Playing Dress Up!
In August this year I went to Cambodia to teach English at a charity school. I was given a class of about 25 children ranging from 5 to 9 year olds. This was the beginner class, therefore their English was limited. I quickly learn't a few Khmer words (the language they speak in Cambodia) they consisted of, sit down, quite and back to learning. These phrases are what I liked to call my surrival language, it meant I could control the classes behaviour and we could focus on our work.
The school liked us to focus on a topic and learn the phonics and spelling around that topic. However with my class I soon learn't that I had keep this visual and oral. But this was not the only challenge I also had to keep them enaged.
Therefore, I planned a series of lessons to do with the topic of clothes and body parts. We would start our lessons with singing of the alphabet and head shoulders knees and toes, which the children loved, especially when I was being silly and going slow and super fast. Then we went through the items of clothes where the children had to repeat other me naming the items. Once they learn't the names we played dress up the teacher. each child had to come to the frount and pick an item and say its name and where it went on the body, the children loved this as they got to dress the teachers in silly outfits. To ensure the children learn't the items of clothing and the body parts we would play diffrent games using the clothes, such as finding the items in the classroom as well as trying them on themsleves.
From this experience I learn't some valuable lessons, that is it important to understand your classes abiblity therefore you pitch your lesson at the right level. Also to make things fun and children will learn it better then they would if they were just sat in thier seating repeating the words. Lastly visual images or objects can be a really useful teaching resource and should be used to put context to the childrens learning.
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