I'm grateful for having the opportunity to do the practicum at this institution.

I arrived fifteeen minutes before the one-hour class began and I was told to wait because Miss Sofi was still teaching. I felt quite anxious to begin with this experience and fortunately, the substitute coordinator who greeted me was really nice and comforting.

When the class began, Miss Sofi introduced me to the 26 children. At this first observation, I focused on the lesson structure and the classroom strategies, time management. Miss Sofi opened the lesson by singing the "hello song", the weather routine, with Mr Weatherbird puppet and its song, and the designated child as"helper" counting how many girls and boy were present that day. The opening of the lesson took 20 minutes. Then, the lesson developed with the presentation of vocabulary related to animals using flashcards. They children repeated the animals' names and answered questions about their colours, if they have eyes, legs, tail, and if they are big or small. Then, they did a listening activity in their course book, Super Minds Starter in which they had to listen and point at the correct animal. The developing of the lesson took 39 minutes. Finally, the lesson ended when the teacher and the children sang and mimed "the good bye song" for a minute.

I've been teaching English for the last 15 years at Primary and Secondary school. This was the first time I experienced an English lesson for 5-year-old children, I thought on the quotation from Julius Veal, "step outside of your comfort zone and go beyond the boundaries that you and others have set for yourself."

Ms Sofi says this transition comment: "Are you ready to say hello?" to link the hello song with the previuos activity in which the children shared events from their daily lives.

Then, in order to link the "hello song" with the weather routine, Ms Sofi introduces the mistery box with a song that says: "Mistery box, mistery box, what's inside the mistery box? for Mr Weatherbird to appear. Once the helper is designated and they wear the weather puppet on their wrist, Ms Sofi links these moments with another song: Mr Weatherbird, Mr Weatherbird, what's the weather like?, what's the weather like?, what's the weather like today? what it is? and the child look out the window and see outiside. Then, she shows flashcards with different weather conditions while she's asking them: Is it hot/rainy/cold/windy? for the children to repeat, mime choose and answer: no, it isn't / yes, it is. She also aks about the colour of the flashcards for the children to say it and repeat each colour three times. Then, she asks: Can you count the boys? Then, can you count the girls? As all the boys were present, she used the transition comment: "All the boys are here. Clap for the boys"

As a link comment between activities for practice, she uses direct speech and said: "Now we sit like in a cinema, cinema, cinema" while she's clapping her hands. The children knew the drill and did it immediately. Then, they revised the new vocabulary about animals learnt the class before.

Then, she linked the activities by asking the children to sit in a big circle and gives out flashcards of animals. Then, they play a game where Ms Sofi claps while the children pass around the flascards until she stops clapping.The child who's got a flaschcard must say the name of the animal in the picture.

Another activity to practise involves setting all the flashcards on the floor but one, which is hidden in a classmate's hoodie or under their legs, for another child who waits outside the classroom to come in and guess which animal flashcard is missing and who's got it.

When she wants the children to pay attention, she says the transition comment: "Attention, concentration" or "1,2,3"

Ms Sofi proposes different oral acitivities that involve repetition for the revision of the new vocabulary. First, a whole class activities where all the children listen and repeat, then a pair activity where some children are involved and finally an individual activity, where one child at the time participates. These revision games last throughout the whole class.

I've previously thought that I should include a written activity in each class. However, it was very helpful to observe that for Ms Sofi is not always necessary.

The English class began at 2:15 p.m. with the weather routine as usual. I focused on the types of activities proposed. The first minutes were a whole-class activity and the children sitting down in a circle, talking about events from their daily life. The did this in L1 but Ms Sofi encouranges them to use L2 when they knew the vocabulary, for instance:

Emi: Hoy me voy a la casa de mi grandma

Another example:

Luchito: Hoy fui a la casa de mi abuela

Miss Sofi: epa, epa...

Juani: mi grandma a comer guiso

I noticed Ms Sofi says the phrase "epa" for the children to correct themselves and to say the appropriate word in English.

Then, the group activity focused in the revision of all the animals learnt. She revised the rules for the children to follow: "When you see the lion, you say snap" She shows different flashcards of animals until they children see the correct one and say snap. Another group activity was that the children must stand up for "yes, it is" or sit down for "no, it isn't" when they see the flashcard of the animals Ms Sofi's mentioned before.

After that, an individual activity was proposed. Ms Sofi set eight flaschards of animals on the floor to play memory game. She designated a child to come and find the correct pair while she was asking: What animal is that? Are the two animals the same? yes, they are / no, they're different. If the flashcards match, the child keeps them.

P.S. we've got parent's consent to show the children's faces.

The teaching strategy I used was a game that engages the children to be active participants to develop their language skills in the target language as well as their motor and visual skills as they had to roll the die in the air, let it fall and to see what flashcard is to say the correct name of the animal.

P.S. we've got parent's consent to show the children's faces.

I think the sit down/ stand up game didn't work as well as I had planned. The children could follow the instruction to stand up for the "I like..(cookies)" but they couldn't sit down for the "I don't like ...(tomatoes), so the activity became messy and confused as the children remained standying. When I realizad about this, I kept doing "I like... (carrots)" phrases for them to repeat in chorus while I was showing them the correct flashcard of carrots and the happy face for "I like". I believe that I was not able to scaffold the activity well enough for them to perform it appropriately. I would improve the activity by changing the actions: standing up for "I like", clapping for "Idon't like"

Ms Sofi had read Eric Carle's From head to toe story. It was a great opprtunity to see her doing it as I could model her teaching strategy, so I believed it would be a perfect teaching strategy to include a story related to the topic of food in my next lesson plan.

P.S. we've got parent's consent to show the children's faces.