Welcome to the Children's literature blog! This is a blog created for all of you: teachers,parents, children... I want to share the information, the experiences, the activities and the reflections that I get from my literature lessons at the university.
I hope you like it!
It is important to work with the children's relationships with their friends and family. The movie is about a lonely man, who gets to know three children and his life changes.
Pre-teaching
In the pre-teaching we do an interactive activity in which we have to show trust to the other person. So we're going to divide the children into pairs. One person in each pair gets blindfolded and the other has to guide the person. Then the roles are changed. Afterwards the students explain how they felt while they were blindfolded. The teacher writes their feelings on the blackboard.
In the end we will sit on the floor in a circle and talk about how important it is to trust eachother, and that we as humans need to be with other people.
Teaching
Watch the film Despicable Me. If there's not enough time to watch the whole movie we can watch only certain parts of it.
Post-teaching
In the post-teaching the students can work with the ICT, for example on Glogster.
The children can choose some images and a video from the movie and they can write about it.
There have been interesting activities for this literature course.
Supermarket
How can we teach the different types of fruits to the children?
At the university we spoke about the correct method of teaching English. For teaching the fruits we can make the fruits and the money with colours, papers etc.
Also the teacher must explain the vocabulary that the children need.
The children can imagine that they are in a supermarket. The teacher can divide the children into two groups, one group is the customers and the other group is the cashiers. The customers can ask the cashiers the prices of the different fruits.
Dictionary
At the university we talked about creating a class dictionary. This is a good way for the children to learn and remember the glossary that we are teaching.
If the children are small, we can draw an image and write the word for it. It is a good idea that the children make their own dictionary.
Chocolate cake
I've seen this video in class, This is a simple story, and it is very funny because Michael Rosen who is telling it is very expressive. The story is about a mother who makes a fantastic chocolate cake. At night the child is very hungry, and he eats the chocolate cake. The next morning his mum gets very angry.
I want to share with all of you the book that my teacher recommended in the first class of literature. The book is called 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom. The author of the book is Carol Read.
In the first unit we have read and done interesting activities. In these activities you can learn how to teach the literature in an optimal way, taking into account the age of the learners.
From my perspective the recommended book is ideal for this topic, and in my opinion I would have liked to use the book more.
I think the book is very interesting and we can learn fun methods for teaching literature.
We are going to see a small part of the Monsters University film, because it is a funny film and many children like this film. But before that we are going to look at the emotions.
The following activities are designed for children between 7 and 8 years.
Pre-teaching
The objective is to teach the various types of emotions with the students. The material that we need is emotions or feelings flashcards .
Activity: Guess the emotions
The teacher distributes the flashcards to the students. Each student has a flashcard. The teacher chooses one person and he/she should imitate the image of the flashcard in order for the other teammates to guess the emotion.
With this activity the students can demonstrate their creativity.
Teaching
Now it's time to watch a video. Children must choose a character and watch the different expressions and emotions that appear in the video.
Post-teaching
Finally we can do an interesting activity. The students have to create their own monster!
We can use the Voki web page! (http://www.voki.com/create.php)
The students can choose a monster and they can add a voice, a background etc. They must investigate!
Our objective is that children learn the differents colours of the rainbow.
Pre-teaching
Music is a good way to motivate kids to learn the colours of the rainbow!
This is a song about the rainbow. We can listen and sing the rainbow song.
Teaching
I like this book a lot. It's perfect for 3-year-old children. Ned is the main character. He loves the rainbow. He wears nice rainbow pyjamas! But he is a little sad because he has never seen a rainbow. One day a beautiful rainbow appears. Look it is a rainbow! He is very, very happy.
Ned runs up to the rainbow and he tries to reach the colours but they are too high for him. He is so sad, but the next day he finds a painted rainbow on his bedroom wall. And that makes him happy again.
Post- teaching
For the post-teaching we can paint a rainbow on an image of a t-shirt, and then cut it out of paper.
This story, The Vain Little Mouse, is about a pretty mouse, who meets some animals, but she doesn't like them. In the end she meets a handsome cat but, what will happen?
I have prepared some activities for children of 4 years.
Pre-teaching: The teacher must show the children who are the characters of the story.
