It was also for me a concrete experience…so far from theory.

I could see materialized the different learning theories we have been watching, and observations helped me to close the circle. The next points are clearer in my mind after this experience:

·         The importance of creating a meaningful environment and context in the learning process.

·         Play is an essential ingredient in the learning process (songs-customs-stories-characters-colourful materials are important allies).

·         The importance of planning brief activities is key in this stage.

·         ESL cannot be introduced as a subject in this stage; it must be introduced as a meaningful activity and/or routine.

·         To promote a rich exposition of L2 it is essential in the learning process, especially if we consider an institution like this where kids only have one thirty-minute class class per week.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and I hope mine results useful for you.

Regards,

Jime 

I had to assist the teacher in:

·         Planning activities according to the contents given: farm/domestic animals, colours, and numbers till 10.

·         Participating in routine: The Welcome Song was the only one routine I could experience. With this song we used to say “hello” to each other before the activities.

·         Helping to organize kids and materials: distributing materials, preparing the class to watch a video, looking for videos according to the context given, others.

·         Helping to introduce the vocabulary in each activity.

·         Singing and dancing with farm animals and imitating them.

·         Making onomatopoeias related to farm animals.

One of the main things I’d like to remark of this period is how flattered I felt when kids started to recognize me as “teacher”; was really excited for me that moment.

In this period I could interact more closely with kids, I recognized easily their names and I could appreciate also their main likes and dislikes.  

Something I could also experience was the relevance of scaffolding in this stage (2-3 year old kids) in which L2 is introduced. I could appreciate that L1 also requires scaffolding in this stage since kids are in an early period in which both languages, L1 and L2, are part of the learning process for them.

To be part of the learning process makes me feel a big responsibility but I think that, with love and care, I’ll have a nice practicum experience in Conejo Tito Kindergarten.

 

I could realize and experience important things that help me to prepare next classes:

·         Both 30 minute-classes went by incredibly fast.  It is crucial to plan very well each activity. I could not develope all the activities I had planned for that day; it was a shame but an important personal teaching.

·         The context and material we use with early students (2 and 3 years old in my case) are key aspects and I felt those elements helped me a lot to engage kids.

·         The importance of scaffolding in early age is essential for this stage and I felt very comfortable playing the role of teacher in pre-schoolers; many fears I had passed away after that day :)

 

Context: Rabbits

In this class kids could experience:

·         a routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         rabbit’s main attributes introduction through puppets. (Daddy rabbit and baby rabbit)

·         vocabulary related to adjectives, nouns and colours according to the context.

·         a collage activity to make rabbit’s puppets to play with them.

I think the collage proposed was a bit difficult for this stage; they needed strong support to glue the whiskers, the ears and the teeth.

On the other hand, they enjoy a lot playing and jumping with puppets.

Context: Black and White farm animals (Mrs. Cow and Mrs. Sheep)

In this class kids could experience:

·         a routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         the cow-sheep main attributes introduction through flashcards and posters.

·         vocabulary related to adjectives, nouns and colours according to the context.

·         a collaborative collage activity. 

·         a collaborative game: “Milk the cow”.

 

I think the milking stage was fun but a difficult activity to perform with the group.

We enjoyed a lot milking the cow!

 

Context: Rabbits

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         Rabbit’s main habits vocabulary introduced by flashcards (eat-live-run-jump).

·         A story telling with finger puppets.

·         Physical activities and games with finger puppets.

Context: Birds

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         Vocabulary related to bird’s habits: eat-live-sleep-fly-sing.

·         Matching bird’s activity with stickers.

They enjoyed a lot playing with stickers but we could not do a third activity planned.

I could realize, once more, that I have a lot to learn about group management and timing yet!

 

Context: The Caterpillar

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         An environment related to caterpillars in four colours (yellow-orange-pink-green).

·         Vocabulary related to colours, numbers and verbs such as eat and sleep.

·         Two fine motor skills activities: they made caterpillars using colour doughs and fed the caterpillars with sweet bowls.

They fell in love with caterpillars!

Context: The Rainbow

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         An environment related to the rainbow.

·         Vocabulary related to different elements of the context: the sky, the sun, the rain, the clouds and 7 colours of the rainbow (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-pink-purple)

·         The Rainbow Song (used to introduce the context and the activities).

·         A fine motor skill activity (they painted the rainbow's colouring sheets using swabs, corks and water-colours).

Context: Farm animals

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         An environment related to five farm animals: the pig-the horse-the duck-the chicken-the rooster.

·         A game called “Who’s Missing” to introduce vocabulary related to the animals and their colours. Also they could experience with this game vocabulary related to instructions: “Close your eyes”, “Open your eyes”, “Who’s missing”. 

·         A fine motor skill activity (they painted animals colouring sheets using swabs, corks and water-colours and tempers).

They enjoyed very much the context but I found very challenging to play this game with this group. It was difficult for me to make they follow the instruction “close your eyes”. 

Context: Monsters 

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         An environment related to monsters in six colours: yellow-orange-red-green-blue-purple.

·         A game called “Who’s Missing” to introduce vocabulary related to colours, numbers and parts of the face (eyes). Also they could experience with this game vocabulary related to instructions: “Close your eyes”, “Open your eyes”, “Who’s missing”

·         Fine motor skills activities: they made monsters using colour doughs. 

They engaged very much with this context but, this time, the doughs made me experience a difficult moment:

·         The yellow dough was very soft and the kids made a mess, so we had to put more flower in the dough.

·         Other problem I had was that I pretended to do red dough but it did not look red (even I used red temper to do it). It was a kind of dark pink and one of the kids wanted to make a red monster and he did not like the dough I did. This fact made me feel bad and consider that I should have removed the red monster from the class if the red dough was not available.

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         An environment related to the hungry caterpillar.

·         Vocabulary related to: colours (yellow-red-green), fruits (the apple) and verbs (eat-like-love).

·         Two fine motor skills activities very engaging: they painted the apples sheets and fed the hungry caterpillar. 

They loved this activity!

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         A story telling: The three Little Pigs. The story was narrated with sequenced flashcards.

·         Vocabulary related to adjectives and nouns.

·         A colouring activity in which they had to pint the story character’s sheets and make puppets with them. 

They loved puppets and dancing with them!

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         Feeding habits of the rabbit.

·         Vocabulary related to vegetables (carrots), verbs and senses (eat-like-love-smell).

·         Feeding “rabbits” with real carrots.

Different senses were explored in this class!

They also wanted to eat carrots :)

This was our final class!

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards).

·         Bird’s habits.

·         Vocabulary related to food (corn-sweet bowls), verbs and senses (eat-like-love-smell-fly-sleep).

·         Feeding “birds” with real food (fine motor skills were needed).

Different senses were explored in this class!

They also ate sweet bowls!

This was our final class!

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         A story telling: The Three Little Pigs. The story was narrated with puppets and sequenced flashcards. The puppets were useful to use drama.

·         Vocabulary related to adjectives and nouns.

·         Playing and retelling the story with puppets of characters. 

They loved puppets!

In this class kids could experience:

·         A routine that included weather and emotions (song-poster-flashcards). 

·         Vocabulary related to farm animals, their attributes, habits and onomatopoeias. The animals were introduced with flashcards. 

·         A collage activity (They could make their own farm with different materials)