3.WALNUT TREE
Nogueira
Group 4 (9-11 year olds)
Hi teacher!
Welcome to Walnut Tree, our third cycle.
New cycle, new objectives!
Take a few minutes to read and internalize the objectives of this cycle as they are the fundamental guidelines that should structure your teaching practices.
Vamos juntos!
THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS CYCLE ARE:
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Begin to show understanding and refer to words and concepts in English.
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Interact with peers as a group response to the teacher's interventions
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Demonstrate trust in the relationship with the teacher and peers by experimenting with the language.
When you see that there is progress in these areas, you can move on to the next cycle. Check the rubric that will help you know if the group is ready to move forward!
WE SUGGEST YOU CHECK THE EVIDENCES WITH WHICH YOU WILL OBSERVE IF YOUR STUDENTS HAVE ACHIEVED THESE OBJECTIVES
CLASS PLAN
2. NARRATIVE
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Always try to generate curiosity in your students by eliciting from them any kind of speculation; and when reading with them, make sure you use your body language so that meaning is clear.
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The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they’ve heard or seen.
My class is 25 to 30 minutes long!
We know that some schools work with more frequent and shorter English classes of 25 to 30 minutes. In those cases, we suggest you follow this shortened plan of activities.
To ask your students about the video experiences (jornadas), ask them how they did them, if they are liking them so far, which were their favorites, etc.
Remember
1. STARTING SONG
To start this new cycle we will turn to our starting song. Probably for this moment, the children will already know some parts of the lyrics. Encourage them to repeat the slogans that the song proposes!
Also, you should not forget that in this song the children must run the benches to the sides to free the centre of the classroom and take off their shoes.
Lyrics
If your friends are in the classroom, say hello
If you see your teacher smiling, show your teeth
If you want to show your feelings, give a hug
If you feel like being silly, make some noise
If you want to get together, make some room
Let your heart feel so much better, make some room
Let’s get ready for Vivadi
Let’s have some fun and play with english in our world
Let’s get ready for Vivadi
We are all in this together
We’ll do it you and me
We’ll be a big great family
2. NARRATIVE
After the starting song, you will introduce the narrative moment
In this cycle, the narrative will be comic strips. We will be constantly referring back to it in our activities.
The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they've heard or seen.
You may either print the comic strips and put them up on the classroom wall as a gallery for students to read, or project them on the screen for them to read as a class.
COMIC STRIP:
False Knees
While you project the comic strip, ask students questions such as:
• What is this about?
• Who are the main characters of this comic strip?
• How are they usually feeling?
Strange Planet: About Life
Into the comic: Strange Planet is a collection of cartoons that pokes fun at various aspects of human life through the eyes of aliens. They are very formal, always using sophisticated language to refer to simple things.
While showing each comic strip, ask students questions such as:
• What is this about? Can you explain what happened?
• What can you say about their language?
• Can you think of a simpler way of saying some of those things? (e.g. sounds that affect my emotions = songs / the melody machine = the alarm clock)
COMICS:
Deep Dark Fears I
Deep Dark Fears II
Into the comic: “We all have strange, irrational fears from seeing ghosts in the bedroom mirror to being sucked into a mall escalator. Deep Dark Fears explores our hilarious and bizarre anxieties, revealing a primal part of our humanity and highlighting our similarities.”
While you are showing the strips (or afterward), ask students questions such as:
• What are the strips about?
• What kind of fears are those?
• Have you ever felt that particular fear? Or something similar?
• What are your deep dark fears?
Strange Planet: About Cats
While showing each comic strip, ask students questions such as:
• What is this about? Can you explain what happened?
• Who are the main characters of this comic strip? How do they act and speak?
• What would you say is the point of Strange Planet? (Refer to the “Into the comic”)
MORE STORYTELLING OPTIONS
Keeping up with the content topic, the next activity is reading a story that relates to it. We remind you that, even if you have audio-visual support, your body language is key to make children understand the meaning of the story and also make it more engaging to them.
You can choose between these options and don't forget how important repetition is. The order you pick the story is not important, as long as you use it more than once.
Pre reading
Before you start reading or telling the story, use the strategy: THINK-PAIR-SHARE to introduce the topic and pique their curiosity:
Ask students a thought-provoking question: What are you most afraid of and why?
Give students some time to think on their own and prepare their answer.
Have students share their thoughts with a partner; this gives them the chance to share their view with another student and hear a different answer. If they get confused, the students can ask their peers for help.
Finally, ask each pair to share thoughts with the whole group, which serves as a form of accountability for the whole class.
"It's scary to be vulnerable"
Everybody is afraid of something, including celebrities and experienced artists. Some may have fear of something that's unlikely to cause harm: fear of darkness, fear of flying, fear of clowns etc. Click on the link below and find out how some famous people overcame their fears: Overcoming fear: Celebs share inspiring stories about overcoming fear.
