On Tuesday mornings I work with Flurina and the Basisstufe. I am amazed on a weekly basis at just how receptive and enthusiastic the children are for learning English. Today was no exception, as they seemed keener than ever to greet me in perfect English accents before proudly and correctly recalling all 24 of the pictures on our English Advent calendar. They then had great fun drawing their own pictures to match the words that Flurina had written out for them.
Over recent weeks, the children have begun to make the connections between pictures and the corresponding words used to describe them. So today we also worked with English flashcards – where the first letter or consonant cluster of the word is given. We then took this matching and naming game to a higher level – with great success.
In Colour Bingo, I call out a random sequence of objects for the boys to identify on their bingo cards. The objects are all coloured. So I might call out the following list of items, for example: a blue bed, a yellow schoolbag, a green pencil, purple scissors or a red cat. Over a period of time, I have modelled additional language content and have encouraged the children to comment on what they hear. So now when we play the game, you will hear them use phrases such as:
“I have a red flower.”
“I have a red flower too!”
“I don’t have a red flower.”
“I don’t have a red flower either!”
The children incorporate these phrases into their speech in a confident way. They now know all the colours in English and can link these to familiar nouns (random objects and words from the Advent calendar). They are now also able to make simple positive and negative statements and make comparisons with the statements of others. The children and their achievements must not be underestimated. They are inspirational.