Learning Can Be Fun!

One time,when meeting with the Governor of County of Siedlce, he remarked that early in the time of Global Volunteers here they were puzzled by the fact that the volunteers taught English using games and songs, having fun. But after awhile they began to see that it worked.

Here are some of my beginner students that I see in the afternoon at the Kotun Community Center. They are working on learning body parts. When this picture was taken they were busy coloring a clown with labeled body parts. When they are finished they bring the paper to me and we pronounce the words and point out body parts such as shoulder, leg, foot, and back.

Today I tried Hokey-Pokey for the first time with this group. I always start it and then we go around the circle and each child selects something to put in. I was really pleased today when words like hair and shoulder were offered.

The above photo is the fourth grade students I teach one hour each morning. Here we are doing a game. Each rolls dice and the number matches a body part they may match to their drawing of a robot. The paper you can see best shows multiple heads, multiple bodies, and multiple legs. This student just kept adding things as he rolled the same number over and over. They didn't realize they were practicing saying numbers and body parts in English. They were just having fun.

But Polish schools also know how to teach children with fun.

Today we were invited to go outdoors with the children to a concert by Limbos, a group that specializes in school performances.

When I put something on Facebook about this group, one of my former students, now a university student commented this group is a great favorite of all school children in Siedlce County. 

Here are a couple of photos of the kindergarten group that I worked with on Friday.

The children are just totally engaged.

The video below is a very short view of one selection in the concert. I was surprised to hear Somewhere Over the Rainbow. 

For we American guests they played Rock Around the Clock. I surely hadn't heard that song for a long time.

When the concert was over I realized the kindergarten students had been sitting on mats taken from the nearby gymnasium, while the older children were sitting on benches and chairs. And look, they all had removed their shoes before stepping on the mats.