After watching the videos, students should choose one of the stories. Group the students according to the artist they picked. They should answer the following questions:
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What does this artist do?
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Do you know any other songs or movies by him/her?
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What is the artist's fear?
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Are you also afraid of it?
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How does he/she deal with his/her fears? How would you react in similar situations?
Pre reading
It is normal to feel scared and vulnerable, but sometimes this feeling can become overwhelming.
In pairs, ask the students to think about something they were afraid of but now they aren’t afraid anymore. Suggest that they use the following sentence starters:
I was afraid of the dark, but now I can…
I was afraid of ghosts, but now I can…
I was afraid of horror movies, but now I can…
I was afraid of monsters, but now I can…
I was afraid of vaccines, but now I can...
I was afraid of not being accepted by my friends, but now I Know…
Ask them to illustrate one of the situations above with a drawing. After that, they will show it to a friend and he/she has to discover what kind of fear the drawing is representing.
Reading
"I´m not afraid" by Mini Shrinivasan
Illustrated by Rayika Sen
Vocabulary:
face a fear - draw water - the well - footsteps - fields
Discussion:
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How is the girl feeling?
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Was the girl afraid of anything? What?
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How do you face your fears?
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What can we do to face our fears?
3. ACTIVITIES
After the discussion, the students will do the following activities that are inspired by the narrative (the comic strips). Choose the activities that correspond to the narrative you just read.
ACTIVITIES
Inspired by Deep Dark Fears
Game: Have You Ever Felt Fear?
Materials: Fears
How to play:
Using a tape, draw a line on the floor so that the class is split in two. Ask students to stay on the line for the beginning of the game. In the document there are 10 examples of fears. Read each of the situations that are in the document, asking them Have you ever felt that fear?.
The left of the line means yes, the right means no, and the line itself means kind of. If the student has or has not felt that fear before, s/he should move to the according side; students that have felt something that reminds them of that fear, they should stay on the line, and the teacher may ask a volunteer to tell that somehow similar fear.
The rest of the students are invited to comment on that particular fear as well.
Game: Creating a Personal Comic Strip
How: Tell students they are going to get together into pairs to create their own Deep Dark Fear to present to the class. They must first find a fear they have in common and then decide on a comic strip that follows the original style (four quadrants, dark and humorous). When the comic strip is ready, they will orally present it to the class.
Students will probably need more than a class to finish this task. Depending on the group, you may split the activity into 3 steps: planning → preparation → presentation, and do them according to the time available.
Online: This activity works the same way online. Just put the students into small groups in a breakout room.
ACTIVITIES
Inspired by False Knees
Game: How many people in my class have that same fear
Material: Survey sheet
How: Print one sheet for each student before class starts. Tell students to think about one fear they have and put that on the sheet. Students should move around the classroom interviewing their classmates and marking “yes” or “no” on their sheets. When everybody has been interviewed, they must count the number of people in the class that share their fears.
Suggestion: Invite some students to comment on the weirdest fears they heard about during the survey.
Online variation: Instead of moving around the classroom, each student can alternate asking one of the fears to the whole class. The students that have that fear must give a thumbs up.
Game: Reinventing a comic strip
Materials: Printable
How: Print the images before the class. This activity may be done in pairs, trios, or larger groups; and you may decide on the same comic strip for every group or to let them choose the one they want to work on. Each group will receive a comic strip with the end blank. Their job is to reinvent the ending of the story -- either by following the same idea, or trying something completely different. Motivate them to use their creativity and imagination!
When the reinvented comic strips are ready, you may put them up as a gallery outside of the classroom, so that other grade students may also enjoy them, creating an English environment around the school.
Online variation: The activity works the same way except that you cannot do the gallery.
ACTIVITIES
Inspired by Strange Planet
Game: Reinventing a comic strip
Materials: Posters
How: Put students into teams and give them the life-lesson posters. They must crack the code of their language and translate the popular sayings into simpler language.
Answer key:
1. No pain, no gain.
2. And they lived happily ever after.
3. Trick or treat.
4. Teacher.
5. Who is a good boy?
6. Live. Laugh. Love.
Online variation: Put students into breakout rooms and follow the activity.
BRAIN BREAK
It's time to stop and focus on an action to be able to continue with the class.
These short breaks are essential to renew the kids' energy and be more prepared for what follows.
You can use this resource at any time during the class if you think it's necessary.
