Global Kids Through Drama and English

Tell me a story! And if you can’t think of one, use history. One of my favorite lessons (it’s a favorite among children too) is practicing English through some historical concept - even beginners can do this - and then, let the role-play begin! The teacher becomes a “time traveling journalist“ and the children take on roles of famous people from different historical periods, various roles… and answer my questions. If they are beginners in English, I give them some guidance. Simple English is enough. The students strengthen their speaking skills and also experience some historical empathy in the role of the character that they play. Not to mention their confidence gets a great boost, too!

I did this for myself as much as for my students. I could look at this for ages!

What an honor to be recommended by the one and only ESL material guru Shelley Vernon!

What an honour to be recommended by the one and only ESL material for kids guru, Shelley Vernon!

Welcome to the Shape Museum! One of my favorite math activities when I was younger was learning about shapes. 2-D shapes and then, especially, 3-D shapes!This young lady now understands that 3D shapes can be picked up and held. She knows some 3-D shape words like “sphere“, “cylinder”, “cube“ and “pyramid“. We had a blast running around finding things that resemble the Montessori geometric solids and she loved the idea of creating a museum to display her findings. We also discussed the number of faces or sides that the 3D shapes have: her favorite discovery was that spheres and ovoids have only one! English and math pair up wonderfully. And so many words - household objects and geometry concepts and taught in one compact lesson. teacher

English isn’t just a subject, it’s a vehicle to other subjects to be learned. In this case the human body including all the organs. We take turns with a funny role-play where a “doctor” is nervous and has forgotten where the organs are located in the body. Kids as young as four years old can learn about the heart, the lungs, the brain, and have fun putting them in the right place and also, on purpose, in the wrong places! (Favorite is putting the kidneys on each side of the head as a replacement for ears!) kids are also very flexible and love to learn yoga moves, and I often use a foam world map on the floor for that purpose, or continents cut out of yoga mat material, following the Montessori colour code.

This is a lovely organization and well worth making a donation to. It is my hope to work there as a volunteer within the next two years, teaching art and drama, learning at least one African language and exchanging cultural knowledge with the children. Children are the best teachers!

Sharing Hope Children’s Ministry, organized by Patricia Stone This GoFundMe campaign will help me to raise funds for supporting our Orphanage with b… Patricia Stone needs your support for Sharing Hope Children’s Ministry

Woo hoo! An ELA student of mine just won second place in the U16 European Middle  School Debating Championship! This did not only involve her school but several others. I’m very proud of her for her hard work and for keeping in mind all the important elements of a good debate: A clear and compelling introduction, being able to break down your motion or thesis of the argument into smaller parts, providing some confirmation of proof, being able to refute your opponents argument and tying everything up nicely with an elegant conclusion that takes into account all that you’ve said and all that you’ve activated from the opposing team. Being able to anticipate the opposing claims and using elegant English which serves as an antidote to the nervous “um …” and repetitive “like” when words fail to come quickly to mind. I encouraged her to sometimes use formal conjunctions like “however“ instead of “but”, “moreover/additionally“ instead of “and/also“, and “therefore” instead of “so”. Debate is an important soft skill and no child is ever too young to learn how to use it effectively. , 

Yes! Kids need self-directed play. And mixed in with their formal education of books and assessments, they need some intelligent play, some customized curriculum guided play.

Kids need play for the sake of their futures ❤️