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Preschool project for IATEFL Webinar
The document outlines a preschool English-speaking project by Nives Torresi aimed at creating a fun learning environment for children aged 3-5 through games, music, and movement. The project includes an 8-week syllabus focusing on colors, shapes, and vocabulary, culminating in a personalized English language booklet for each child. Torresi shares her experiences in a webinar and is an educator with extensive experience in teaching English.
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Preschool project for IATEFL Webinar
- 1. Play, Learn and GrowTogether A Preschool English Speaking project by Nives Torresi
- 2. Aim of theProject ▪ Create a fun atmosphere for learning English ▪ Use of Games, Music, Colour, Movement ▪ Promote fluency and pronunciation ▪ Class rotation to promote engagement ▪ Motivation to learn a second language
- 3. Layout of dates,participating children, age group ▪ Dates of the Project ▪ One x 60 minute lesson per week in rotation ▪ Number of Children Total 62 ▪ Relevant age group ▪ Times 10am -12noon and 2pm - 3pm Dates Weeks / lessons Children Age 6/03/15 to 24/04/15 8 25 3-5 6/03/15 to 24/04/15 8 21 3-5 6/03/15 to 24/04/15 8 16 4-5
- 4. Project Syllabus Colours via Pallette, Sing along Shapes, Colours, Sing a long Numbers, Shapes & Colours, Sing a long Zoo Animals, Parts of the Body, Sing a long Songs, Sing a long, Movement, Review
- 5. Play Activities carried outin a playful atmosphere
- 6. Games to create‘movement’ Count the Numbers ▪ The children would have to move around the class by taking steps, forward or backward, according to the number & action mentioned by the Teacher (or another child). ▪ The children would take turns in small groups counting the numbers aloud. Find the colours in the room or on their classmates. ▪ The Teacher would call out the colours from the colour palette that had been completed by the children during the first lesson. ▪ The children would be asked to find a colour, point to it and ask another child to name it.
- 7. Songs and Dance Sing-along helpedto reinforce the Numbers activity
- 8. Head & Shoulders Sing-along to reinforcethe parts of the body
- 9. Jigsaw Puzzle Colouring in, glueonto cardboard and cutting out (with help) then putting the pieces together to form the image.
- 10. Learn Activities based onLearning the English spoken language
- 11. Learning Activities All theactivities were based on a Photocopiable worksheet which then culminated into their own English Language Booklet at the end of the project. The activites ranged from colouring in to cutting out, glue onto cardboard and play a game. Filling in the number diagrams.
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- 22. Thank you Prepared by NivesTorresi for IATEFL YLT SIG Webinar online at IATEFL.org
- 23. Reference Links ▪ http://www.iatefl.org/web-events/sig-webinars ▪http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/colors/ ▪ http://www.theguardian.com/education/gallery/2009/oct/02/nursery-rhymes-top-ten ▪ https://www.youtube.com/user/KIBOOMU ▪ https://english4blogging.wordpress.com/play-learn-grow-a-preschool-project/ ▪ https://english4blogging.wordpress.com/play-learn-grow-an-after-school-project/ ▪ Nives on YouTube ▪ http://www.slideshare.net/NivesTorresi/review-of-colours-shapes-numbers-preschoolers ▪ http://www.slideshare.net/NivesTorresi/jigsaw-puzzle-slideshare
- 24. 16 March 2016,6pm GMT In this webinar, Nives analyses a project undertaken to help understand how to teach preschoolers a foreign language at such a young age. She will share the experience and knowledge gained from a special 8 week project undertaken with a group of 65 children aged between 3 and 5 years of age in a small town in central Italy. Nives Torresi is a Teacher of English as a language, English Literature, English drama, Business English, and English exam preparation (Cambridge FCE). She teaches for the English4U Regional Projects organized between Marches, Italy and Dublin, Ireland. Nives is originally from Australia but has been based in Italy for a number of years. Join the live event here Nives Torresi ‘Play, Learn and Grow Preschoolers’
Editor's Notes
- #2 Hello my name is Nives Torresi and I’m going to take you on a small journey to discover the special language project that I was fortunate to experience and which is the basis of this talk. The motto for this project was to get the children to learn as they play while growing together as a class. English as a language and as a means to enjoy and play.
- #3 The aims of the project seem to be overwhelming when considering the real age group of the children, however the intention of the Teachers at the Preschool was to enhance the fluency and correct pronunciation of the use of the English language. Being that the earlier the correct pronunciation is heard by the children then the more likely they are to remember later on in their continued schooling. English has become a priority at most Elementary schools here in Italy so it was only natural that the Preschool community also jumped at the opportunity to provide an initial introduction into the language. The school already has their own Teachers teaching the very basic English vocabulary such as Greetings, Introductions, Numbers, Colours, Shapes and Songs.
