The document provides instructions for rewriting a sequence of activities to promote children's creativity. It includes choosing a creativity strategy from Mohammed (2018) and setting up activities based on the story of Groovy Joe. The rewritten sequence should include 3 activities: 1) Introducing Groovy Joe and finding instruments; 2) Making musical instruments; 3) A rock concert with parents. The activities aim to develop language and creativity through play in a multimodal environment.

1. INSTITUTO DE FORMACIÓN DOCENTE CONTINUA
LENGUAS VIVAS BARILOCHE (A-052)
Profesorado de Inglés – Opción pedagógica a distancia
Didáctica Específica para el Nivel Inicial
Tutor: Graciela Manzur
Assignment: Unit 5
Deadline: August 20th
Students: Guillermina Risso, Romina Martinetti, Lilia Muller and Valeria
Zentner.
E-mails: guillerminariso2@gmail.com - liliamuller09@hotmail.com -
rominam@gmail.com - valeriazentner@hotmail.com
Written Assignment Unit 5

2. Study the sequence of activities you designed in Unit 4. Then decide what relevant
changes are needed to promote children’s creativity. To this end, analyse
Mohammed’s strategies, described in assignment 5.
Rewrite the sequence, considering the following aspects:
- Choose one of the strategies to foster creativity suggested by Mohammed
(2018) to articulate the activities.
- Set up a creative context for all the activities, based on the story of Groovy Joe.
- Write the instructions and transitions as part of the imaginary world of the story.
- Resort to different semiotic modes to offer a multimodal learning experience.
- Make use of the ELA, as suggested by Robinson, Mourão & Joon Kang (2015).
Specify the theoretical principles that support your decisions (in no more than 350
words).
The activities you will rewrite should:
❖ Respond to the principles explored in Unit 5 mainly, and to those studied in
previous units
❖ Foster multisensory experiences
❖ Be based on one of the approaches of play, as proposed by EYFS (2009) (e.g.
focused learning)
❖ Be creative and promote children’s creativity
You can use these guidelines:
Creativity Strategies
Elements of the sequence
Classroom observation
Learning aims
During these lessons, students will be able to:
★ Make a little brainstorm about the numbers and names of the animals
that they remember.
★ Make sums with numbers from 1 to 10.
★ Answer the question "How many dogs/rock stars are there in the room?".

3. ★ Develop their Kinaesthetic, Musical, Linguistic, Interpersonal and Logical-
Mathematical intelligence.
★ Use the target language developed throughout the activities orally
★ Recognise the different instruments and roles in a band
★ Use different art materials
★ To dress up as a famous singer
★ Share a moment with their parents
★ Speak in English and to use the target language developed throughout the
activities.
★ Explore and use different art materials and other multimodal ones.
★ Develop creative and imaginative skills as well as other cognitive skills such
as reasoning
Previous knowledge
This is their second year in the institution (and of being exposed to English) so they
have previous knowledge about some colours, animals, toys, numbers and the
knowledge of some words which help us to give them instructions, for example, jump,
sing, sit down and come here. They have some classroom routines acquired, for
example at the beginning of the lesson we sing the “Hello song” to help them to
introduce the new language doing a funny and lively activity that encourages them to
speak in English. And at the end of the class, we sing the “Goodbye song” to finish the
lesson.
Learning focus
The activities focus on
★ Numbers from 1 to 10.
★ Sums with little numbers
★ Vocabulary:
- The structure: How many…?
- Feelings: upset, happy
- Related to parties: party, have fun, boogie, dance
Context
The group of students is made up of 15 children of 5 years of which 5 are new. They
attend English lessons twice a week. This group is characterized by being very active

4. and interested in exploring new things. They all like speaking, singing, acting and all
the time they need to be moving their bodies and doing different activities that are from
their interest.
The institution is a private place so all groups of children and their classrooms are
provided with different multimodal materials that are necessary to develop different
activities (for example, a digital whiteboard, projector, computers, musical equipment,
as well as other non-technology related materials such as paper, boxes, toys, books,
costumes, among others that are daily used in class).
Our group has a specific classroom. It is set and prepared around the specific needs
and interests of very young children. The walls are painted in a bright colour and are
decorated with drawings that the children made the previous year, stickers of flowers,
the names of the kids and different elements that make the place comfortable and
interesting for children. There is a large window facing the courtyard, there are
cabinets (one for each kid), which have been decorated by them so they can put their
bags there, and the chairs and tables are of the size of the kids. We have divided the
classroom into different learning areas so each corner has specific elements and
pictures of the kids using that place, for example, one reading corner full of books,
another corner with costumes, another with blocks and the last one with a kitchen,
plates, fridge and different elements from the house. There is an English Language
Area (ELA) where children can find flashcards, objects with printed words so they can
recognise them, picture books with some words in English, blocks, colour pencils, art
materials, and other materials they can use in English lessons. There would also be a
“Culture Box” for future activities. On one of the walls, there is a poster with pictures
of good attitudes and how they should behave in class.
Strategies
The activity chosen to encourage children's imagination is a story called: Groovy Joe
Dance Party Countdown by Eric Litwin (2017). The video will encourage children to
learn and use new vocabulary about parties, How many…?, to reinforce and use their
knowledge about numbers by counting and doing small sums. Apart from being a
story, it also has a song which allows children to imaginatively engage with content
and help them to remember things by making knowledge more absorbing.
Time
The sequence of activities will be developed in lessons of 40 minutes each.
Theoretical principles supporting the lesson plan

