VeggieTales

Good Morning!!! 

I am doing just my last Post of the term. I would like to show you something I found the other day. I was looking after the American girls I told you the other day, when they asked to me permission to watch T.V while dinner. I said yes (because they were behaving really well).

I switched on the T.V and a list of cartoons appeared. Some cartoons were known also in Spain such as Postman Pat, Bob the builder, Mickey Mouse, and Phineas y Ferb… and suddenly they saw “VeggieTales”.

It sounds pretty strange and also boring, but we saw a chapter. It was called “Sweetpea Beauty”.

In this chapter a jealous queen, set her sights on ravishing rhubarb who is the Prettiest in the land. As you can see is a mix of tales. It was super funny and also it has an inner teaching I loved. When the girls went bed I decided to look for more information about these cartoons. 

VeggieTales is actually an American series of children's, introduce vegetables in stories conveying moral themes based on Christianity. They frequently retell Biblical stories, sometimes in a different way reframed, and include humorous references to pop culture in many different eras by putting Veggie spins on them (e.g., classic literature, TV shows, etc.).

They started in the 1993and it is not only a T.V. series, you can also find, chants, interactive games, books, activities, and also a live Show.

Taking into account the topic we were discussing the other day about watching films at school, I want to show you this tool. Because a chapter is shorter than a film(35 to 50 minutes), the level is lower and it has many scaffolding which let you work better on them.

I am going to show you the trailes of a "Sweetpea Beauty" here:

 and also you can visit the official webpage of VeggieTale

Do you like the series?

Would you use it at school?

If you have another unknown series that you would like to share with me, I will be very happy.

STORYBIRD

Few days ago I did my first storybird book. 

Do you know what storybird is?

Storybird is a visual storytelling community where you can write stories, read stories and also share your own pictures for stories of people all around the world. 

I am completely excited with this new tool I have already learnt. I think it is a useful platform to encourage students to write and read. 

Children now a day need to learn how to write and read properly as we learnt some years ago. Nevertheless they need another motor to make them do it. 

I hardly believe that if you send a child to write a story as we did when we were young he will not probably do it. If he does it, he will do it with bad mood. But if you send a child to write a story in our story bird platform, he will do it much happier than ever. 

Another interesting thing is all the paintings you can use to decorate and contextualize your stories. They will give you also some ideas about the topic you want to write about. But you also need your imagination to write it on. 

When you finish your story you have the chance to get the book for a really cheap price. I am going to show you the book I did. I am very happy with the result. 

Many ideas came to me, while doing this post, that I can already do with children. I hope I could do it someday. 

Will you use this platform with your children?

If you need more information you can visit this link http://help.storybird.com/, and you can asnwer many other questions that may come to your mind. 

Putting into practice

Last week I put on practice many of the knowledge I have already adquire along this subject.  I felt very comfortable and self-confidence.  

I am going to explain you…

Six months ago, a friend of mine introduced me to an American Family.  They are here because of the husband job. They need a babysitter for some hours, but they wanted someone with experience, and that will be able to speak with the girls in English. I offered myself a little bit afraid. I didn´t know if I will understand them, or if I will have any other problem, nevertheless I did.

It was so easy. The girls were the best ones I have ever look after. I have been looking after them all the summer and when the course started I stopped because I need to study. However last week the mum called me. She needed me because her sister was going to come and they wanted to go out on Saturday night. According to her, the cousins were “Wild boys”.

I had to prepare games and activities for 2 girls and 2 “wild boys” and I had to also look after the baby. I was going to get crazy! When I was preparing the activities I thought, “ why don´t we do some of the things of the Raquel´s classes?” so we did.

We started playing “frozen Frame”. We did 2 groups and they had to do a scene depicted in one popular fairy tale. We were playing for a long time. Many of the scenes I didn´t know, so they made me a summary of the story. It was quite funny and they enjoy a lot.

When I saw that they need to change the activity, actually they had to go bed, we song the "bear hunt" song. They didn´t know the story so it was an absolutely surprise for them. We did it along the house. After singing it they do all the things before bed.

PJ´s, potty, teeth, BOOK, STORY, bed.

 What a wonderful moment. I read the book “curious George”.

It is about a monkey. I tried to read as best as possible. I put emphasis and I think it was great they also thought it. Then they asked me for a "princesses story". I create a new one and they loved. They were so happy.

I felt very proud of have been able to do all what I already did. 

rainy Saturdays

Today it has come to me a feeling of a memory that had long haunt me . This rainy day has the blame of bring it to me today .

I never liked the rain. It's cold and paralyzes us . We do not do the same things a raining day than a sunny day. But I have particular fondness to the rainy Saturdays ... When I was little, those were the days that we was not going to run, skate or play outside with my brother and sisters. But were the ones my father took us to the library. We could spend there all the morning. Reading or listening to the stories we most liked.

