As we
approach our 3rd break, it’s a good time to reflect on how teaching
has been going and how lesson plans have been working out. In this blog post,
I’m going to be writing about a great class that I had recently. The CM1 and
CM2 class (4th and 5th grade) at St. Arnoult is always a
delightful group of kids. They are energetic, enthusiastic, and fun.
We started
off the class doing our rituals. For this, we have flashcards that represent
different questions (like “what’s your name,” “how are you,” and “where do you
live”). The kids raise their hand and say the question, and once they get the
question right they can come up to the front of the class and ask their peers
to answer it. This usually takes 5-10 minutes. After we did our rituals, the
kids had the floor to ask me any questions they had about schools in America.
They were very curious about it, and we discussed differences between the US
and France, like how in some schools in America and England the students wear
uniforms, the different names of each grade level, and what happens at
graduation. The class was especially interested to hear about the tradition of
throwing your cap up when you graduate!
After that,
the teacher for the class had found a short video of what elementary school is
like in England, so we watched that. In it, they talked about what time
different things start during the school day, what classes they take, and what
recess and lunch are like. When it was finished, we reviewed a little of what
happened in the video and then learned the poem “Come in Please” with motions.
It goes like this:
Come in Please
1, 2, 3, 4
Come in
please
and shut
the door.
5, 6, 7, 8,
It’s time
for school,
You’re very
late.
9, 10, 9,
10
Don’t be
late
for school
again!
After that,
we reviewed school materials like a backpack, pencil, pen, notebook, glue, etc.
We played a game where I put the flashcards on the board, they closed their
eyes, and then I removed one and mixed up the remaining flashcards. They then
had to figure out which flashcard was missing.
At this
point, class was almost over, but they really wanted to do Head, Shoulders,
Knees and Toes, so we did that. They then requested we do the Hokey Pokey, so
we got in a circle in the room and did that too! They really enjoyed being
silly and shaking their arms, legs, hair, and tongue, and it was super fun.
Plus, the whole song was in English, so they got to practice their vocabulary! The
class period was a hoot and I think that they learned a lot.
Until next
time!
