In spite of knowing I would be welcoming a group of smaller children this Monday I somehow wasn't expecting them to be so small. Most of the children in the group are four years old, with three being five and the older ones being seven (the elder sister of the youngest child in the group) and eight (a second exception bearing in mind the fact that he had been on holidays when his age group classes were on) .
João and Tomas in the front row (from left to right); Salvador, Mariana, Duarte, Tomas, Antonio, Luz and Ema in the back row (from left to right).
The first twenty minutes were fairly "problematic as one of the girls didn't seem as if she would be wanting to stay in class without her father and one of the youngest boys (though being one of the tallest) kept on asking whether it was time to go home.
Soon after they learned how to say a few animals in English (which some of them already knew) I had them decorate two of those (cats and dogs) in coloured paper and the moment they started being artistic the whole anxiety seemed to have vanished.
They were very happy with their decorated "animals", particularly the ones who had never done anything similar. As far as one of the children is concerned I had him do something entirely different from the others once he has attended every one of my courses and is therefore used to a certain pattern of decorative work.
The coffee break was welcome and so was the outdoor interval before we resumed where we had left off before.
For a first approach to the English Language learning it wasn't such a bad morning. Children enjoyed themselves and learned simultaneously ...
(To be continued)
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