- #4 The total number of children participating in the project was 62 encompassing an age group of 3 years to 5 years, for a total of 8 hours broken down to 1 hour per week. The lesson took place on a Friday and the set times were 10 am - 12 noon for two groups, and a third group from 2pm - 3pm. The Teachers decided to ‘rotate’ the groups in the set times, that way one group that would have the lesson from 10-11am in one week would have it from 11-12 the next and 2-3pm the next, coming back to the 10-11 lesson time on the 4th week and again on the 8th and final week. The aim of the rotation was to avoid boredom and to create motivation by curiosity during the play time when the groups that had participated would talk about what they had done in the class that morning.
- #5 The children were already aware of the English language via their own Class Teacher with the use of numbers, colours, some shapes and some songs, albeit some very difficult songs. Although in native English schools (UK, Australia, Canada, USA, etc.) Preschoolers may even be ready for some nursery rhyme songs - but in countries where English is a foreign language and only taught at school then children are not aware of the ‘sounds or words’ so I aimed at finding nursery rhymes for toddlers that would be in line with the lesson syllabus. The syllabus was based on simple activities such as colouring in using photocopiable pdf files that I created or downloaded from Free Teacher resources websites. Then I created slides which were turned into presentations with voice over and provided in DVD or Google drive link for the Teachers to use again and again.
- #6 Playing is an integral part of learning for children of any age, especiall for preschoolers as it seems to be their main concern for the day at preschool. The tables and chairs were always moved around to make room to play or dance or sing along. Even the desks became a ‘round table’ where the children worked as if in one large team, as it turned out children working together in teams tended to nudge each other to getting the activity done.
- #7 Games with a physical activity were a must, first because it helped the child to envisage the word by putting it into an action and hence reinforce retention; second it helped to keep the younger children focused on the activity at hand - as in this case the age group ranged from 3 to 5 years of age - preventing the usual fidgeting which is common at that age.
- #8 Songs to move and sing-a-long was another way of getting the children active while learning, the theme song unanimously chosen by the children was, from the Kiboomu YouTube channel, namely TEN in the Bed which just so happened to reinforce their numbers and some easy enough words to repeat.
- #9 Another great sing a long and very active song, was the Head & Shoulders song, by Kimboomu this became a lesson starter as the children were eager to show off their sing a long prowess as they became more confident in having ‘automatically’ memorised the words in the song. That was the amazing thing, the children only really learnt the words to the song by actually watching the Teacher mimic the actions and sing the words as well as watching the song simultaneously on the YouTube channel via the class Monitor/TV.
- #10 The jigsaw puzzle was another ‘game’ that was created by each child by colouring in to the Teacher’s colour and shape called out then glueing onto cardboard and with help from the class Teacher and Assistant cutting out and then playing by putting the pieces back together. The 15 squares puzzle was about as difficult as it should be for children of 3-5 without causing any stress, as the completion is akin to self satisfaction. Complete the Jigsaw and solve it online, there are two for you! Jigidi Jigsaw at this link here and Epuzzle at this link here.
- #11 There were also activities based on increasing their knowledge of the English language as opposed to the textbook approach, so using Krashen’s natural language acquisition method the classroom became a stress free environment where English was a spontaneous result of the words or phrases emerging from the games, stories or specific activity. Sometimes the specific activity involved drawing a picture to depict a group of words or simple phrases.
- #13 A colours slide show with a voice over was prepared specifically for the children to listen and repeat - during class the slideshow was shown first and the Teacher pointed to the colour saying the name of the colour and the children repeated, then the Teacher pointed to the colour and the children said the name of the colour.
- #14 After the slide show and the repetition the children were given a colouring sheet and the Teacher pointed to the name of the colour then said the name of the colour and the children chose the colouring pencil/crayon and coloured in the colour patch.
- #20 The activities to ‘grow together’ included preparing their own individual presentation for the end of project which was the ‘book’ collating all the material used during the class and putting them in order - finishing off if any unfinished work - then adding their Certificate ...
- #21 Some photos from one of the groups, due to the strict privacy laws in Italy, photographs may not include faces, names or places. The tables were moved together to form a large group table enhancing the need to communicate with one another creating a ‘team spirit’
- #22 Their Certificate was another quick review of the main areas covered in the lessons - Colours, Numbers, Shapes - the children had to complete each section by listening to the Teacher and filling in the missing blanks. The Numbers would entail adding dots to equal the amount; the colours would be in order from the original colour palette and called out by the Teacher in order from top to bottom; the shapes would be filled in the colours called out by the Teacher. The class Teacher added the School stamp and the Certificates were signed by Teacher and Class Teacher, then added to the compiled book and then bound by the class Teacher.
- #23 Thank you for being a part of my presentation in the IATEFL Webinar online live. Pegasus One is my Language Teaching company based in Italy, we provide Language Learning projects for schools, business and private sector.
- #24 A list of references.
- #25 http://iatefl.adobeconnect.com/yltsigwebinars/