5. Young children are characterized by their curiosity and interest in exploring and
discovering everything that surrounds them. In this process, children make use of their
cognitive abilities as well as their imagination, creativity, feelings, thoughts and
personal interests. In a context of formal education, it is our duty as teachers to provide
children with environments full of multiple possibilities for them to interact with their
peers and their environment, to develop different skills and intelligences, and to foster
multimodal learning. Moreover, play is the most natural way in which children learn
and know the world, therefore it is an important tool for the development of certain
skills. Using their imagination, they see and create a world with aspects of the real
one. In so doing, they are able to use the knowledge they have acquired to
communicate with others, develop their language skills and social bonds as well as
develop a sense of belonging.
Very young children make no difference between fantasy and their real world. In order
to maintain these natural aspects of their learning processes, Mohammed (2018)
proposes some strategies that are useful at the moment of their formal education. One
of the strategies that we based this sequence of activities on, is setting the
environment in a very creative way to engage children in activities and make
knowledge more absorbing. The use of the English Language Area (ELA) (Robinson,
Mourão, & Kang, 2015) also allows us to promote the use of target language that the
children have already seen and are familiar with the use of the English classes
materials.
The sequence of activities developed here is based on the principles explained briefly
above. It introduces vocabulary and small structures that are then used in activities
that encourage students to engage with content. The new language will then be used
in a creative environment in which children can experiment through different their skills
(EEE model).
Activity 1
Before the class starts, the teacher will hide some musical instruments, a microphone,
a star and other elements related to music bands in the classroom and she/he will put
a dog rockstar muppet (which will represent the character of the video)in a colourful
box. Once the class has started and with all the children sitting in a circle, the teacher
will put a box in the middle and ask them if they can find out what's in the box: “What
do you think it could be? What is it? The teacher will help them by making sounds and
by showing them parts of the puppet: What colour is it? What sound does it make?
Can you repeat the sound? The teacher will also help them by repeating the words
and phrases they don't understand.
Once they have found out that it's a dog and that it is related to music, we will
congratulate them for doing a great job and we will introduce them the muppet called
“Groovy Joe”. The muppet will ask them for help to look for the instruments that he
has lost in the class: Can you help me…? The muppet will show them pictures of the

6. instruments and will make the sound of the instrument, for example. “Groovy Joe” will
say: Are you ready? I'll give you 10 seconds to find the instruments! Ready… go…
one.. Two…. and they all have to come back with what the instruments As they find
all the instruments we will count them and ask: How many instruments did we find?
Let's count!”. Finally “Groovy Joe” will say: Are you ready for a boogie? Who wants to
dance?” we will see the video and the children can dance, sing and pretend they are
playing the instruments.
Finally, if we have some minutes left we will use the ELA corner, so the children can
relax while looking at a picture book, flashcards, story cards, for example (materials
the children are familiar with from their English classes) while they are waiting for their
parents.
Activity 2
In this activity, we are going to focus on fostering children’s imaginary skills through
the following idea: making their own instruments. As the children learnt in the first
activity the different musical instruments like guitar, microphone, and other elements
related to music bands that are part of the Groovy Joe’s world, the teacher will invite
them to build their own instruments. The teacher will ask: “Do you like music?... Do
you want to be part of a rock band?... Children: Yes!... and the teacher responds “OK
Let's get to work and have fun!.
For this activity the teacher will prepare different kinds of materials (rolls of paper, rolls
of cardboard, caps with different colours and sizes, wool, colouring papers, ice cream
sticks, plastic bottles of various sizes, beans and seeds, scissors, pencils, glue,etc)
that will be placed on different tables, to make sure that all the children have the same
elements to work with and in the same conditions as their classmates in a comfortable
space each. The teacher will divide the children into 5 groups of three students. To
create and stimulate a creative environment the teacher will play as background music
the sounds of different instruments. Then, she will show the children different
homemade musical instruments made of plastic bottles and seeds to inspire the
children in their own designs. When the children have finished their creations, the
teacher will ask… “How many instruments did you create”?... “How many bottles did
you use”?... “How many paper rolls did you use”?... “Let’s count together” and they will
start counting: “one”...” two”, etc.
Finally, the teacher will ask: “Are you ready to play music like a music band?”... the
children will answer: “Yeah”... so the teacher will say…“Everybody stand up!” “Let ́s
play music and dance!” and all together will start to play their own instruments, dancing
and jumping.
Activity 3
On the day this activity takes place, children will enter the classroom and find that it is
set as a rock concert. There will be a stage prepared with microphones and different
musical instruments they made in the previous activity, reflectors made of cellophane

7. paper and paper cones, speakers made with colourfully decorated boxes, among other
objects that are necessary for any concert.
The teacher will propose children to imagine that they are rock stars and she/he will
invite them to dress up like real ones or as anything they want to be. A music teacher
or parents will be invited to participate in the class. They will be asked to play some
instruments such as the guitar or drums so as to make the rock concert experience
more credible and enjoyable.
Everybody will start playing and singing the "Groovy Joe" song and each time another
rock star joins the band the teacher will ask "How many rock star are there?". If
students find it difficult to count them, the teacher will help them by counting out loud
one by one all the rock stars.
Parents of all children will be asked to go ten minutes earlier so as to join them in the
last part of the activity. The idea is that they all arrive dressed up as rock stars so as
to be part of the role-playing activity. Children can put on practice some of the phrases
they have been working with by asking their parents "Are you ready for a boogie? Do
you want to have fun?" and invite them to sing and dance all together.