Sometimes, you just have to do what the kids want to do. >.<
These stories are best for high-Level 2 or Level 3. Go all-pink if you have only girls; the boys might tolerate Mulan… or you can put up with the whinging and whining and broaden their cultural horizons.
There’s a story from my children’s youth that involves two preschoolers, a six-hour car trip, and a tape of Robert Munsch reading his own stories. Though some of us may still be traumatised by Mr. Munsch’s existence, the fact remains that everyone still loves his stories. Younger students will love having The Paper Bag Princess read to them; slightly older students will enjoy the prince’s epithet; even middle-school students will applaud the feminist themes.
Free, illustrated, and popular: that’s the way the students like their books. If your students need a break from the curriculum, We Give Books is a great site.
For young kids, Jan Brett (try The Hat) and Rosemary Wells are highly recommended.
Elisa started using The Hemingway App with some of her MA TESOL assignments, and thought others might find it useful. Just click on “write”, copy and paste your text where the grey sample text is, and click “edit”. It’s quite accurate, I found.
This would be useful if you have a story that you want to test with your students, or if you have a class that’s not following the curriculum normally. You could also check the students’ writing so they can see what level they’re at (though I’d only recommend this for Levels 4 and 5).
As for writing like Hemingway… well, why in heaven’s name would you want to do that?! Timothy Findley: we all want to write like Timothy Findley. 🙂
For those of you with very young students (less than 7 years old), there are three Maisy Mouse books online. You can find them here. Increasing your screen size will increase the size of the books so the students can see them better.
The younger kids may be familiar with Maisy, as the books have been translated into Chinese.
The kids in China have a vague understanding of Sesame Street, but most of them don’t actually watch it. They’re fascinated to learn that the creatures on their t-shirts have names.
I’ve introduced the names of the main muppets by putting their pictures on the first page of the slides; every day, there’s a new monster to identify. The keeners have taken to looking up the names on the internet before I even finish saying “hello” to everyone. (If you don’t know all the characters’ names–they’ve added some new ones since we were kids– there’s a Wiki page here.)
You can find free Sesame Street e-books here; the levels vary.
There are some games here, but they depend a lot on audio cues… and fast internet.
My favourite Sesame Street book, The Monster at the End of this Book, can be found online here.