How to introduce the brand new language the children aren’t used to hearing and speaking in class to them for the very first time, so they can be socialized to not fear it, or to, hate it, through games, of course! Learning through play, in the younger grade levels, the lesson plans by this group of parents here, translated…
The first graders’ parents always inquired that as the children started learning the Chinese phonetic spellings, do they also need to learn the English alphabets at the same time too, to confuse the children with the dual-language lessons? Some parents also wanted their young to learn their own mother tongues well too (like Hakka dialect, or the tribal languages), and if the school starts on dual-language instructions, then, if we don’t get our kids to learn English, will it make them start with less? The children at this age, they don’t want to compete, get into that race! They’re all way too busy by the day, acting up, playing, parents, time to WAKE UP! We should NOT be pushing them to the starting point, urging them to win that race, but to help them find the fun in learning, to allow them to learn through playtime.
So, the moms from the Morning Crew designed a fun counting lesson for the kids. First, we’d read that illustrated book, “Russell the Sheep” with the kids, by Rob Scotton, an Englishman, this sheep is in big trouble: he couldn’t sleep! With all the sheep around him asleep, only him, wide awake, tossing, and turning. He’d tossed, and turned, come up with an assortment of funny ideas, and in the end, he was able to rely on that never-fail method of, “counting the sheep” to finally, fall asleep. The insomniac sheep, counting the sheep to help him to sleep, that’s too funny, and in the end, it’d, actually, worked too! But, the skies are getting light now! With the rest of the herd waking up one by one, other than, Russell, who’s now, snoring loud.
Illustration from UDN.com
The moms of the morning crew, who had to lie down with their young at night, totally understands how hard it is for the children to toss and turn, that it’s, total, torture (because the moms can’t wait for the kids to fall asleep more quickly!). And so, as I’d read this story, I’d passed along the ideals, and it’d helped the children empathize.
The many means that were in the book to help the character fall asleep, the most important being, counting the sheep! Because the sheep lives in Great Britain, naturally, the kids counted using English. Then, using the number songs, to get the kids involved in exercises! As the “Singing Walrus (QR Code 1) came on, the kids can immediately, sing along.
After the singing and dancing, as the room is still awaken (the first graders are all very, compliant!), we’d reviewed the numbers from one to twenty in English with the children, then, the addition (plus), and the subtraction (minus), and the equals to; that coincides with the first-grade level of basic arithmetic, and help the children learnt he simple English math problems.
The key is not in instructing, but to take the kids into that happy learning mode of excitement! After assigning them into groups, the kids started playing the games to get through the levels in the contest with the numbers in English: first level was bingo, the kids wrote the various numbers on the cards with the boxes, the volunteers selected the various numbers and read aloud in English, and whoever made two lines gets to pass first. The second level manager still read the simple arithmetic problems in English, the kids need to focus in listening, and writing down the equation, and the answers, to pass. The third level, it’s a head turner, this time, the kids are the ones, reading the numbers or the addition and subtraction, to have the adult in charge of that level to understand them, in order to advance into the next level. The fourth level, with the hand drawn cute animal picture cards by our parents, the kids needed to count up the different species (and to state the nouns of these animals in English to pass). The final level is a total kill! We are playing the game of “heart attack” with children, of course, the kids will have to take turn calling the numbers from one to thirteen aloud, and if the card that’s flipped has a corresponding number that’s been called, then, the cards needed to get turned faced down, and the slowest child loses………and, in this nervous level, the kids started screaming, and getting excited, finishing up all the levels of the games, and in the end, we’d given them the soothing “Bye Bye Song”: After a while, Crocodile (QR Code 2). After all, we need to return these children in a behaved, and calmer state back to their homeroom teachers!
The short forty minutes worth of the Morning Crew time, started with the sheep counting sheep story, with the lessons, the singing, dancing, with the games that are quiet, and rowdy, the different styles, helping the first graders review over their lessons repeatedly. This sort of a lesson plan, is by the thoughtfulness of the parents of the class, and at the same time, we’d hoped, that in the dual-language instruction curriculum, the school can open up the new possibilities for the children in school. Although the start early is the key to learning a new language, but at this age, the kids may not have the level of understanding, nor the ability to rote memorize yet, but they can, instinctively, grab on to what they received using their senses, so, the teaching methods should NOT be one-way, with the instructor yapping, and the students still and writing the notes, we must help the kids not reject a foreign language, and make them learn in the most natural way possible, this was, the parents’ primary, considerations. As for the standards and formatting of the rules of the dual-language schools by certification of the government, it shouldn’t be what the adults are after in the contents, as for those who told their young, to not lose to other children at the starting lines……………actually, the race track of life is wide open, you all should run it sometimes, the air’s fresh, and it will give you, adults, the exercises you need too!
And so, this, is the lesson plans, to incorporate learning English, and numbers for the lower grade levels, as the new curriculum of dual-language instructions are setting in, and, this learning through game is a good way, to help the children in the younger grade levels, to get acquainted with the foreign language, and then, as they get older, the introductions of the harder vocabulary terms would come much easier, because in these earlier grade years, the kids had already been conditioned, that English is fun and games, by the thoughtfulness of the parents of the morning crew!
Life, the Obstacle Course 