Kindergarten

I was trying to figure out how I wanted to work with the 2-5 year-olds. At the moment I am only with them one day a week and it sounds like I will be rotating from classroom to classroom every two weeks. 

The first day I visited the students wanted to see where I was from on the huge map on their wall. I showed them and explained how I got from my home to their school. One of the teachers helped translate! Then the kids started pointing to the hundreds of pictures on their map (representing different states, countries, landmarks  and such). They wanted to know what the English words were for each picture. I think we went through 40-50 pictures before we had to transition. 

I decided to use this eagerness and interest and use it to my advantage. With the limited supplies I had in Norway I created these animal flash cards:

On Monday, October 28th I was sitting at the table with a group of 4-5 year olds. I couldn't understand everything they were talking about but I did hear one child make a monkey sound. I asked the teacher, “Monkey?” She confirmed they were talking about monkeys. I decided this would be a great opportunity to introduce the animal cards. I already had the animal flashcards in my pocket. I pulled them out and found the monkey card. The minute I took them out of my pocket the kids were so intrigued. They weren't quite sure what I was doing but loved the animal drawings. 

I showed the monkey to the kid and said, “Monkey.” He laughed and said monkey in Norwegian. 

He then wanted to look at all the pictures, as did the rest of the table. I started showing the animal cards around the table and had them repeat the animal name. They loved it so much they had me do it over and over again.

Awhile later during free choice I showed the cards to a few students who decided to work on the words again. They helped me try to say the Norwegian words. I think my confidence but my inability to say the words gave one of the five-year-olds the courage to try to say the English words. He sat with me and said both Norwegian and English words for each of the animals. I’m curious to see if this will continue at a later date. 

I think the children find it very interesting. I just feel like only visiting them once a week isn't going to give them the practice they need to really learn the words before I leave. Maybe instead of worrying about them learning English words I should focus more on them just speaking English when we do these activities. For most of these students it could be the first English they've been exposed to. Some are only two-years-old! 

For now I am going to continue what I am doing and change it with the interests of the children. If they get bored then I'm going to try another activity with animals or maybe to transportation cards instead! I get to spend time with them tomorrow morning, maybe this will help me decide!

Well, this is another long post. It's time to quit typing!

Once again, tusen takk!