The second lesson and my own flashcards.

                                                     LISTEN AND DO

 Good afternoon to everybody!

 This time, I'm going to tell you about the second lesson. In it, we´ve learnt how use "Listening and do". So we can give instructions in English to children like sit down, move around or stand up. Maybe at first they don´t understand us so much, thus It´s really important helping of our body language with gestures, for example.

 On other hand we could work "Listening and identifying", where pupils had to recognize and point several objects, clothes, colours, classroom furniture, and so forth, which teacher has mentioned.

 This is so positive, because they practise listening, improve vocabulary and they associate sound with the meaning itself. In addition, you can encourage good behaviour and introduce grammatical notions teaching them the singular and plural or the gender, for example with simple sentences: I have one pencil, María has two pencils.

 Furthermore, in nursery education we can´t forget Total Physical Response through "Listening and doing". Children must follow instructions are given by the teacher, so they love it because it´s like a game and they´re enjoying with that. 

 It's easy to understand for the reason that movement and language go together. You can choose between many kind of activities and use them in different situations: To follow the leader, to make a break, to work routines, to arrange the class, to work vocabulary,...

 Besides, we can work the mime, with Listening and performing/ miming  activities, for example using a topic that children know really well. So we will give them some instructions, depending on the progress or the level they will be more complex or easier, and then they must mime those actions. We can choose many real situations like a typical morning routine, songs, stories, chants, ...

 Or the Listening and responding games, where pupils need to pay attention while teacher is explaining and telling them they must do. For example games like "Simon says" or to identify if a thing is wrong or right.

 To end, in our lessons it is pretty important we speak slowly to children and repeat a lot, so they get understand all much better. And the other hand we must bear in mind that we can use the mother tongue in specifics situations when we need to explain an activity or to comfort a child, for example.

 In addition, i want to show you the flashcards i use in classroom in order to work and improve the pronunciation. Children can use and touch them, so I have decided to laminate the flashcards in order to avoid they can break them. So in this way I will be able to use them for a long time.

                                                   

  

 See you!

 M.R.M.

The First lesson and my English Icon.

   TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS

Hi everyone!

   
  I'm Mariló and I'm studying Nursery Education at the University of Extremadura. 
  I've chosen to specialize in teaching English to very young learners.
  In this blog I'm going to tell you about a really good book which we are using in our classes and with it we are learning many things related with the teaching in the early childhood. 

  To begin, we´re working with the book "English for Primary Teachers", whose authors are Mary Slattery and Jane Willis.

In the first lesson, they tell us how is the learning in childhood and how we have to keep this in mind to teach and to improve the English in the pupils.

In addition the authors teach us greetings to Start our sessions in English and for that we can use routines about the weather, the date or to check the roll too. 

Also some forms of addressing them and several ideas to end our classes like singing a song because the learning will take place in a more natural, fun and effective way!

To organize the classroom for example giving some instructions in the same way that we make in our mother tongue and to asking permission when they need to go to the toilet.

As i have said before, to End the lessons we can put a song in the interactive display but also we can use some phrases to tell them that the class has ended, for instance, phrases with else (something else?) or with expressions like "That´s all for today" "Ok, now stop",....

Moreover they highlight the differences between teaching to Young Learners and Very Young Learners, being that we must speak pretty slowly and repeat a lot when we work in nursery education. And it is useful providing them fun activities where they have to touch and to feel the materials, because they will learn while they are playing.

And if we are beginning the course we can make dynamics where they introduce themselves to encourage the confidence and to know their peers.

By last, I want to show to you the icon which I use to work English in my classroom. It is a pink of England flag and when I wear it everyone has to speak in English.

See you round here soon!

 M.R.M.