Practising vocabulary with Young Learners- tips for Parents and Teachers.

Age group

While teaching vocabulary it is important to remember about the age of a child. In the case of pre-primary children it is advisible to choose words which are not abstract, for instance adjectives which cannot be shown by gestures like feelings or emotions. It is strictly connected with child’s cognitive development. Secondly, chosen words should relate to everyday life of child. Here, good examples are: toys, clothes, animals, vegetables, colors, parts of body or  family members. Thirdly, because of the fact that children learn fast but, unfortunately, forget as quick as they learn it is relevant to provide as many repetitions as possible using different kinds of activities and contexts. Additionally, it is useful to present new vocabulary using chant, song or story because in this way children remember new words better. Another way to teach vocabulary is practising words by allowing children to express themselves as artists by drawing, coloring, making art. and  craft activities and naming what they made. What is more, practising new words by miming and acting out simplified dialogues and situations taken out from life is effective, as well.

How to do it?- Techniques for practising vocabulary

There are many easy techniques to teach vocabulary and play at the same time. The most popular are: 

1. „What’s missing?”- flashcards (or real objects) lay in a row. Children try to remember them. Teacher asks children to close their eyes and takes away one or two of them.

2. Guessing game- e.g. miming, a child shows a noun like animals or occupation and the rest of learners try to guess.

3. Giving instructions- the easiest game is „Simon says”- one person says what to do and the rest do it. A person who makes a mistake is out of game. The last child wins.

4. Picture dictation- a teacher gives the instructions, for example: „draw a big cat, small dog and huge house…”

5. Colouring dictation- a teacher gives handouts with outlines (it can be animals, toys, fruits and so on) and asks children to color them using particular colors, for instance: :”Color the apple green and the pear yellow”

6. Memory games like well- known Chinese whispers (głuchy telefon) or market game: one person starts the sentence „I went to the shop and I bought…”. Then the next person task is repeating the sentence from the beginning and adding one noun.

Voabulary revision/consolodation techniques

As mentioned before, revisions of vocabulary and recycling (which appears when the teacher revises the language material and presents it in a new context, extending it) are extremely important due to the fact that children forget new items very easily. Equally significant is the topic and ther word class.
Below several easy to do activities are presented:

1. Collages- pictures connected with one topic are displayed in the classroom as a kind of revision

2. Topical word competitions- in this activity the child who provides the longest list of words in one topic wins.

3. Picture dictionaries- learners make their own dictionaries, drawing or pasting pictures of words they learnt. It is a good source while revising material.

4. Word families- this technique is similar to picture dictionaries (they are collection of words), however, organized according to the themes.

5. Vocabulary cards- children make cards with a picture, written form and a sentence with this item (this technique is useful with older children).

To sum up, it is very important to remember about regularity considering child’s remembering ability. Equally relevant is selection of voabulary. Both teachers and parents should remember that the most effective way to pratise vocabulary is through play and pique child’s interest.



Autor: Joanna

absolwentką studiów licencjackich Karkonoskiej Szkoły Wyższej na kierunku: Filologia Angielska oraz studiów magisterskich na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim na kierunku: Pedagogika;  specjalność: Wczesne Nauczanie Języka Angielskiego.

Play with… mathematic

Learning mathematic is first of all about seeing the logic and relationships in the world that surrounds us. Enhancing this ability helps children to develop in all fields of everyday life and education. In this article I would like to present how you can teach your child while playing and both having fun. 

Practice of mathematical skills can be very easy if only you learn how to notice the opportunities during each day. Some parents do it intuitively for example by counting the stair, counting the birds on a fence or explaining the sequences like day and night, seasons, months or teaching the correct order of numbers and letters while singing or chanting. 

While playing with my group of 4-year-olds I love to use all the possibilities to teach them many mathematical skills. One of examples can be categorizing. No matter if we play with cars or dolls. All kinds of toys are great to practice it. Divide the toys into small and big, soft and hard, groups of different colours. Involve your child it this process and ask him or her to fetch something that is... e.g. round. Ask kids what other difference they see. It might be very interesting because children see it in much more creative way. So remember not to criticise them even if their way of thinking is different than yours. Later on you can compare them and put in a row starting with the biggest and finishing with the smallest.  Or with the lightest colour and finishing with the darkest. There are many possibilities to do it, depending on what you play with. Comparing practice sensitiveness of perception in all fields.

