286 Part V: What Kind of Class Will I Have?
No doubt you’ll read stories aloud in the classroom and this takes a little
practice if you aren’t used it. Be sure to vary the intonation of your voice as
much as possible so that key words stand out and so that the children are
gripped by the music of the language. Invent funny voices for different
characters and don’t insist on silence if the children want to interact with
the tale. You can teach booing, hissing and ‘He’s behind you!’ if you like.
Getting the grammar
Grammar is an off-putting word for most students, so when it comes to the
little ones, it needs to be sugar coated a little.
Take for example a lesson on adjectives. From beginner level, children learn
their colours so they know the basic ‘adjective plus noun’ structure – a
blue ball.
Adjectives of personality are motivating for kids because they enjoy telling
you what they think of the various characters in their stories. Fortunately,
fairy-tale characters often come with their own adjectives, so you can use
them as examples. For instance: evil stepmother, ugly sisters, magic wand,
handsome prince, big bad wolf, little pigs.
Students enjoy matching the adjectives to the characters and to their flashcard
pictures. And don’t forget the dwarfs from Snow White! Six of the seven
dwarfs have adjectives for names – Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy
and Sneezy – so you can easily have students practise using a subject, a form
of the verb ‘to be’ and an adjective.
For example they can identify the characters from pictures and show
understanding of what the names mean like this:
I know he is Sleepy because he’s in bed.
I know he is... because he...
Most fairy tales are in the past simple tense and can easily become gap-fill
exercises where the children choose the missing words from a list under the
passage, like this one:
Once upon a time, there... a woman who... very sad because she... a
child but... not have one.
wanted was did was
