Picture taken form https://www.thegreatcourses.com/ for educational purposes

What Type of Hat Suits You?

Types of Hats

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
Head of Curriculum Development Academic Department Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano	Senior Language Professor School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Wednesday, April 2, 2020 Post 345 / Vocabulary 007

Who hasn’t worn anything on their heads to protect themselves from the sun, the cold, or just because. That is why this time around we can have our learners discuss a bit about the kinds of “hats” they have worn or continue to wear.

Though this is not an extensive list of hats, here you are presented with six types of types that we can work with our students when dealing with clothing, and from this point, we can go a bit beyond the mere concept of hat. With these two sample activities, we can ask them for their preferences, but we can also venture into asking them under what circumstances these types of hats can be worn. Give them a try.

Sample Activity 1 – What’s the occasion?

Provide your students with a similar chart (like the one you see below). Ask them to think of -at least- two different situations (occasions) in which these types of hats can be worn. Some of them may be a bit unusual to the learner, which makes the activity much more challenging for them.

Cowboy Hat	A cowboy hat can be worn in a rodeo.
	You can also wear it in a costume party.
Top Hat

Crash Helmet

Baseball Cap

Hard Hat

Bucket Hat

Sample Activity 2 – The Theater Play

Tell your students they need to imagine they are now in charge of the theater actors’ costumes for a series of theater sketches. Tell them to think of the kind of clothing (and hats, of course), the characters will need to wear.

*Character*	*Costume*
The Lone Ranger
The 1930’s Gentleman
The Motorcyclist
The Baseball Fan
The Construction Worker
The Fisherman

Exercise CEFR rage	A1+
Bloom’s Taxonomy layer	Create: assemble, conjecture Analyze: relate, organize

References

Images taken just for educational purposes from:

1) Cowboy Hat https://www.historicalemporium.com/

2) Top Hat https://es.wikipedia.org/

3) Crash Helmet https://www.ebay.com/

4) Baseball Cap https://www.flightstore.co.uk/

5) Hard Hat https://ph.rs-online.com/

6) Bucket Hat https://www.zumiez.com/

7) Bloom’s taxonomy https://twitter.com/profkhalid_ksa/status/1056576381751119872

Picture taken form http://cetking.com/ for educational purposes

Where Have I Slept?

Types of Beds

By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
Head of Curriculum Development Academic Department Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano	Senior Language Professor School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Wednesday, April 1, 2020 Post 344 / Vocabulary 006

Our sleeping time is one of those moments we all treasure because we want to wake up the next morning feeling restful. And our sleeping quarters can also be a good conversation starter for a class when talking about sleeping habits or similar topics. The sample activities provided here intend to have students produce and use English to discuss types of beds.

Here you are presented with six types of types of beds that we can work with our students. We can ask them for their preferences, but we can also venture into asking them to think about their bedrooms so they provide with detailed descriptions of where they sleep and changes they would like to make in their bedrooms.

Sample Activity 1 – Where I prefer to sleep

Provide your students with one of these conversation cards. Have them work in pairs and as soon as their conversation is over, move them to exchange information with another partner.

Student A	Student B
Ask your partner about the kind of bed he/she used to sleep on in his/her bedroom. Also ask him/her about other types of beds he/she has used in the past and which ones he/she finds comfortable and which ones, uncomfortable. Ask him/her if he/she slept on a bunkbed as a child.	Ask your partner about where he/she has slept when going on vacation to the beach. Ask him/her if he/she has slept on a hammock. Also ask his if he/she has slept on a cot when visiting relatives in other cities or towns. Ask him/her if he/she has slept on a bunkbed.

Sample Activity 2 – Describing my sleeping quarters

A second option is to have our learners continue productively speaking or writing about their bedrooms. This is a very good exercise to have students describe a where they sleep at home by providing details.

Describing my sleeping quarters

Size of my bedroom

Number of windows in my bedroom

Size of my closet

Type of bed I sleep on

Type of mattress I sleep on

Number of bedside tables

How comfortable is my bed

What I want to change/add in my bedroom