Tea Time

Today I was able to spend significantly more time at the preschool than I have in the past, allowing me to interact with the students a lot more. I was there early in the morning to help set up and greet the students, and again later on. When I returned to the school after my own class, I was able to catch the tail end of circle time before lunch and recess.

The major excitement at school right now is the upcoming Mother’s Day Tea. Next Wednesday afternoon, the students will all get dressed up and bring their mothers to school in the afternoon. In class, they have been practicing taking orders for whether their mothers would like tea or coffee, and with milk, sugar, or lemon. One of the activities around the room that they can choose to do also prepares them for the tea, as they practice pouring water from a teapot into cups without spilling. Also on Wednesday, the children have been learning several “mother’s day” songs that they will be presenting. At circle time, we practiced the songs and the hand motions, but throughout the day, the lead teacher was getting the children to sing along as they went through their activities, using the repetition to help them learn. Another technique she used helped the children both to remember the words and to pay attention. In going through one of the songs that the students have practiced a lot, the lead teacher purposely switched around words, saying (for example) father’s day instead of mother’s day. The kids thought that this was hilarious, and were quick to correct, albeit politely, their teacher. I thought this was a great way of going over the songs. Not only did it keep the students’ interest, but by repeating the songs each time the teacher made a mistake, the students actually heard the song several times; this repetition helped them to learn the song. Besides all of this, they had a lot of fun going over the songs.