The materials of our lesson planning.

THE CHINESE NEW YEAR

 Our lesson planning is about a typical Chinese festival celebrated in the United States. We have chosen The Chinese New Year because we think it is a positive way to introduce the Chinese culture in nursery education.

 I want to show you some of our materials:

The routines.

Flashcards used to talk about the dragon and the lanterns.

The head of our dragon.

Routines about feelings.

Flashcards about typical Chinese food.

Routines to check the roll.

The Happy New Year card.

The characters for the Mulan's story.

The Chinese fan.

The characters for the shadow theatre.

Flashcards about animals.

 I strongly recommend you to work with this topic in nursery education, because it is really interesting but at the same time an unknown theme and you can teach to your children the Chinese culture and many values using a big variety of activities. I'm sure your pupils will love it!

 I hope you have enjoyed the post and see you soon around here!

 M.R.M.

The tenth lesson.

PLANNING FOR EFFECTIVE USE OF ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM

 As we have said in the other lessons, we can work and teach the second language to pupils as same as we do it in our mother tongue. So in this way we must provide them fun activities and situations in order to get a natural atmosphere, considering that in their daily life they learn playing, talking, touching,...

 But to make this possible it is necessary to speak them in English as much as possible.

 In the first point Helping children learn and improve the authors remind us several methods to use the English in class, for example to begin the session with routines, to give them easy instructions, to make a break, to talk about their personal lives and so on. It is really important too, the use of our body and the intonation when we are explain something or when we are talking with them.

 On the other hand, we can utilize the first language (Spanish) when children have one problem to comfort them or when they don't understand what we say. Also we use the recasting if they are talking in their mother tongue, for example repeating in English what they were saying in Spanish, in order to improve their English skills and to show our pupils that we understand them.

 As we have mentioned in many times, if one child makes a mistake the best way to correct him it is repeating in a better English, since they will learn the right way to say something and their self-esteem won't be wounded.

 In the second point Using your coursebook as a resource, they tell about the coursebook can be a support and help us in our planning. We can work the contents and activities that the book suggests but also we can add other topics related with them. For example we teach them using flashcards, pictures, video recorders, stories, games or working with festivals. We must always keep in mind the age and level of our students.

 In the last point, Planning your lessons, we have seen that we have to prepare before the English sessions and make sure about the space available in order to design the activities. We have to reflect on the knowledge of our students, the way they learn, the order of the activities, the resources we have, the groupings, if we want to follow a pattern (first routines, later introduce the topic with flashcards, review the topic with song, a break, the main activity, bye bye song),...

 To end, if we want they improve their English, we must repeat a lot, speak slowly, tell about interesting and attractive topics for them and encourage and reinforce them when they take part in the class.

  See you soon my friends!

 M.R.M.

The ninth lesson.

Story activities

 As we have said in the above posts, we can practise and improve their oral skills, listening and speaking, using activities where they must listen and do, perform, identify, respond, colour, draw or make. And in the same way we can provide dynamics in order to get better their pronunciation and intonation with songs, vocabulary games, playing speaking games, practising new sounds, starting to speak freely or working in groups.

 And on other hand, we can introduce the writing and reading in nursery education employing pictograms, playing with the alphabet and the letters or inventing short stories.

In the first point Things do after retelling a story, they tell us about the possibility of changing and adapting the plot to increase the children´s attention and interest. We have to keep in mind when we choose a story the pupils´ level and cognitive development and what contents we want to revise or teach with it.

 For example if you use The very hungry caterpillar, after telling the story you can make an activity where students colour images about the colours or food you have seen in it. And at the same time you give them instructions repeating the vocabulary. In this tale the author mention many things so you can work the feelings or the days of the week too.

 In addition we must reinforce them with the aim of increasing their confidence and promoting a positive attitude towards the English.

  The next item is Getting children to add to a story. Here they propose us we can work the stories using the vocabulary previously learnt in class. With very young learners we can tell a story about animals and mention some characteristics like the colours or the sizes (big, small). And later we will encourage carrying on with others things and ideas.

 In the third point, Making up a story, the authors suggest to create our own story related with the children or their close surrounding. We will use vocabulary which we have already worked and many different materials (pictures, puppets, costumes, ...) in order to break with the customary. So we can employ it several times but we will always add or change something else.

 Moreover, Using stories for project work where they make group dynamics and practice their English in a more fun and natural way. Also we can decide the aspects about the project together, for example what they want to put in it and how to do it or what tales they want to include. We must use as much as possible the English but if there was a problem obviously we can use our mother tongue.

 To end, it is very important the last point Correction and project work, because if they are going to perform in front of a public, the teacher must check the organization and what they are going to say. We have to verify if everyone is at ease with they are doing, since the acting has the aim of raising their confidence and their oral skills and especially they have to enjoy it. 


 See you around here in the next post!
 M.R.M.

The eighth lesson.

READING AND TELLING STORIES

 Assuming that children love tales and the fact that tell them stories, we can take advantage of this and using it to teach them values, to introduce another culture, work with the feelings and emotions, to review vocabulary,...

 However, telling stories to very young learners is not easy, for that it is pretty important to adapt it to their cognitive development and their English level and to employ the intonation, the gestures and our body language in order to make easier the understanding.

 In the first point, Telling a new story, they tell about when we tell a story for the first time we must explain the new vocabulary and revise the words they have already learnt using pictures or flashcards. Later when we are telling the story we use a basic and easy language and we can help us with gestures since in this way they understand better the tale. 

 Moreover, when story ends encourage your pupils asking them questions about the story.

 In the second part, Reading a story to very young learners, we have learnt that when we read a tale to the students we must show them the pictures or real things to help them to understand. Also we can make the sounds and mime the actions, because children love them and later we ask or answer questions about the narration. 

 If there are difficult or key words we must repeat them to avoid breaking the yarn of the story.

 In the third point, Ways to retell a story, the authors explain that if we have already told a story in class and we want to tell it again, we can motivate their involvement asking them that mime the actions, point the right picture or correct in groups the mistakes. In addition they can tell among all of them the story, obviously with our help.

 And finally we have the fourth part, Retelling a story as a class. As i have said above, we can let them tell the story and they will count with our help when they need it. 

 But also, we can provide them the opportunity to tell the story from another point of view. They will invent and add some aspects to the original tale. It will be really positive and enriching for their imagination and creativity and for their confidence to do things in English.

 To finish, I want to show you an incredible book to work in English with stories and much vocabulary with your very young learners.

The very hungry caterpillar's book.

 That is all for today. I hope you have enjoyed with the post!

 See you!

 M.R.M.