I remember how my older sister sat with me and read to me. She loved it and I loved it even more . I especially liked this story:

"Adivina cuánto te quiero"

This was definitely my favorite book.

I enjoyed seeing the pictures and know without anyone telling me it, what was happening. And that is the definition of a favorite book for a child. The one they can most remember. Books that containing stories and pictures or draws that want to be read and seen over and over again. Books whose reading does not tire, on the contrary, they want to be heard night after night.

What did you do on rainy days? Did you go to the library too? Did you have any favorite book as a child? Do you remember the stories people read to you when you was a child?

Here you have the story in order you want to read it. 

storytelling

Have you ever had that pleasant feeling of working hard in a project, put enthusiasm and desire? Enjoy both with it that when you have to expose it you do not even have to study?Something similar happened to me with the activity of the storytelling. I love telling stories. When I look after some children, which is usually quite often, the best part of the work is usually when I tell the story before bedtime. Unfortunately not all parents have the time, and often not the imagination to tell a story to children at bedtime. But fortunately for those children I look after, I enjoy inventing new stories , funny stories and stories that does not go very far from the reality of the children I am looking after.

A couple of years ago, while I was telling one of those stories, I came up with a number of special characters. So special, that today, children still ask me to tell some of those stories. They are not difficult to invent, they always follow the same pattern. More or less as in the story we created for class a few days ago. I will not reveal my stories because I have some other idea in them, but I can assure you that maybe one day you will be in a bookstore, and you will see a book written by me. It's my dream and I hope it happen someday.

Continuing the theme of the story we wrote, I must say that I enjoyed as a dwarf. I had fun and laughed a lot. I was very sorry to miss the stories of all my classmates ... But I'll stick with the good taste that made ​​me see all of us repeating our story.

What do you think of the stories? Do you seem necessary for children or do you think we could live without storytelling?  Would you tend to tell stories?  Do you think you will use the stories when you´ll be in your class?

If you like and enjoy tales like me, there is a place in front of the Retiro Park, in Menéndez Pelayo Street “La bolsa magica”(http://www.labolsamagica.com/index.php). A magic place, where you can go with kids and enjoy learning thought storytelling. I had the opportunity to go once and it is incredible. Children enjoy them a lot. 

NURSERY RHYMES

(Noelia Barroso, Guiomar Caballero, Clara Vilches, Sandra Anaya, Sara Blanco, Leticia de la Serna)

Last Wednesday we had our first practical lesson of “Exploring Children’s Literature in English”.  We were exhausted after a morning full of classes, but suddenly everything changed… We were victims of a magic spell and, suddenly, we moved backwards to our early childhood and a marvelous feeling involved us. The magic spell was made by warming-up bounding with familiar thoughts and a little of new knowledge, in order to be able to adapt, create and produce the final spell, NURSERY RHYMES.

One of the most important reasons why we moved backwards so easily was that Raquel motivated us to be active and participative, and she made the topic close to us. First, she told us to think if we knew what “Nursery Rhymes” were, and if we could remember any from our childhood. Little by little, we went deeper into the proposed topic, listening typical nursery rhymes and doing different activities and exercises about it. In the last part of the lesson, we learnt different techniques to work with Nursery Rhymes and we showed them in a performance. In groups of 5 or 6 people, we chose one of the Nursery Rhymes worked in class, and we sang them twice in front of the rest of the class.

Nursery Rhymes were the approach to new language since we were only 3 years old, and consequently very important to us, although we didn´t understand what the song was about. Nevertheless, that strange lyrics and hard and old vocabulary, today makes more sense because Nursery Rhymes were not originally created to entertain children but to hide political subversive messages.  Nursery Rhymes are very useful for every year of Primary Education, if we adapt the contents and the activities to the level of each class, and can be done both at the beginning of the class, as warming-up, and at the end of the class. The students learn new vocabulary, practice pronunciation and improve fluency while learning about English culture, historical events, poems and typical places, such as in “LONDON BRIDGE”. The sentences in the Nursery Rhymes are simple and repetitive so are easier to learn and remember. These activities can highly motivate pupils because they have an active role during the lesson.  

In our opinion, the development of the class has been wonderful. We have learnt a lot of new things about the topic and how to apply it as future teachers in the classroom. Also, we have realized the steps that the teacher has followed in order to give us the lesson, in which scaffolding was everywhere.

In our Nursery Rhyme, “London Bridge is falling down”, we have used different types of Choral Speaking techniques, such as ANTIPHON and CUMULATIVE. In the video attached to this post we show the little performance that we made in class. Could you help us to find how we have introduced those techniques?  What do you think about the activities done in class?  What do you think about the methodology Raquel followed? Would you do it in another way? Which types of Choral Speaking techniques have you used and why have you chosen them? What do you think about Nursery Rhymes? Do you think you will use this tool when you become a teacher one day? Did you sing Nursery Rhymes when you were younger?

 We would be very happy if you want to share your thoughts with us!