STORYTELLING: “A TASTE OF THE MOON” (Narración y Dramatización)

STORYTELLING: “A TASTE OF THE MOON”

“A taste of the moon” by Michael Grejniec is a very nice book. It is about the animals that want to taste the moon, but the moon is so far and they are not able to catch it. So they have to cooperate and help themselves to reach the moon. After making a high tower, they get to reach and take a little piece to taste it.

I have chosen this book for several reasons:

-I think that it is a very interesting book for children because the main characters are the animals and children love animals. This book is appropriate for children between 3 to 5 years old.After reading it you can do activities related with animals.

-This story teaches us that it is very important to cooperate and to do things together to reach our objective, no matter how is each person.

-The structure of this book is appropriate for children because it is a quite repetitive and cumulative. This is a good way to catch the attention of children and children can understand the story more easily. Repetition is an important resource because children can anticipate what will happen.   

-The pictures are good, because they are more or less like in real life. Pictures at all the time appear to facilitate the understanding of the tale. Illustrations take a very important role because it is a way to introduce them in the story.

-With this tale we can work animals, the concept “above and below”, attitudes of help and cooperation and enjoyment by reading.

Some actiivties that teacher can do with children before, while and after reading this book are:

Before reading:
-Flashcards with different animals.
-They can talk about some places where animals live.
-Showing the cover of the book, teacher can ask to children what is the book about and what animals they want to appear in the story.

While reading:
-While the teacher is reading the story, she or he should try to engage children. For example, teacher can ask what animal is going after, or how we can call to the other animal...
-Children can draw their favourite animal.


After reading:
-Visit a farm.
-Visit the zoo.
-Mask-making.
-Make costumes.
-With the masks and constumes they can prepare a play.

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR (Narración y Dramatización)

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR (activities before, while and after reading)

1. Excursion to Faunia to see the butterflies from the world.

2. Life-cycle of butterflies: the teacher will bring to the classroom some caterpillars. In this way the children can see the life-cycle.

3. The number's song.

4. Maths: we can work shapes (circles, triangles and rectangles) to make a caterpillar.

5. Arts and Crafts:  we can crete a collage about caterpillar.

6. ICT (Information and Communication Technology): find some activities on the internet about healthy food.

7. Bingo with pictures of fruits to recognise different types of food. 

EXERCISES ABOUT SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS (Didáctica)

EXERCISES ABOUT SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS

1.    It has been said that the Grammar-Translation Method teaches students about the target language, but not how to use it. Explain the difference in your own words.

The difference is that the goal of the Grammar-Translation method is be able to read, to translate and learn explicit grammar rules, but it is not able to communicate. With this method children only know the structures of a language, because its skills are reading and writing.

A good method is one that develops the communicative competences.

2.    In the Grammar-Translation Method, grammar is treated deductively; in the Direct Method, grammar is treated inductively. Can you explain the difference between deductive and inductive treatments of grammar?

In deductive method, children learn the grammar because the teacher explains it. This type of language acquisition goes from the general to the particular. However, in the inductive method children get the grammar because they have an input in the real life. It is goes from particular to general, this means that with the information that they receive, they make the general rule.

3.     Which of the following techniques follows from the principles of the Audio-Lingual Method, and which ones don’t? Explain the reasons for your answer.

a.    The teacher asks beginning level students to write a composition about the system of transportation in their home countries. If they need a vocabulary word that they don’t know, they are told to look in a bilingual dictionary for a translation.

It is no connected with Audio-Lingual Method; it is connected with Grammar-Translation Method.

b.    Towards the end of the third week of the course, the teacher gives the students a reading passage. The teacher asks the students to read the passage and to answer certain questions based upon it. The passage contains words and structures introduced during the first three weeks of the course.

No, because in Audio-Lingual Method at the beginning children talk and then they can read.

c.     The teacher tells the students that they must add an “s” to third person singular verbs in the present tense in English. She then gives the students a list of verbs and asks them to change the verbs into the third person singular present tense form.

No, in Audio-Lingual Method you don’t see the rule before, you just do it.

5.    Asher believes that foreign language instruction can and should be modeled on native language acquisition. What are some characteristics of TPR that are similar to the way children acquire their native language?

At the beginning children don’t say anything because they are getting inputs and they are learning the commands. Imitation is basic in this method.

7.    A lot of target language structures and vocabulary can be taught through the imperative. Plan part of a TPR lesson in which the present continuous tense. Or another structure in the target language is introduced.

If we want to teach the present continuous, the teacher will say: “everybody is sleeping” and children have to do the action of sleep, “everybody is jumping” and children have to do the action of jump.

If we want to teach the colours, teacher will say “everyone touch something blue”, and children have to do it, but they have the freedom to choose the blue thing; “everyone touch something green” and children have to do it. 

If we want to teach relative sentences the teacher will say “the boys that are wearing jeans stand up”, “The girls that are wearing skirt stand up”.

"ZOG" (Narración y Dramatización)

“ZOG”

We have read the book “ZOG” in class and in groups we have had to think whether the book was appropriate for children. And we decide that it was appropriate for children of five years old for these reasons:

The book is interesting because children like magic things and they want to become “big dragons”.

The level is adequate although the book has words that they do not understand; the general idea is easy to understand.

There are not long descriptive paragraphs, there are short sentences.

There are literary devices such as: “now that you have been shown, you can practise on your own”.

It has a good layout because the children are able to follow the book while they are looking at the pictures.

With this book teacher can teach values like friendship.

READER "CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY" BY ROALD DAHL (Narración y dramatización)

"CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY" (chapter one)

Hello! My name is Charlie Bucket. I live in a very little house with my family; my mother, my father and my four grandparents, my mother’s parents and my father’s parents.

We do not have so much money because my father is the only one with a job.

We usually eat cabbage but I prefer to eat chocolate because it is my favourite food. This is the reason why I love my birthday’s present, a tiny chocolate bar that I eat slowly.

Every day when I go to the school I see Willy Wonka’s huge chocolate factory that smells like chocolate and makes me feel starving.

I would really like to get in the factory and discover how it is from the inside. 

DESIGN OF A LISTENING ACTIVITY (Didáctica)

ALIENS

BEFORE LISTENING:

In the first activity we are going to work with numbers and colours, asking questions.

•  How many aliens are there?
• How many colours can you see?
• How many legs have aliens got?
• How many heads have they got?
• How many aliens are reading? And drinking? And smoking?

  

WHILE LISTENING:

We are going to listen a description of three aliens that are in the picture, and students must circle the aliens that the listening describes.

For example:

1.       The alien is green. It has got one head, two arms and two legs. It is sitting in a chair crossing the legs; it is also reading the newspaper.

AFTER LISTENING:

Children have to draw their own alien. Then the teacher will stick the pictures on the wall and he/she will describe them and children have to point the one that teacher is describing. 

RESOURCES (Didáctica)

Below I will put some websites that have games and activities, which we can use with children to learn English.

They are a good resource to learn and improve grammar and vocabulary.

• www.pbskids.org
• www.kids.yahoo.com/ask_earl
• www.kidshealthy.org/kid
• www.ars.usda.gov(is/kid
• www.serpadres.es
• www.colorearyaprender.com
• www.education.com

RESOURCES (Narración y dramatización)

Below I will put some websites that have tales, short stories and readings, which we can use with children to learn English. 

They are a good resource to improve reading and listening strategies. 

• www.magicskeys.com/books/index.html

• www.storybookcastle.com/tales

• www.people.ucalgary.ca

• www.storylineonline.net

• www.sylvandellpublishing.com

• www.pbskids.org

• www.bbc.co.uk