10 Seconds Object
This activity gets students using their bodies to create freeze frames (like a real life frozen image) that depict an object or a situation. Use this activity to talk about how we can communicate meaning through movement. Break students into small groups and call out an object or scenario (such as the North Pole, peacock, at the beach, washing machine etc.). Count down from ten to zero. While you are counting down, students have to create the object, character or situation using their bodies. When you reach zero, shout “Freeze!”! Give each group a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on if they have represented the stimulus in a way that makes sense. Continue, keeping the pace up to ensure students are engaged and thinking on their feet! You can decide on a “scoring” method that feels right for you (such as giving scores out of ten or choosing one winner per round), or you may prefer not to “score” at all, and just use the activity as a confidence and group awareness building exercise.
As they understand the game, create a way that one team gives the theme to the other. They can write down themes and the teacher draws them, or just let one team choose the other’s theme.
Ribbon of a Sound
Stand everyone spaced out in a circle and pick one child to make a sound. The next person will mimic this sound and it’ll travel around the circle, one child after the other. Once you’ve completed a full circuit, the next child will then make a different sound that’ll travel around the circle in the same way. You can repeat the exercise until everyone has started a circuit. It’s a great way to energise your class. When you feel they’re ready, you can change the sound for a word or a sentence.
Mirroring
Organize the childrens in pairs. Pick a leader in the pair and face each other. Whatever the leader does, the other child has to replicate. It could be speaking, acting out a character or subtle body language. After a few minutes, swap over. This is an easy way to practise focus and observation. You can suggest a theme or a place to guide the brain break, such as: my body, my bedroom, things I like/dislike… After a while you can add sounds to the game.
Lie about how you got here
The students sit in a circle, and one by one each student lies about how they got to class. This could be by flying car, unicorn, or time travel. Anything goes in this exercise. Encourage students to really tell a story and give detail. A good option is to set a time for each student to speak. After a while they can control each other's time.
4. MOVE YOUR
HIPS!
Use the Sing Along activities when you feel that the students are too distracted or have been seated for too long. The idea is to break the structure by having the students sing along or dance (whichever works best for your class). Children will probably need to loosen up a bit by now, as they have been sitting for quite a while. There's two playlists: one for choreography, where the students can follow along and another for free dance where they can sing along and move freely. You can choose a song from the suggested playlists.
ARE YOU UP FOR A CHALLENGE?
Print these flashcards of movements and put them in a bag. While the song is playing, the children can pass the bag, take out a card, show the choreographic step to the rest and let the others copy it.
5. HARMONY
Remember to begin this space by playing relaxing music.
Probably by now, the children will already associate this music with Harmony Time, so go ahead and set the mood with our relaxing playlist:
While the music plays in the background,
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ASANAS
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GROUP ASANA
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SWARA
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SAVASANA
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ANJALI
1. ASANA
To start with the harmony practice, encourage the children to copy the following postures.
Tip: make it a game! Play with the kids to make them copy the posture. You can ask them to freeze and evaluate their postures!
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Bee
Sitting on the floor, place your feet together with the soles touching each other. Grab your feet with your hands and let your knees fall towards the floor. Let your hips open up like the wings of a bee.
Tree
Take a moment to feel both your feet root into the floor with your weight distributed equally on every part of each foot. Imagine you are tree and your roots are spreading through the soil beneath you.
Begin to shift your weight into your right foot, lifting your left foot off the floor.
Keep your right leg straight but don't lock the knee. Bend your left knee and bring the sole of your left foot high onto your inner right thigh. If you feel you can’t do this, you could try bringing the sole of your left foot onto a lower part of your right leg.
Stay a few breathes, and repeat with the left side.
Rabbit face
2. GROUP ASANA
This ASANA segment of Harmony Time involves a group posture.
Gather the children together and ask them to sit in a circle again. They will have to massage the head of the one who’s next to them.
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3. SWARA
BELLY BREATHING
Children should be lying in the floor in a comfortable and easy position for them. Tell them to remember to breath by the nose. They should put their hands on their tummies and try to expand their bellies when they breath in.
4. SAVASANA (guided relaxation)
Lying face up, with closed eyes.
The teacher puts a song that will repeat throughout all the classes of this cycle. This will give the students confidence as when they listen to this song, they will know what they will have to do. The aim of this moment is that they stay still and just listen to the song.
You can encourage them to forget that they are at school, in the classroom, and suggest them to think in another thing or place that they know like for example, their bedrooms.
5. ANJALI
Children sit on their knees and they bring their palms together and near their chests.
The idea is that you look at the children and the incentives that they also say "Thank you".
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8. ENDING SONG
Lyrics
If you enjoyed our time together, sing along
If you can’t wait for next class, high five!
To get ready for what follows, tidy up
See you next time dear teacher, good bye!
It’s not goodbye with Vivadi
The things I learnt today will always stay in me
It’s not goodbye with Vivadi
We are all in this together
We’ll do it you and me
We’ll be a big great family
To remind your students to access the platform and do the jornadas.
Don't forget