Exercises for the Uxue was born project

We have decided that we will perform an activity about “What one year children ate”,  because when we met Uxue, a child asked what the children eat. Then, the teacher told them that they had to ask at home what they used to eat when they were smaller.

Most of them, after they have asked at home this question, said that they usually ate liquid foods and fruit juices. In order to teach them how their parents did these things, we will ask them to bring each one a vegetable or fruit in order to prepare together at school´s kitchen different purées or juices. In this way we want to involve parents to take part in their children´s education.

When they have brought the food, we will count how many fruit and vegetables we have got, we will talk about their color and characteristics and we will separate the fruit in one group and vegetables in another one. After that, we will go to the kitchen and we will start preparing juices and purées. The youngest children will clean the food and they will help to the older children cutting and beating all the ingredients. Everything they do, they will do it cooperating. While they are cooking in the kitchen, we will put the song which they already have learned in order to sing and dance. This is the song that we have mentioned: 

                When they have finished with this activity, each child will draw a picture about what vegetable or fruit has interested them most. Then, the following day they will go to Uxue´s house and they will give her all of the pictures and what they have prepared (purées and juices).

Like this, the children will see how Uxue has grew up and they will be able to play with her sing the song that they have studied yet.

Is it clil "zerain project"?

In our opinion, Zerain Project is CLIL, first of all because they start teaching taking to account children interests and it is based on their knowledge. They integrate content and language (it could be first, second or third language, but the most common one is a second or third language) but also their contest (family, social contest…).

In this case, we had to create an activity or situation for the children in this concrete project and perform it in class. We had to imagine that we were teachers of Zerain and make a roll player about how we want to teach English.  We have to integrate English learning, the contest (Zerain, families…) and the project.

what is clil?

We had to read two articles about CLIL for this week. We have been discussing about them in class and now we think that we have more clear what does  CLIL exactly mean: an educational approach where is used an additional language for the learning (and teaching of course) of both content and language.

After reading the article about CLIL, we want to emphasize different sentences mentioned:

- We should ask which method or combination of methods is best for which goals, which students and under which conditions.

- One of the most powerful resources is each other ( for example: when they are playing, working in groups...).

- If we want to improve the quality of teaching, the most effective place to do is in the context of a classroom lesson.

- Sharing ideas and expertise, providing moral support when dealing with new and difficult challenges, discussing complex individual cases together (the basis for professional communities).

We also had read another article about CLIL, exactly a CLIL project developed in Preschool in Catalonia. This is not only a CLIL example, it is also an interdisciplinary working way example (where teachers are coordinate, contents have connections...). We would like to mention some ideas that we think are important:

- When proposing activities it is essential to bear in mind the idea of a Preschool teacher creating materials for Preschool children and leaving apart the point of view of a specialist teacher (Englis, Primary...teacher).

- We liked that in each Didactic Unit had these features: stories, oral activities (being in touch with the language in a natural way), different types of grouping (individually, in pairs, in groups, whole group)...

- It is important also to use different material such as: DVDs, songs, Internet files, books, power points...

On the other hand, we have to say that we didn´t particularly like the topics of the project: means of transport and community workers, dinosaurus, eating healthy, feeling, wild animals and "I´m different". In our opinion, they are not based on children´s interests, and they should be based on these.

English, yes, but when, why and how?

WHEN…

 In our opinion there is not a single optimal starting age, it depends on the situation. Although, if we had to decide, we would say that the best starting age learning English would be 4 but always taking in to account their rhythm and doing it properly. Even so, we think that it is more important the methodology we use than the age we start studying a language.

HOW…

We would do it in a practical and fun way, using different strategies such as songs, plays, books, body language... They will have time to learn grammar and as we  have said before, we have to respect the rhythm of each child.

WHY…

            We believe that intensity and timing exposure (qualitative) may be more important than accumulated time (quantitative). We think that here in the Basque Country 4 years would be appropriate age. We have an example of this, here, with the "Eleanitz project": our children start learning English when they are 4 and not when they are 12, as we have done some years ago. In our opinion, the age we aforementioned is adecuate first of all because of their capacity to learn new things. Secondly, because we agree with dividing English learning in a longer time and not accumulate all classes in less years, bearing in mind that high exposure does not necessarily correctable with higher competence. Finally, we think that the quality is the third key when we are teaching a language. It is important to adjust our methodology with their age and skills.