LESSON OBSERVATION 5

The teacher starts lesson with a "hello" song. Then she shows a book to students, asks questions such as "what is the bear doing?". Then, she wants them to imitate e.g. lift your eyebrows, show me your teeth. Then she asks the students to stand in a circle and sing a song that includes the words and actions in the book. These activities are great for activating prior knowledge. I had a lot of fun watching these activities because the students were also enjoying it and all of them actively participated. One of the things I noticed here is that the teacher actually covered three topics simultaneously; animals, body parts and actions. It was very impressive that she combined all of these in one warm-up activity. 

Then the teacher reads a book to the students. She asks them the questions in the book such as "Is he under the stairs?" and they all answer together. What I liked the most here was the teacher reflecting the emotions of the characters while reading. I think it is a big factor in the students not losing interest in the story. 

Then the teacher says "Let's play hide and seek". She brings a large model house with doors that can be opened and closed. First, she asks "Is this a big house or small house?" Then she opens each door and asks what is inside. If there is a bed in the room, she asks "If there is a bed, what is the name of this room?". I think this is a very good activity because the students reinforce the words visually. Then she says "Let's play hide and seek" again, tells students to close their eyes and hides the character in one of the rooms. She has the students as where the character is by using the phrase "Is he in the...?" For example: "Is he in the dining room?" then they open the door and look. Finally, she has them ask together "Is he in the garden?" and they find the character. 

Before ending the lesson, she asks "Do you want to see him again?", "Let's say 'see you next week' then". During this time, students get excited and they all started to talk and move. Then the teacher makes them all sit down and takes the character to all of them to say goodbye. Then they sing the "goodbye" song together. The striking point here is that the "hello" song at the beginning of the lesson and the "goodbye" song at the end have the same melody. I think it was very effective in terms of being memorable.