Another group of children (six) has attended an English workshop during the week commencing the 12th of August. The fact that most children of these ages are hooked onto computer games and other technologies nowadays makes it very difficult for them to enjoy other types of activities.
I must confess I had to put into effect all my creative assets so as to be able to have them adhere to the things I proposed and once I got to know how some of them reacted, managed to without having them bored and by mid week they were enthusiastic and committed.
Miguel, Walter, Jessica, Beatriz, Laura and Tiago (from left to right)
Many of the English development activities were crossword or matching exercises related to the theme (professions, hobbies, indoor and outdoor sports and children from other countries with different cultural backgrounds).
In regards to one's physical description and personality traits I had them write about themselves and hand me out those descriptions which in turn I read out loud in class the following day so that they identified who it corresponded to. This particular activity had them laugh because they didn't seem to get the identifications right.
Each day we would have half an hour of artistic activities not only to have them "move" away from routines they were hooked onto but also to have them develop fine motor and focus on meticulous work that takes time and sometimes quite a lot of patience and persevering attitude, which is what I felt some of them didn't have.
With very few exceptions they didn't initially want to get engaged in those, one of them almost reluctantly refusing to participate but amazingly enough after seeing their expressions once they had finished them and after having read their opinions on the workshop I concluded those were among the things they had most enjoyed doing.
(To be continued)
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