          

One of my favourite activities is putting the objects, no matter what it is, in a sequence. It doesn’t have to be toys. You can use buttons, cutlery, fruits or anything you have by our side.  With young children start with some simple examples. In the beginning introduce a pattern made of two types of objects (e.g. banana-apple-banana-apple). The task for your child is to recognise the pattern and complete it by adding next objects in the proper order. At first name aloud used object. Thanks this the kid not only sees the pattern but also hears it. Children can also touch the objects for better kinaesthetic perception. Progressively make the patterns more and more difficult by adding more types of objects and mixing them in a different way (e.g. blue-red-red-green-... block or spoon-spoon-fork-knife-...). Each time make it more challenging. After some time let your child set the pattern for you. It will provide him or her a lot of fun. You can pretend that it’s very difficult for you and ask for help. Let your child also explain the set patterns. It will show you the way of thinking. Remember to praise your child. Don’t practice setting the patterns for too long. It will discourage your offspring and won’t be exciting for her or him anymore. 

Noticing patterns in very important ability in everyday life. It helps children to develop their logical thinking and seeing them in everything that surrounds us (e.g. coats of animals such as tigers and zebras, cycle of day and night or 5 days of going to the kindergarten and free weekend, setting the table). By practicing and showing different patterns you will be amazed how fast your child will find them alone. 

Autor: Anna

Absolwentka studiów licencjackich Pedagogika Przedszkolna i Wczesnoszkolna oraz studiów magisterskich ze specjalizacją Wczesne Nauczanie Języka Angielskiego na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim.

Ratunku, moje dziecko przeklina!

Niestety- chcemy tego czy nie przekleństwa są na porządku dziennym i wiele dzieci już w przedszkolu zaczyna je powtarzać. Mogą usłyszeć  je np. w telewizji , od rodziców, rodzeństwa lub kolegów w przedszkolu.

Jeżeli jest to incydent, można go zbagatelizować, co nie znaczy nic nie robić. Należy wytłumaczyć dziecku, że takie słowo jest bardzo brzydkie i nie chcemy żeby tak więcej mówiło. Nie należy jednak poświęcać takiemu zdarzeniu  zbyt dużo uwagi, aby nie stało się dla dziecka jeszcze bardziej atrakcyjne.

Co jednak zrobić jeśli to weszło dziecku w nawyk i często lub wręcz codziennie używa przekleństw?

Nauczyciel z pewnością powinien  porozmawiać z rodzicami, żeby dowiedzieć się czy w domu również dziecko odzywa się w taki sposób, czy dzieje się to wyłącznie w przedszkolu. W każdym przypadku ważna jest ścisła współpraca – rodzice powinni kontrolować programy i filmy, które ogląda przedszkolak, gdyż dziecko często bezrefleksyjnie powtarza wszystko i nie widzi nic złego w danym słowie, gdyż nie zna jego znaczenia. Jeżeli usłyszy takie słowo od rodzica lub innej dorosłej osoby, powinniśmy  umieć przyznać się do błędu, a nawet przeprosić- przepraszam, jestem zdenerwowana/y, nie powinienem/ powinnam tak mówić. 

Często bagatelizujemy zdanie i uczucia dziecka, a to naprawdę ważne, aby wiedziało że dorosły liczy się z jego zdaniem i też może się mylić.  W niczym nie osłabi to naszego autorytetu, a dziecko nie będzie miało poczucia niesprawiedliwości, że tata, mama, ciocia/babcia mogą tak mówić a ono dostaje za to karę. Można również wprowadzić w rodzinie jakieś zastępcze słowa, które będą przez wszystkich akceptowane i używane w chwilach np. silnego wzburzenia.

Bardzo ważna jest też konsekwencja- jeżeli jeden raz śmiejemy się z przeklinającego brzdąca następnym razem go za to karamy, tak naprawdę dziecko nie wie czy postępuje słusznie, nie ma jasnego komunikatu.

5 places where all parents should take their children to.

As a teacher, I have to confirm that, what children have experience at this age has a huge influence on their mental development and knowledge. In the first years of life mainly parents are the ones who are responsible for sharing information and broadening the child’s mind. Kids who have a great cognisance are regarded as smart and clever, what additionally helps them to develop their self-confidence and socials skills. A child’s knowledge is based on this what his or her parents know and pass their offspring. That’s why I strongly recommend both mothers and fathers, to use every possibility to talk about and explain everything that surrounds their child. 

