop! Choppity chop! / Chop off the bottom and chop off the top!), and hit the beat of it. Then you pick one child to take out a piece of food from the bag. Whatever they take out, you all say the word, hit it with the sticks, and then count the syllables. 2. Music Doll This is an activity for exploring musical vocabulary like "loud", "quiet", "fast" and "slow". Have a toy or a puppet for this. The toy whispers in your ear how to paly the rhythm sticks. For example: Play them "loud"! And they play them loudly. 3. Count to Ten with Rhythm Sticks:

Children can make their own rhythm sticks by painting or coloring them. The rhythm sticks are interactive. By using rhythm sticks, more than one sense is stimulated at the same time. Rhythm sticks involve movement, and they also involve sound. The rhythm sticks help the listening process because the children will be more involved in the game, in the story, in the song. The rhythm sticks facilitate the learning of a range of phonic skills: segmenting, loud and quiet or fast and slow, rhythm – syllables, sounds, and sentences.

Scarves can be used in many fun ways to enhance the creative movement activities and make your lessons more interactive. Scarves are great tools to incorporate into classroom activities because: Big movements with arms and legs encourages the development of gross motor skills. Following the scarf cues helps students learn to follow directions. Creative movement encourages artistic learning and to think in a more challenging and creative manner. Swaying scarves along with music can develop focus and memory skills. Dancing with scarves as they follow cues enhancing listening skills. Here is a video with some examples of how to make tools for children with scarves and ribbons:

1. TELL A STORY Or TEACH a Song 2. Low, Medium, High…Oh, My! This activity teaches children to move their scarves at different levels. When the music starts, children are encouraged to wave their scarves and move to the music. When the music stops, freeze and stand tall. Next, you call out different levels: low, medium, high and children move their scarves as different levels are called. Lastly, ask children to call out an animal and wave their scarf to match the level of the animal. For example, if a child says, "mouse", all the children move the scarves at a low level. 3. Tossing Challenges This activity encourages the children to complete a variety of tossing challenges for approximately 30 seconds each. For example: toss the scarf up, toss down, toss left, toss right, toss and clap, and toss and spin.

Scarves are attractive - colorful, tactile, easy to grab, and fun to manipulate. Scarf play can facilitate children’s sensory, cognitive, motor skills, physical and emotional development. Children's vocabulary is increasing because the actions performed with the scarves are verbally described. Students' listening skills are improving because they move the scarves based on musical or verbal cues.

A rubber band is a great tool for: Helping students feel and internalize the stress patterns of English words. Building hand strength and fine motor skills. Making incredible toys and games.

PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE Purpose: This activity can be used to make sure that the children are pronouncing the stressed syllable clearly, and holding it longer in order to remember how the word sounds. Procedure: 1. When introducing some new vocabulary, or when practicing useful statements that students will say frequently, hold up your hands, palms outwards and place a rubber band on your thumbs.2. Say the target word or sentence. Every time you say a syllable stretch the rubber band a little. When saying a stressed syllable, stretch the rubber band noticeably farther.3. Repeat with another word. Students will see that the stressed syllables are longer.4. Students repeat after you and stress the correct syllables.5. If desired, give each student a rubber band to practice saying the correct stress patterns.6. Call on a few individual students to check their pronunciation and model again if needed. To discover some fun rubber band activities and games to play using a few other materials in order to work those fine motor skills, click here. To find out how to create wonderful toys rubber band, click here. Here is a video on how to use rubber bands for pronunciation practice:

Rubber bands are stretchy and strong and can be easily used by children. You usually have them at home, and if not, you can buy them because they are very cheap. Kids enjoy playing with rubber bands because they are available in different colors. By making toys and games with rubber bands for students, you provide them opportunities for trying out new ideas and new ways of thinking. By using rubber bands for pronunciation practice, children can focus in a pleasant way on the stressed syllable of a word.