For example, she can show different animal toys such as the mouse, the rooster, the dog, the pig, the cat.
The teacher can ask some questions about these animals:
What colour is the mouse?
Is the mouse big or small?
Teaching: It's time for the story: Once upon a time, there was a little mouse who was very vain. One day, the little mouse was sweeping her little house when suddenly she saw something shining on the floor, a gold coin. The little mouse picked it up from the floor and began to think what she would buy with the coin. "I know, I'll buy some sweets, oh no, my teeth will ache. Then I'll buy some cakes, oh no, my tummy will ache, I know I'll buy a pink lace for my tail." The little mouse put the coin in her pocket and went to the market. Once in the market, she asked the shopkeeper for a piece of his best red tape. She bought it and went back home. The following day, when the vain little mouse woke up, she put her lace on her tail and went out onto the balcony of her house. At that moment, a rooster appeared and said to her: "Little mouse, little mouse, you who are so beautiful, would you marry me?" And the little mouse answered:
"I don't know, I don't know. Which noise do you make at night?"
And the rooster said: "cock-a-doole-do." "Oh no, I wont marry you because I don't like the noise that you make." The rooster went and a dog appeared: "Little mouse, little mouse, you who are so beautiful, would you marry me?" And the little mouse told him: "I don't know, I dont know, which noise do you make at night?" "Woof woof" "Oh no, I wont marry you because that noise frightens me." The dog went out and a pig appeared. "Little mouse, little mouse, you who are so beautiful, would you marry me?" And the little mouse said to him: "I don't know, which noise do you make at night?" "Oink, oink." "Oh no, I wont marry you bacause that noise is very rude."
The pig went out and a cat arrived saying to the little mouse: "Little mouse, little mouse, you who are so beautiful, would you marry me?"
And the little mouse said to him: " I don't know, I dont know, which noise do you make at night?" And the cat with a sweet and soft voice told her: "Miaow, miaow." "Oh yes, I'll marry you because your voice is very sweet." So they got married, the vain little mouse and the cat with a sweet voice. The two of them lived happily ever after and that's the end of the story.
Post-teaching: Now we are going to imitate the differents animals:
The teacher says:
"Everybody is on the floor sleeping, and when you wake up, you are going to be a little mouse"
The children must imitate the mouse, its movements, and its sound.
We repeat the activity using other animals, such as a pig, a dog etc.
Hi, In my literature class I told the story of Goldilocks together with some partners.
We decided to change the story a little.We wanted to teach the terminology for the differents parts of the house, the sizes of the objects (small and big) and the description.
Do you know who Goldilocks is?
Goldilocks is a wonderful story about a beautiful little girl, her name is Goldilocks. She finds a house in a forest .But this house belongs to three bears. What will happen?
Pre-teaching. It's the moment of a calm song. So now the children are silent and the three bears appear in the class. They are in their house, daddy bear is in the bedroom because he is very tired and he wants to sleep, mummy bear is in the living room because she is very tired and she wants to rest in a medium chair, and the baby bear is in the kitchen, he is very hungry and he is eating. Daddy bear thinks that it is a bautiful day, and the family decides to go for a walk in the forest. The family goes to the forest.
Actual teaching. Now Goldilocks appears in the class and she enters into the bear's house. She is hungry. and she goes to the kitchen. She tastes the daddy bear's food and it is salty, then she tastes mummy bear's food and it is bitter , but she eats the baby bear's meal because it is very sweet and she loves sweet food.
Goldilocks is tired ans she goes to the living room, because she wants to rest in a chair. But in the living room there are three chairs, a big one, a medium one and a small one. She chooses the smallest chair, but ohhhh the chair is broken!
She is tired! Where should she go? Where can she find a bed to sleep? She can sleep in the bedroom, but in the bedroom there are three beds! Goldilocks chooses the smallest bed.
The tree bears, are very tired and they return to their house. Everybody sings this song:
But when they enter into the kitchen, Baby Bear says: "Oh no, look at my sweet food!" Mummy Bear says, "Oh no, look at my bitter food!" and Daddy Bear says:" Oh no, look at my salty food!" This is a mystery! Then they enter into the living room, and Daddy says: "Look at my big one!", Mummy says: " Look at my middle one!", Baby says: " Look at my small one! It's broken!"
