Diary of a Creative English Trainer: Day Four
It’s amazing what you can do with a tablecloth!
Day Four
Today, the class numbers swelled to 17. All our original students are attending, plus a whole load more. Plus our new trainer, Bobby, has come along to see how we work. Plus Gwyn and Zarqa. Unfortunately, the big room is not yet ready and I’d planned a balloon race to start the session off…!
But we’re not defeated – two competing lines of learners passed balloons over their heads, each attempting to beat the other! It was hilarious and totally relaxed everyone, despite some being here for the first time!
Our session is only an hour and a half (although generally, sessions are planned with sufficient material for two hours) and I am discovering that the session plans actually prove sufficient for me to divide them into two. Today, we worked on the first part of session three, which works on the continuation of the shopping theme (this time from a clothing perspective) and then heads off in the direction of the big party. We had great fun seeing how Sally (mum), her daughter Samantha, Peter (husband) and Ben (son, twin of Samantha) handle shopping for clothes.
Each of the resource packs that Creative English Hubs are issued with contain a rectangular blue tablecloth. I used this initially in the game where you drape it around you to improvise an item of clothing. (Creative draping always produces some laughs, as our training team found out this week in North London when one budding volunteer trainer used it to show us her ‘cloak of invisibility’!). Having addressed lexis for clothing, we built in the use of adjectives by way of flash cards and then progressed to conversations around buying or refusing items of clothing, all acted out with the tablecloths. Our shyest and quietest learner is gently included, without any pressure of needing to perform unless she wishes.
It was so helpful to have such willing volunteers to support these activities – much of which were carried out in groups. I honestly could not do it without them!
Well, it’s holiday time now, so there’s a two week break and then we’re back in the saddle!