This introduction was necessary to go forward to the main point of the article. I would like to present 5 places where you, as a parent, should take your child to boost his or her knowledge and spent some time together. But to provide it there is a need of engagement from your side and… a lot of explanation, to share all you know and to give your child an opportunity to gain from all these experiences. 

1) A library

Reading books is one of the best ways of acquainting knowledge. This is a well-known fact for everybody. But nowadays when people tend to read less and don’t buy so many books, there are children for whom written stories simply do not exist. I won’t start giving you examples of advantages of reading books to children. What a great value it has is obvious to the majority. That’s why you can double the benefit of introducing the world of volumes by going to a library. To many it is a magic world where books rule and where you can find anything that might interest you. No matter what it is. Additionally the whole procedure of borrowing a book is very interesting and exciting for children. They like to count how many books they have already read and that encourages them to borrow, read and know more. That is why I recommend you to visit that place and fossick for all the great knowledge and imagination which is hidden between the pages. 

2) A museum 

You might think that museum is not an interesting place for children in kindergarten age. But I can surprise you and ensure you that there is nothing further from the truth. Of course there are some kind of museums where your child will get bored very fast but knowing your offspring good enough to estimate what can interest her or him, you can visit those places without any concerns. Some museums offer special exhibitions for children, where they can not only see the exhibit but also they can take part in different attractions prepared specially for them. 

Below I present a list of 5 museums which I recommend you to visit with your child:

- National Museum in Warsaw 

http://www.mnw.art.pl/edukacja/dzieci-rodziny/

- National Museum of Ethnography in Warsaw 

http://www.muzeumdladzieci.pl/warsztaty.html

- The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Sochaczew and The Railway Museum in Warsaw

http://www.muzkol.pl/pl

- The Museum of Hunting and Horsemanship

http://www.muzeum.warszawa.pl

- The Museum of Technology and Industry

http://mtip.pl/

This is of course just some examples of places you can visit. But in Warsaw and other places you can find a lot of different interesting museums which are worth to see. 

3) A zoo

A zoo is a great place not only to get to know different species but also to practice counting, categorizing and naming the colours, parts of the body or even to talk about different places of the world. Additionally it’s time spent outside while walking or even running. What’s more it promotes the awareness by educating people on how to protect animals that face extinction. Going to the zoo is also a good opportunity to talk how to treat animals and how to behave while being near to them. 

4) A theatre 

Going to the theatre develops an appreciation for the arts. Theatre and drama enable children to recognise and express themselves physically and emotionally in a healthy manner. It is also a great possibility to expose them to tales of different cultures, historical events and traditions. Performance arts, through the development of the imagination, promote also creative thinking. Furthermore it can be a valuable time spent together. While going to the theatre you can teach your child how to dress up properly, how to behave during the play and explain the role of actors. 

In Warsaw there are many different theatres where you can go with your child. Below I enclose the listing of recommended theatres: 

- The Theatre of the Little Spectator

http://www.teatrmalegowidza.pl/ 

- The Rampa Theatre 

http://www.teatr-rampa.pl/spektakle/spektakle-dla-najmlodszych 

Ř The Lalka Theatre 

http://www.teatrlalka.waw.pl/

- The Maskarada Theatre 

http://www.maskarada.waw.pl/

- The Baj Theatre 

http://www.teatrbaj.waw.pl/ 

5) A forest 

If you have a forest near your place, a trip there is one of the easiest way of spending family time. You don’t need to spend money to go there or buy a ticket. A walk to the wood provides you a great opportunity to relax, have time to speak with your child and focus on tightening the bonds between you and your relatives. In addition you have a chance to educate not only your child but also yourself  :) . Take with you a nature atlas and play checking the names of different species of trees, plants, birds and other wild animals. Pick up leaves and make a collage or make them dry by putting them in a book and collect them. Later on you can play recognizing the species of trees guessing from the shapes of the leaves. 

I hope those ideas convinced you to visit some places you would think are not for your child. Remember that children in kindergarten age acquire a lot of information and are able to understand much more than you expect. The only barrier is their ability to express their knowledge and combine it with this what they already know. 

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Autor: Anna

Absolwentka studiów licencjackich Pedagogika Przedszkolna i Wczesnoszkolna oraz studiów magisterskich ze specjalizacją Wczesne Nauczanie Języka Angielskiego na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim.