For the activity that we designed we were all dressed-up as characters from Aladdin’s film. And the plot of our activity begins by the time the Genie comes back from his trip around the world. Then in the activity the Genie appears with loads of presents that he took for Aladdin and Jasmine. During the activity children have to classify all the presents that the Genie bring for them depending on the country that the presents came from and by the time they finish it they have to define the route that the Genie follow during his holidays around the world.

It was a really fun and interesting project in which all of us learnt and had a great time, although it would be hard to say who enjoyed it more; the children or us.

Secondly I´m going to talk about the THEATRE activity that we did this week, which personally I think that it has loads of possibilities.

As I’ve just said, during this week we used the theatre as a tool for bringing English to students in a motivational way. Now I’m going to explain some of them.

For the first activity there need to be at least two pairs of people. The members of each pair have to be sitting in a single line and the one that is behind has to pretend that his arms are his partner´s arms. So once the two pairs are prepared, they will have to play a role such as pretending to be in a job interview, while the audience (the rest of the class) asks them questions.

In addition, in the next activity the students will form groups of four to six people. Then, two of them will be playing a role in which they are friends and for example, they are talking about the last holidays of one of them. While they are speaking the rest of the group members have to perform what the others are saying.

In conclusion, I think that these two activities can easily be done with primary students and also, they can be used as a cross-curricular activity, in order to review and learn almost every topic that they study at class in any other subject.

This reminds me to the first lesson of this subject. The summer had just finished, another year began (last year in the university). It was the beginning of the end. That moment seems so near and jet so far to me. We started that class in a similar way that some people begin their daily life, with a song. A song with a strong and deep message. This melody has sound in my mind during these last weeks (like a mantra) and has given and gives me strength to work hard every day.  It was a fantastic idea to present the subject with that song that gave us so much important ideas in just 3 minutes.

Can you remember that moment? Surely, this video refreshes your memory.

At first sight, through that song, we could deduce that along the subject we were going to have fun while learning new important contents. Secondly, and as a consequence of the first idea, we could have an approach about what the subject was going to deal with, that is children literature elements such as songs, poetry, theatre… Sometimes, the best way to introduce new contents is not based on talk about it, but to show examples.

And I feel alright, and we’ll feel alright 
Cause we’ll work it out, yeah we’ll work it out 

Furthermore, the song transmitted us, that we should work hard, but the teacher was going to be with us, during the whole learning process, that we should not feel alone. There would be someone who wanted to encourage and to support us. This idea can be applied  also to these last years. Surely, all of us have a special person who supported him during the best and worst moments.

I’ll be your light, your match, your burning sun 
I’ll be the bright, in black, that’s making you run
I’ll be your ghost, your game, your stadium
I’ll be your fifty thousand clapping like one 

Finally, we, as future teachers, should understand the song message as a philosophy of education. Apart from the best methodologies, resources, materials… we need something much more important, vocation. We should work really hard on this till the love runs out.

I’ll be doing this, if you ever doubt
Till the love runs out, ’til the love runs out

“Love Runs Out” Lyrics

As you can see, this song it quite significant for me. I would love to know your opinion in this topic: Did you feel the same in that lesson? Are there other important songs about your learning experience? Which ones? Which would be your BSO of this moment/subject/term/degree?

The more, the better

corto winnie

I am Beatriz Sandoval, a student of 4th year Primary Teacher Degree (English Specialization) at Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros.

This blog is aimed at dealing with Children’s literature in English or English as a foreign language. You will find activities, resources, reflections about teaching English for a Primary Education classroom.

I hope you find useful this blog.

This year, I am coursing the subject “Exploring Children’s Literature” lectured by Prof. Dr. Raquel Fernández. I will try to participate in this blog through posts that be in relation with the contents and activities of the subject.

Hope you like it!

As one of my subjects is “Exploring Children’s Literature in English” I’m going to participate as much as possible on this blog, which is aimed to comment on the different topics we see at our class and to inform you about some reports or atractive researches that are relationed with the subject.

Hope you to enjoy! Best regards