The Summer English Course for 4 and 5 year old children - Days 2 and 3 - The 5th and 6th of July 2016

(...)

One of the highest moments of the second day was when I had them identify stickers corresponding to the fruits they had been taught and have them glued onto a paper fruit stall. 

We continued with our singing and arts activities though because of not having them discouraged by the difficulty of using the felt tip brushes I ended up letting them do some animal puzzles and glitter pineapples.

They were told they'd have a morning assessing exercise the following day with all the fruits they had learnt so most of them decided to take their learning sheets home despite not being able to read yet.

Each of them was handed out a plastic fruit, whose name they had to say in English. Because they got them all right during the first round I had them do different ones in a second round. I put up two huge sheets on a board with quite a few fruits, whose names they had been taught and we continued with the language vocabulary acquisition through to the morning break.

Before walking out into the gardens for a fifteen minute break I showed them the Centre auditorium where next Friday's presentation for the parents, grandparents and relatives will be held and where we'll be rehearsing the songs starting the following day. They seemed excited because I don't think they had imagined they'd be singing in such a big space. 

Once back into the classroom and having realised they were not in the mood to "work" straight away I had them watch the animated version of the book they have been studying and  identify the words in English they have already memorised, followed by the first part of the animated version of Prokofiev's Peter and the wolf.

Despite the fact that only the last fifteen minutes of the morning were dedicated to the artistic activities I strongly believe that by Friday each child will have  done at least two pieces for the exhibition, with Lisa, Salvador and Sofia having already completed three each (because of having spent two extra afternoons with me and Ana).

(To be continued)

The Summer English course for 4 and 5 year old children - Day 1 - The 4th of July 2016

The Summer English course for 4 and 5 year old children started today and even if the first part of the morning was quite tiring for the children,  who had to rely on the memory once most of them cannot read yet, they all seem to have enjoyed it. They were taught quite a few words so we then had to have a break before we initiated some other activities related to the animals they had learned how to say in English.

Each was given a velvet canvas with some of the animals, whose names they had learned and which they had to paint using coloured felt tip brushes as in accordance with a scheme of pre-determined colours. The youngest boy in the group (just 3 years and a half ) was given a 3D aeroplane which he assembled together with Ana, once he is crazy about any form of transportation.

They then had half an hour to do some animal puzzles (only one of them managed to finish it during that amount of time) before I had them revise what had been taught in the morning before going home.

As I was supervising the artistic works I once more realised that most children nowadays are not used to doing any, but once they are introduced to some form of Art they actually enjoy it.

Lisa and Salvador had to spend part of the afternoon with me and therefore managed to finish the artistic piece they had started in the morning having  ventured into other artistic pieces which had them decorate some wooden pinapples (a word they had learned in the morning) with coloured glitter and some small wooden key holders with glitter paint, as well as a sticker "painting".

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(To be continued)

Photos I have been sent ...

I have been sent a few photos by a Polish friend and Aeronautical colleague and two French couples I have recently met during the Vietnam circuit. They relate to my participation in an International forum in the Azores and naturally my trip to Vietnam.

It's nice to recall some of those moments, as well as the people who shared them with me.

The latest book I have read ...

Unfolding in two parallel narratives - one contemporary and the other set in the 13th century when Rumi encountered the wandering Dervish known as Shams of Tabriz who was to become his mentor The Forty Rules of Love is a rather  interesting and to a certain extent thought provoking book which gave me a further insight into some of the Sufism principles and philosophy I had been slightly introduced to during and after my trip to Turkey some years ago.

Being the third book by Elif Shafak I have read I must confess I very much enjoy  the way she writes and in this particularly the fact that every part is named after the essential forces of the Universe - Fire, Wind? Earth and Water to which she added another element - the Void.

"Every human being is a work in progress that is slowly but inexorably moving toward perfection. We are each an unfinished work of art both waiting and striving to be completed."

"The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness."


"Intelect and love are made of different materials. Intelect ties people in knots and risks nothing, but love dissolves all tangles and risks everything."


"Patience does not mean to passively endure, it means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of aprocess. What does pacience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn."


"Things that can seem malicious or unfortunate are often a blessing in desguise, whereas things that might seem pleasant can be harmful in the long run."


"You might not change your instruments but how well to play is entirely in your hands."

The fifteen hour English Summer course for 4 and 5 year old children ...

Each English Language course for the children is a challenging "adventure" I embark on with interest and enthusiasm. It has been quite hard to find the plastic animals and fruits I need to complement the story book and the children's songs they 'll be taught this year, as well as the required artistic material and the puzzles and games, each of which will play its role in the children's learning process.

I have finally been able to organise the teaching rooms for next week's activities and feel ready to welcome the eight  5 to 6 year old children plus my colleague's slightly older child, who will be attending the English Language course starting on Monday. 

Some people tend to consider that teaching young children doesn't need as much preparation as the one required to teach adults and that these Summer courses aren't but a rather simple way of occupying" the children ... How wrong can they be !...

I have spent a considerable amount of time devising what to do and how to approach certain  subjects (basic grammatical aspects and even  issues related to the vocabulary expansion) and the main theme of the course ... and I am confident we'll have a good time (which is also important in any learning process).