TEACHING KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS:
‘THE IMPORTANCE OF MAGIC IN THE CLASSROOM’
I am a kindergarten teacher and I must say that everything I know I have learnt through watching kids, mine at home
and “my other kids” in class.
Playing is learning for them and it is well known that kids like to pretend, their world is a world of make-belief,
and the classroom should not be an exception.
How do I put this into practice? By waving my magic wand....
Once I decided to take a magic wand to class and
the results were incredible!
I started using it for different purposes:
- To calm them down either before starting the class or once it is over. As I teach very large classes (an average of 35 students in a class) sometimes it is difficult to catch their attention, or , after an activity I do not want to leave them overexcited so I play the song “Twinkle little star” and I softly touch their heads with the wand . The result: everybody quietly waits for his/her turn.
- On rainy days if I want to teach them the song “Rain, go away”, I tell them that if they help me sing the song and we wave the wand it may stop raining. Imagine their faces if after singing, it happens to stop raining....
- To teach them colours other than the primary ones. They watch me mix different coloured dough and together with my wand I perform the trick. Afterwards I give them dough and they do it themselves using the magic words...isn´t that to use the language in a natural context?
Kids are curious, they have to discover things, that´s what it´s all about...
So remember to get them involved with all their senses as they need not only to sing but to touch, to smell , to move...to discover the world around them ,in English too, why not?
You are a fairy godmother! Take that into account before stepping into the classroom.
Nora Vitale