An English lesson about London, England and Great Britain – in costume and in character – makes kids so eager to participate that learning is effortless!
Note: the child in the video above, presenting London, knew very little English, and also very little about Tudor history and the current royal family until ten minutes before he did the presentation. I am so proud of him!
Carnival is not around the corner, but Halloween is only about five weeks away. Why wait, though? Since I have about 150 costumes (for both adults and children) in my collection, I like to use them whenever I can. As a foreign language teacher (who uses a strong communicative approach through drama and music), adding some festivity to any lesson is guaranteed to get children to learn their lesson, provided you let them know that the costumes are part of a lesson, rather than a free-for-all.
Last week we had a lesson about England and Great Britain, with a focus on London and some of England’s most famous monarchs. We also included Scotland and the boys in the class were amused by the Scottish kilt, until I reminded them of the many kinds of traditional clothes. from around the world that include some kind of “skirt” worn by men.
Here are some photos of the teacher (Yours Truly) dressed as Queen Elizabeth the First, accompanied by a Queen’s Guard (yes, I know, the Palace Guards with the tall bearskin hats did not exist in Tudor times but from the Battle of Waterloo onwards – but the boy in that costume was able to explain to the class that he is in the service of the second Queen Elizabeth, the current monarch of Great Britain.)
Another child dressed as the formidable King Henry the Eighth. He was loved pretending to be “my father” :).
Included in this post is a video of a presentation of London, whose installation is made up of an amazing 3D map of the city (the children loved inserting the 3D representations of London’s historic and modern buildings into the spongy map base, and then adding the labels.) There are also dolls representing King Henry the Eighth, Queen Elizabeth the First, her buddy William Shakespeare, Ada Lovelace, Jane Austen and Sherlock Holmes. There is also a plastic doll of England’s current Queen Elizabeth the Second, solar-powered to wave her hand to the crowds :). Of course, there are lots of colorful photos of the many famous London landmarks, and a pop-up book as well. Between the 3D map, the photos, the pop-up book, the realia and the dolls, there are enough materials to give each student a useful role in presenting London.
The children are aware that these historic characters did not all live at the same time, and were able to put them onto a five-century-long timeline.
I am so proud of these kids. Most of them have not been in Germany longer than two years. Fluent in German already (and helping me to get fluent in German as well), they are now learning English, and having a lot of fun in the process! Not to mention they can help tourists find their way around London using an Underground map (from my realia collection), tell you plenty of things about Tudor history, and describe Britain’s current royal family.
This lesson promoted the following vocabulary and acquired skills:
- the family
- clothes (of the past and the present)
- the present and the past tense
- correct placement of people and events in history
- political geography and culture
- public performance
- team-work and confidence building through fun!
Evie Prentoulis 