A drunken sailor aboard La Hispaniola

“What will we do with a drunken sailor” performed by The Irish Rovers, an old classic that combines with R.L.Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” storytelling.

Design a funny coreography that goes along with the verses for the children to grab all the meaning and get ready to have lots of fun!

Lyrics (www.metrolyrics.com)

What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
What will we do with a drunken sailor?
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Shave his belly with a rusty razor
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

Put him in the longboat until he’s sober
Put him in the longboat until he’s sober
Put him in the longboat until he’s sober
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

Stick him in the scrubbers with a hosepipe on him
Stick him in the scrubbers with a hosepipe on him
Stick him in the scrubbers with a hosepipe on him
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

Put him in the bed with the captain’s daughter
Put him in the bed with the captain’s daughter
Put him in the bed with the captain’s daughter
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

That’s what we do with a drunken sailor
That’s what we do with a drunken sailor
That’s what we do with a drunken sailor
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

 

Adjectives to describe characters

An easy way to get youngsters to use the load of adjectives we teach them at school is to make them think about (or link them to) something they enjoy.

During the first sessions of the Reading Workshop we will go through several adjectives describing personality and appearance to find out what type of characters move them.

We will also look into the distinction between flat and round characters as presented by E.M Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel (1927), and use it to classify the characters we find along the workshop.

Read every day. Lead a better life.

Read every day is a global literacy campaign, a superb initiative by Scholastic to promote the pleasure of reading amongst young people.

Kazu Kibuishi

Yuyi Morales

Judy Shachner

The campaign includes a dozen  interviews with children’s book illustrators plus read-aloud videos by themselves.

Suggested activities introduce the artists through their work, elicit questions, discussions and art prompts, and give children an opportunity to listen to real authors talking about the creative process.

Read every day, Lead a better life was launched in 2013, and we can still have access to its contents  and take advantage of them as EFL teachers or merely as loving parents.

Remember there is a good reason to dive into this project and make it yours: our children.

Christmas Carol pop-up edition

December 19, five days to go for your chimney to get swept. If you are a busy parent or/and  a busy teacher you are probably wondering what else could you add to these holidays to be unique.

Give the Christmas Carol Pop-Up edition a try, popped up by Chuck Fisher and respectful of the original version written by Dickens. It also includes a special section with biographic notes.

The only condition to bear in mind is that the storyteller must be well aware of the story’s up and downs before retelling it, because the text, being too extensive, doesn’t provide us with any prompts to draw from.