I'm lovin' it :)

Yes, you read right.It's Mc Donald's' motto. Nowadays, this motto surrounded me. I love my job. It was always a great pleasure but my baby girl helped me to realize it again and again. After having taught many different children, now I'm teaching my own baby. Even the very basic things that we do automatically is a hard job for her and something to learn one by one. Catching an object, holding, pushing, pulling, sleeping and many other things. I'm her first playmate and she loves this much. Whenever she sees me holding a toy, she knows that we're gonna have fun, she shakes her arms and legs with excitement. The last game we played was "Jack in the can". I punched a hole inside a paper cup  and stuck a finger puppet on a pencil so it can go up and down, inside and outside the glass. First, I introduced her the materials, they met each other :) and then we started playing. I showed Jack the rabbit and pulled it inside the paper cup, then I said "in the can, Jack in the can, Jack is in the can", pushed it up suddenly when I want Jack in the can greet my baby. The aim of this game is to give object permanence. Now, she thinks that if she can't see the object it gets lost, She doesn't know that it's still there. This game teaches her to think that Jack the Rabbit still exists, it's just inside the can, that's why she can't see it. Whenever she gets this idea, she can understand that I'm not leaving her  when I change a room. 

6 months old babies become more observant and attuned to the notion of cause and effect, they become fascinated by light switches, TV remotes, and other things that seem like powerful agents of change.Cater to that fascination by showing your baby how certain actions bring certain results. It's very easy to play, you just need common household items.Start with simple changes: Open and close a cabinet door or dresser drawer, then turn a light switch on and off (besides on/off, this demonstrates light versus dark).

Then branch out into more active scenarios: Roll a ball across the floor to your baby or put a stuffed animal at the edge of the table, then push it off onto the chair. Even encouraging her to ring the bell will work.

You can find more games on www. babycenter.com

Always remember that every child/baby has its own pace, so if your baby doesn't react these games, just try it later again.

Back to blogging! Yay!!!

It's been a very long time since my last post. I've planned to be a busy blogger and post some ideas and experiences as much as I can but I guess it's hard to do so if you're working hard and within long hours at least it was hard for me. In this period, I gave birth and now I have a beautiful princess. The time passes so quickly with her. Now she's 6 months old and my whole life turns around her. Breakfast time, fruit time, soup time, game time, dinner time, sleep!!! I couldn't imagine that such kind of monotonous routines can be so enjoyable. Oops, she's awake, need to go:)

Mrs. Pınar's classes :)

Can you play basketball in your classroom?

For a while I've been working on to help my students about the difference between present simple and present continuous. It's OK when I first teach them but right after we study a new topic they forget the basic rules .Then, I decided to make a revision activity.The details of the game are below: Teacher prepares two basketball hoops and sticks them on the board or you can use real, mobile ones that kids play at home. Over them, stick titles as "EVERYDAY" AND "TODAY". Then, put a sack or a basket under each hoop.Divide the class in two and ask them to line up in front of each hoop and basket. Give a sack full of balls with target verbs on them, to each group and tell the rules.Teacher plays a catchy music while students are trying to throw a ball from their own sacks to their own hoops one by one.Both groups will race at the same time. When the music stops,teacher counts the balls inside the basket and announces the winner. Then, beginning with the winner group, students come one by one, picks a ball from their own sack, look at the verb on the ball and try to make a sentence using that verb according to their tense: present or present continuous.This goes on same with both groups till they finish all the verbs in their baskets. You can use this with all age levels. If yours is a higher level, you can ask them to make sentences which are connected to each other and forms a story. You or one of the students can write the sentences while they are telling them. At the end, each group can read their own story out loud. You might have really funny stories. I wish it works in your class, too. Have fun:)

FLYING VERBS

It's really crucial to know how you plan and do your activities if you're teaching young learners. That's why I always try to make learning much more enjoyable and fun but also effective. Since my students are only 9 years old, fantastic stories always work. Besides, working on their imagination is easy for me.

 I've been trying to teach past tense forms of the verbs for a while and last week we were going to just practice some of them and add new ones. It was going to be done by using a box full of verbs. I was supposed to pick the present forms of the verbs first and then the past forms. Unfortunately,  I forgot to take the box to the class. As soon as I realised it, I immediately replanned the lesson. I asked my students to close their eyes, lean back and relax.Then, I wanted them to visualize what I was going to tell them. I started to act out this short dialogue:

Mrs. Pınar: Hey, Mr. Magic, welcome to our classroom.

Mr. Magic: Shhh, be quiet, don't move, I have a present for you and I'm here to give it.

Mrs. Pınar: What? A present?

After a few seconds...

Mrs. Pınar: Oh my Goodness! What is this, Mr. Magic? I can't believe my eyes. Millions of stars surrounded me. They covered  my body. Oh my God, is this magic?

Mr. Magic: Yeah, and you can use it now.

Mrs. Pınar: Ok, I want to use it for my lovely students. Hey everybody, I'm sending you my verbs they are all flying around the room. You can see "publish, invent,travel, post,bring,discover, find out" they are all flying over you. Hey, “publish” is moving, it's coming towards you, catch it in the air with your hands, jump, don't miss it. OK, now put it into your left pocket.Did you?

Class: Yes.(Their eyes were still closed and they were trying to move and catch the verbs and put them into their pocket. They did the same for all verbs. )

After they put all the words in their pockets, I gave the next instruction.

Mrs. Pınar: Now, I'm going to put spell on your pocket: Hokus, pokus, abracadabra, pofff,huffenpoff.(Here, you can use real magical sound)Hey, you all have glittery, shiny stars coming out of your right pocket, they tingled your leg, can you feel?

Class: Yes, Mrs. Pinar.

Mrs. Pınar: They are coming out of your pocket. Look "published” is flying with two white wings, hey "discovered" flung out, we see the same verbs but they changed a bit, they all have “-ed” at the end.What other verbs are coming off ?

Students started telling the words one by one and I wrote them on the board. Afterwards, I asked them to open their eyes and look at  the board. At the end, they all could tell and make sentences using the second forms of those words correctly. I wouldn’t be that glad that I forgot to take my materials.