Day One-
On the way to our first day at Klong Toey Kindergarten, I was worried about how to communicate to the children since I do not speak the same language as them. Once we arrived and started interacting with the children, it became very simple to communicate with them through gestures, demonstrations and smiles. It also helped that Nicha is a fluent Thai speaker, always there to translate when needed.
Various activities were tested, from name tags to mask making. I found that the five-year-old boys loved art and they found the masks both funny and exciting to make. They would learn better by example and it would help if we demonstrated the activity before having them try it. Making the name tags was unnecessary though, since they were in Thai and the ISB students could not read them and the boys already knew each other’s names.
Day Two-
On day two, we tried some more artistic activities such as painting, which was a huge success. The boys did not want to stop painting for almost the entire time, even after covering a large piece of paper, they just asked for more. We tried some games with them also, such as a Thai game similar to “Duck, duck, goose,” which was successful because they already knew the rules and the game. When we tried teaching them a new English game, the boys did not understand or cooperate so that plan failed. A good wrap-up activity was reading them a Thai story book, because it gave them a chance to calm down after the games and they enjoyed the story.
- Rhian Morgan
1 response so far ↓
wwwklongtoey // Feb 19th 2009 at 2:51 pm
Overcoming the language barrier is a challenge. It is good that you could communicate through body language and the universally effective smile. Modeling is a very effective strategy. The ISB students can play the game and SHOW how it works before the kinder kids give it a try.
Mrs. Kalis
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