Author: Mi primer inglés

Get ready for the new school year

We are at the beginning of a new school year and parents and children are busy shopping for school supplies and clothing and teachers are getting ready to welcome their new group of children.

Teachers are busy planning activities for the first days of school. These activities will be geared at helping students get to know each another, exploring the classroom and the materials around, coming up as a group with classroom rules, establishing routines and taking notes of the strengths and needs of each child.

There are many ways of providing activities to reach your goals but one important thing to keep in mind is to make the activities fun and enjoyable!

For very young children the beginning of the school year is loaded with new experiences. Therefore, we need to help them settle into the daily routines and the classroom environment so they can feel comfortable and safe.

The whole environment needs to be simple, with a few number of manipulatives, materials, posters and learning centers. In this way children will be less distracted, may attend more easily and may have the opportunity to absorb the new experiences little by little. Again, keep it simple! You have a whole year to add new and/or different materials, posters, and decorations to your classroom according to the seasons and the thematic units planned.

You may want to provide children with simple and familiar activities, such as songs, short stories, self-directed activities, movement and arts and crafts activities.

Take the first days of school to introduce, model, practice and constantly reinforce procedures, rules and routines. Remember that repetition is a major factor in learning. Set the tone for your class and have a great start!

It is extremely important to get parents involved.

It is my  belief that the parents’ role in the process of a child’s language acquisition at a young age is indispensable. Parents are the most important people in children’s lives and their best teachers.

Languages4kidz believes that it is crucial to invite parents to participate actively in their children’s learning and development, while learning the target language themselves. Through our program parents learn easy vocabulary that they can use with their children at home, simple structures they can put into practice when talking to their children, songs, nursery rhymes and fingerplays in the target language and they can learn how to carry out activities that will benefit their children’s overall development such as, early stimulation exercises, movement and dancing, arts and crafts and reading aloud.

Languages4kidz materials help parents and their babies practise the target language together, whether it is Spanish or English. Parents will find simple stories, rhymes and games that they can learn to help them introduce the target language to their baby or toddler and continue the teaching-learning process at home.

We like to encourage mothers, who while taking care of their children at home very often don’t have many chances of learning a new language; and we provide an equal opportunity for fathers to actively participate in their child’s early stages of development.

When parents learn a new language together with their children, the whole experience helps develop a possitive attitude towards the target language for both. It helps parents lose their language barriers and learn Spanish or English in an informal way, while they spend quality time with their children. At the same time it may encourage parents to continue studying the language individually which may lead then to their own personal development and introduction in the labor force.

Teaching with songs is an amazing tool for helping young children acquire a new language.

Singing with children can be a fun and valuable experience. When you sing with young children, you can adjust the speed and volume to fit their abilities. You don’t need to sound like a professional singer. As long as you are enthusiastic, young children will enjoy it, and want to sing along.

Young learners pick up vocabulary, grammatical structures, and the rhythm of the language simply by doing what we all love to do…singing songs.

Languages4kidz uses familiar songs and melodies, finger plays and nursery rhymes that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Some have been adapted for Languages4kidz units to foster the development of children’s skills in the target language. Others have been created to enlighten vocabulary that are an important part of children’s lives, such as people (family members, teachers, friends), objects (clothing, furniture, cars, bikes), daily rituals (brushing teeth, bedtime), and special events (holidays, going on a field trip).

In Languages4kidz lesson plans music functions in a variety of ways. It helps teachers create a safe and comfortable environment, establish routines, signal transitions, create bonding experiences or teach vocabulary.

Following are some ways in which you can use music and teach with songs in your classes:

• · Welcome children with songs.
• · Begin your lesson with a welcoming song like “Sing Hello”.
• · Chant a song or play music to signal transitions.
• · Play music to manage the energy level of the class.
• · Play music to introduce new language or to review vocabulary already introduced.
• · Introduce songs with gestures.
• · Encourage children to sing and dance.
• · Choose songs to enhance your story time.
• · Last but not least wrap up your classes by singing a Good-bye song.

Music is a powerful learning tool. It is not only a great way to introduce new vocabulary, but it can also contribute to children’s progress and learning in many different areas. Music supports self-expression, cooperative play, creativity, emotional well-being, and development of social, cognitive, communication, and motor skills. Music and singing are a fun and effective way to help young children learn.

I encourage you to use music and lots of songs in your classes. It will make your classroom a warmer, more effective learning environment.