English Lessons inAsla

Micki:

This time a large group of children arrived – about 8 youngsters and 10 older children.  N., the house mother who always opens the kindergarten and is with us during the lesson, had gone to visit her family outside the village and A. to take her place.   She evidently encouraged a lot of children to come, and consequently there was a large group.

I taught the younger group that consisted of children aged 6-8 and their younger siblings aged 4-5.  I gave the youngest ones paper and crayons.  I needed to find them something to do while their older siblings were learning.  I distributed pictures and instructed the children to say "I see a window, I see a chair," etc.  Afterwards I distributed a picture in the form of a riddle to each group and asked questions such as "Who is wearing glasses?"   They had to identify which member of the family in the picture (mother, father, grandmother,) is wearing glasses and write the answer in their notebooks.   Children came up to the board and wrote and I gave the children puzzles to put together.  The group of boys had a lot of trouble putting together a 16-piece puzzle.  The girls put together a 12-piece puzzle quickly.   I gave the boys the 12 – piece puzzle and explained to them what to do.  The gradually understood what to do.  At the same time the youngest children put together a puzzle of the ABC's.

At the end of the session all the children went to the main room and sang all the songs we had learned with a lot of enthusiasm.

Harriet:

On Friday, April 24^th, I taught the older group of 10 boys and girls in Asla.  This time there were more girls than boys present.   The lesson was on the words who, what, when, where, and how.   Each child received a card with one of the words written on it.  They wrote the words on the board with the Arabic translation.   I distributed pictures of various places in the world such as Paris and Madrid to demonstrate "where", and pictures of a tractor, bicycle, car, and helicopter (how) and a calendar (when).  Each child told a story using the words that we had learned using a page with questions.   

The children cooperated nicely and they were very enthusiastic.   There was plenty of time to talk to them.   We did some stretching exercises with them which helped them learn a little more.