A party in the jungle (The performance – 2nd grade)

Teaching to 1st and 2nd grade this year has been a totally new and challenging experience for me. Honestely, I was discouraged at the beginning ,due to the fact that we only had one hour per week. I thought that I would not be able to offer my kids everything I had in mind.

However ,the cute faces and the enthusiasm of my young learners motivated me to do things that I never thought I could, such as painting , cutting , miming , singing and dancing.I also decided that I should do my best to present the English language in an appealing way, so my students will acquire a positive attitude towards the FL.

When I saw the activity B6 “A party in the jungle” (included in peap’s material) I thought it would be  nice  for my students to dramatise the whole scene.

At first, I presented the new vocabulary using digital flashcards I had already created for 2nd grade (made in   http://flashcards.educationlabs.com/#/Home and later with another tool that Angeliki Polychronopoulou  suggested  In the jungle ,by Quizlet).

Next I printed the masks , also included in the material, giving each of my students one, to colour any way they liked and write their name on it. We used the masks to revise the names of the animals,( introducing themselves “Hello! I’m Dennis the elephant”) and the colours.

Then it was the time to read the story “A party in the jungle”. We read it several times and we saw the video The lion sleeps tonight. My little ones (and me of course) adored the song and the video.

Finally I brought in class a large  jungle poster I had created with my 2nd graders earlier this year and collected the presents for Leo’s Birthday! A real banana and a real carrot from my fridge(my students laughed a lot),a pink daisy,my yellow ball,a yoyo and two ballons I found at school.

It was time for our performance! Holding their masks the students alone or in pairs wished Leo , the lion,Happy Birthday and gave him their presents. Then we all sang the “Happy Birthday Song” . When the lion went to sleep tired but happy after his birthday party ,his friends sang and danced “The lion sleeps tonight”.Once is never enough for 1st grade,so we are going to repeat it and learn the song better.

I promised to give them the masks as a present but their present to me was much more precious…Lots of hugs and smiles.