Some of my friends and I started to be volunteer teachers in a kindergarten. In one day of a week, we go there and we, in the group of two,have been teaching English to the children. I see the difference between children's learning and adults' learning. Children learn something very slowly and they need lots of repetitions. I want to share what I and Gizem did there in each week.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------22.03.2012
The topic of the first week was colors. There were 3 groups who teach English to the children. When we got there, they had already known colors. In the kindergarten, there were 2 groups of children, one of them is consist of 3-4 age group, the other one is 5 age group. Gizem and I wanted to teach the children who are 5 years old. The number of students are about 11-12 ( 3 girls, the others: boys). All of them are willing to learn English. Gizem and I prepared colorful Ginger bread man puppets. We said them we have some guests who are brothers and look like each other. However, to distinguish them, we called different names to them. For example, we said this was pink Ginger, this was blue ginger. After each Ginger's name, we made them repeat. We introduced Gingers with 7 colors. They were very smart and they knew colors. While introducing Gingers, one of the students asked me how you can know all of these stuff :D I was shocked when I heard this kind of question :D
We distributed a paper to paint for the children. We asked partly, what it is and what it can be in the color of. They said it is sun and it is yellow. Then, they painted the sun in the color of yellow. For each image, we asked the same thing and they did the same thing.
After that , we said it was the song time. We found a song. It has a rainbow.
They could not sing the song properly, but they caught the rhyme and they tried to sing the song. After some repetitions of the song, we finished the lesson. It was our first experience with young learners. I am very excited for the next week. I love kids although they are a bit mischievous... :)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------29.03.2012----
This week we wanted to combine the colours with some fruits. However, we had limited time. Therefore, We could not achieved it properly. First, we wanted the other teachers to change the classroom with an another big class because we could not do physical activities last week. Also, there was a copy problem and we started the lesson by repeating what we did last week. I said if they remember my name and let's introduce ourselves again. Then, we introduced ourselves one by one by shaking hands. There was a colorful caterpillar and we asked its colours. Then, we divided them into two groups as two lines. We played Chinese whisper by telling one colour. I observed that this naughty class became silent. We said it was a competition. Therefore, they wanted to win. They were energetic. We played a game. I do not know its name in English, but in Turkish its name "deve-cüce". We explained them what "sit down" and "stand up" were. We commanded these phrases and did the activity. We said sit down and we sat, we said stand up and we stood up. After doing these, we had a picture with grapes. We asked what it is and said its name in English. This week, we could not prepare well enough and we did not have time. However, I am getting used to them. Their voice level is too high and we have to make our voice higher. It is a bit unusual for me, but I am getting used to it :D Sometimes, they hug me and they want to hold my hand. They always complain about each other. One of them said I missed my mom. Sometimes, they were interested in my clothes :D For example, I was wearing a scarf on my neck. One of them came and said without a reason, you can use it with this style in the cold weathers ( by changing my scarf's style) (in Cyprus-Turkish "öğretmenim , soğuk havalarda sen bunu böyle de kullanabilin değil ? " ). I smiled and said yes. These questions make me smile and I give answers to them like in their age. Sometimes, we had to show ourself like an authority because they do not listen to you when your voice is too low or if you are too calm. This authority does not mean that you should shout them al the time. We did not shout , we just made our voice higher to beat down their voice :) Adventures will go on next week. :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------26.04.2012---------
We couldn't go the kindergarten. 2 weeks were empty, but my other friends went to there and taught new things to the young learners. This week, we continued to teach fruits to the children. In the previous week, I tried something to control them. That is, I wanted them to put their hands on their heads when they finished their tasks. I came to my mind during the activity and I did not plan it. I was surprised because all of the learners were silent completely. They finished their tasks and they waited silently for me to give them a star. Firstly, we made them repeat telling their names in English. We shook hands while introducing ourselves. We taught them "banana, apple, pear,orange, cherry and strawberry". They colored the papers which had empty fruits. We gave a star when they accomplish the task completely. We asked them what color each of the fruit was by showing from the paper. We repeated the names of the fruits with their colors. Then, we had some small orange,red,green and yellow papers. For example, we asked them to show the apple and which color it was. They said the right answer. We gave them the red ones from the small papers. Moreover, we wanted them to learn sharing, so we made them partners and gave them one glue and very small number of small papers. We said we would give a gigantic star the one who finished it as first and as the best. At the end of the lesson, we played Chinese whisper game. We involved in the game. We started the game by saying one of the fruits name. They liked the game and tried to say the word correctly.
I like young learners. They are very enjoyable and I have difficult times on resisting to stay without hugging and kissing them. They are very clever and beautiful children. Although Tuğra is angry with everyone in each lesson and not join the lesson, Arda is offended because of sitting on the pink chair, Ahmet does not care rewards or punishments and Arda the second have misbehavior, I love them. Hüsniye and Özkan are my favorite students. Today, I laughed a lot to Ozkan. Gizem wanted to get their attention by shaking her hands. Ozkan saw her and said that if we are going immediately or not.(öğretmenim, hemencik kaçarsınız? ) He assumed that we are going because she was showing her body language like in saying goodbye. :)