But when they enter into the bedroom, and they see their beds… Baby says: "Stop! Someone is in my bed!"
Hi! I want to share a special story of halloween. The name of the story is Meg and Mog.
Pre-teaching
In this picture you can see interesting words for the story of Meg and Mog
Meg and Mog vocabulary:
Teaching
My partners and I tell the story in a school using shadows! We draw and cut the shape of the characters, animals, and the food. And we create the scene with white and blue sheets.
We tell the story for kids of 3 and 4 years.
Meg and the owl Meg and her friends
Post-teaching:
After the story you can sing and dance to some songs .
I would recomend this song:
Today I am going to speaking about some reflections that I had in the literature classes.
Every person is different and we must be aware that every teacher is different. A teacher has different facets or abilities and it's important to use them in the opportune time. In a class there are many students of different cultures. Each student is unique and all the students form a class.
Nowadays English is very important because the world is very globalized. Learning new languages opens doors of communication and learning.
English is the language we must teach and it is very important that the children learn to listen to it and speak it. The teacher or the parents have to use their voices, gestures and miming.
You can use differents tools:
Songs
Games
Tongue twister
Storytelling
Things to consider:
Create a clear context
Do some activities
Ask children about the activity. They can express their opinions.
We know children love music, this is an important resource for teaching differents matters.
For example, with the song Simon says they can learn the parts of the body.
Another point of learning for the kids is imitation. The teacher or the parents can sing Simon Says and dance because they are important examples for the children.
We can play the song and add other things:
Simon says: "Clap two times"
Simon says: "Clap very quickly"
Simon says: "Clap slowly"
If you have never heard this song, you can watch the following video:
Activity true or false
You can show some flashcards to the children and they have to answer what part of the body it is. The teacher answers "Yes, well done" or "Are you sure"?
The objective of this activity is to confirm that they have learned the vocabulary.
When I think about the meaning of literature I remember one definition of a teacher:
Literature is the art of writing down the experiences, the beliefs and the feelings in a beautiful way.
Years ago when I was a child, I loved to read because I liked the emotion of submerging in the story and I imagined the main characters, the wonderful places etc. Now the feeling is even better than when I was a child.
We must help the children to love literature, because they can travel to magical worlds, and if they read books their imagination grows.
Thanks to the literature, children can learn a lot of vocabulary and improve their empathy, their friendships, their moral values etc.
Hello, I'm Sabina, I am studying for been a teacher in Catholic University. This is the third year of my degree. I have been working in some schools as a chess teacher, here in Valencia.
My hobbies are listening pop music, I like going to the cinema but I don't like horror films. When I have time, I enjoy reading a book. Also in my free time I like swimming. In addiction, I love travelling, when I have enough time. I would like to travel around the world.
This summer I went to Cambridge. It is a beautiful place! I spent four wonderful weeks where I had the chance of meeting a lot of people and their cultures as well.
CASTELLANO
Hola soy Sabina. Estoy estudiando para ser profesora en la Universidad Católica. Este es mi tercer año de mi carrera. He trabajado en algunas escuelas como profesora de ajedrez, aquí en Valencia.
Mis aficiones son escuchar música pop, me gusta ir al cine pero no me gustan las películas de miedo. Cuando tengo tiempo disfruto leyendo un libro.También en mi tiempo libre me gusta nadar. Además cuando tengo tiempo suficiente me encanta viajar. Me gustaría viajar por todo el mundo.
Este verano he ido a Cambridge. ¡Es un lugar bonito! He pasado cuatro maravillosas semanas donde he tenido la oportunidad de conocer a mucha gente y sus culturas también.
VALENCIÀ
Hola soc Sabina. Estic estudiant per a ser professora en la Universitat Católica. Aquest es el meu tercer any de carrera. He treballat en alguns col·legis com a professora d'escacs, açí en Valencia.
Les meues aficions són escoltar música pop, m'agrada anar al cine pero no m'agraden les pel.lícules de por. Quan tinc temps m'encanta viatjar. M'agradaría viajar per tot el món.
Aquest estiu he anat a Cambridge. És un lloc bonico! Jo he pasat quatre meravelloses setmanes aon he tingut l'oportunitat de conèixer a molta gent i a les seues cultures també.
