What a difference a day makes ...

... and a smaller class! Today's class was a success from my point of view. I think this was mainly due to the class size being very much reduced (the reason for this is unclear). There were 14 pupils. When I arrived, they were sitting quietly at their tables, all anticipation. We began with the Hello song, which they all respond to, and enjoy. Today I asked I. and S. (two girls), to be my helpers for "What's in your pocket, Lulu?". In the Teacher's Book, it is "What's in your pouch?", but I think "pocket" is a more useful vocabulary item, so have adapted accordingly.

Today the items were Happy/Sad, Big (spider), Little (spider), Elephant, Parrot, Frog, Snake, and Bat.

After the presentation, and drill, I pulled out "The Monkey Puzzle", by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. This is the first time I've tried a story with them, which they didn't already know (we've done The Three Little Pigs many times). I translated some bits, but mostly read it in English, with lots of mime. I asked lots of yes/no questions, and they responded correctly, in English.

While reading "Children Learning English" by Jayne Moon, I was struck by a teaching example in Chapter 5, where a Hungarian primary teacher is telling her class of eight-year-olds the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. She only speaks in English, but accepts answers from her students in Hungarian - which she then reflects back to them in English. This method seems to be very sensible to me. It lets the children know that they have understood, even if they are not yet ready/able to respond in English. It also models the correct English for them.

I tried this today. I stopped often to let the children comment on the story. The book is beautifully illustrated, so the children were very engaged with the story. They were excited to see what would happen next. I had most of them to the very end.

An interesting CLIL point - some of them didn't get that the Butterfly was the caterpillars' mummy. Perhaps with more time, this book could lead onto a whole science lesson in English!

One negative that I will allow myself today - my follow-up activity was not well thought-out. In my defense, I hadn't thought we'd even get that far! We reviewed "I like...." and "Do you like...?" and then I asked most of the children (until boredom and bottom-jiggling set in), Do you like elephants? Do you like... etc etc. Then they all drew their favourite animal from the story.

They don't really care for free drawing, it seems. I get a lot of "Ma io non sono buona/o..." (I'm no good at drawing...), which always surprises me from this age group. I let some of them trace the animal they wanted, from the book.

To end the lesson, we did Incy Wincy, and Five Little Ducks, and I also stayed to support the teacher, while she got the children ready for the school bus. (Note: there was another biting incident, before I arrived today, between two local girls - Ts worried about expected fall-out).

I left feeling very positive. Long may that feeling last.