Fun English Classes

Two different Year 2 classes at SJK(C) Sungai Jan

The Year 2 classes at SJK(C) Sungai Jan have been a lot of fun. This week, Tan lee Lee asked all the students to bring in lanterns to add some relevance to the new text book unit they are starting on festivals in Malaysia. There were lots of lanterns and also lots of discussion about holidays, and which ones we like best; the pupils overwhelmingly chose Chinese New Year because of the money gifts they receive, but the upcoming Moon Cake festival was a popular second choice!

A lot of fun.

Lanterns

Meanwhile, Teacher Tan Yit Peng introduced the cat family puppets from the cut out craft section at the back of the pupils' text book. The teacher and mentor joined forces to act out the story of the naughty kittens and their missing mittens, and the children joined in with puppet games of their own.

Pupils making their own puppet show.

Puppetry

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Content-based English lessons

An interview with Khairizani Bt Jantan at SK Tembeling

Talking about content-based teaching

JINKS: The fruit salad activity is in the Year 3 book; have you made a fruit salad with Year 3 pupils before?
KHAIRI: No, never. This was the first time.
JINKS: I know you have done other activities with the class, though. I remember a lesson where pupils wrote their own restaurant menus. They loved that.
KHAIRI: Yes. Before we made the salad, in the previous lesson, I asked them to make a list of things they needed for a fruit salad party. They really enjoyed doing that as well. I also use a lot of activities in the mathematics class. The children like measuring things, and weighing them as well. They really, really enjoy it.
JINKS: How do you control such a lively class?
KHAIRI: They are sometimes quite difficult to control, so for the fruit salad party I put them into groups, quite big groups. I made one person the chef for each group.
JINKS: I noticed that the language focus was also quite strong, even though it was a content-based lesson.
KHAIRI: Yes. The written instructions give structure. They didn't have to write everything down, but some pupils could take notes in their own words. Not everyone could be the chef in the class, so the others say they are going to make a fruit salad at home.
JINKS: They enjoyed it that much!

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Fruit Salad

Making a fruit salad in the Year 3 English class

Teacher Khairi at SK Kuala Tembeling asked all the pupils in her Year 3 English class to each bring in one piece of fruit for Friday's class. The children were very excited about making a fruit salad, and most pupils remembered to bring some fruit. The children were quite difficult to control, but Teacher Khairi is very experienced and she managed to keep them at their tables (more or less!), and focused on the task at hand. More importantly, the teacher managed to keep the language component at the forefront of this fun activity. As well as following the instructions in the Year 3 book, Teacher Khairi also wrote a script on the board. Each table nominated a chef to do the work, and every chef had to perform the instructions while saying aloud what he or she is doing. Everyone wanted to be the chef. After everyone followed the step-by-step instructions, the whole class enjoyed the fruits of their labours by eating the fruit salads.

It was a fun activity, but the language focus was always at the forefront.

Pick me!

This group skipped a step and did not peel the fruit.
When they realised their mistake they went back and fixed it up.

Not all the fruit made it into the salad bowl.

Concentrating on the task at hand

The best part!

Not much left.

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Books for Today's Young Learners

Hello Ruby

Goldilocks teaches children not to wander off into the woods or enter strangers' houses, and Snow White teaches them not to accept fruit from old women in the forest. On a more practical level other children's books teach literacy, numeracy and understanding the world around us. This book by Linda Liukas teaches young children how to write code.

Hello Ruby by Linda Liukas

Check it out. It's fantastic!

Hari Raya Celebrations

At SKs Teh and Kuala Tembeling

Teachers and staff put in a lot of effort to give the pupils a party when they come back to school after the Raya holiday. Here are some pictures from recent school visits.

SK Kuala Tembeling

Children lining up for some Raya treats.

Colouring-in competition for the Level 1 pupils.

Teachers all worked in food booths.

SK Teh

Everybody looks grand in their holiday clothes.

The boys from the silat group pose by the cookies.

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Group work at SK Jerantut Jaya

Building Words with Year 1 Pupils at SKJJ

Teacher Faraliza used a series of 'jig-saw' letters in a group work activity designed to engage the pupils in a spelling and vocabulary task. Each group received two alphabet sets and they were just told to make words. Some students in some groups were more focused than others. After ten minutes or so, the mentor wrote the class group names on the board and the teacher told the pupils to write down their words and to try and make more words than the other groups. Now we started to see a lot more engagement from a lot more pupils. We counted up the words each group had made and added the tally to their group name on the chalk board. Next, Teacher Fara told the students they would get points for the longest words they could make; engagement reached a high point as pupils flicked through their books to find long words. The teacher and mentor moved around the groups giving hints ('What day is it today? "Tuesday"? That's a long word, isn't it'. / 'If you add an 's' that makes a new, longer word, doesn't it'). It was interesting to see the children pulling out a wide range of words from their own vocabularies, and watching them make word associations as their friends' suggestions reminded them of other English words they knew.

Team work is more effective when
everyone has a clearly defined role.

Working together is fun.

Some pupils built more than just words.
The teacher and mentor both encouraged
this boy's creativity, even if it was not a
part of the lesson plan.

Some pupils preferred to work alone - and that was OK.

Solo work can produce great results, too.

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)