Pre-Primary teachers in Oxford. Day 2

Hello again!

This morning walking to the school we found an interesting place, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaelogy, founded in 1683. It's the world's oldest public museum with incredibly rich and diverse collections ranging from Egyptian mummies to Pre-Raphaelite paintings to contemporary art.If you have an interest in architecture, a trip to this museum is not to be missed.

The second day of the course our teacher focused on communication in the Primary classroom. We learnt a several activities to help our pupils to increase their speaking skills. Some of them are really available for the children age range we work with. Through funny  games we can encourage the students to use this second language. These strategies give children lots of opportunities to listen to the teacher and respond non-verbally. This is non-threatening and builds up children's familiarity with listening to English in a natural way. You can vary the instructions to fit in with whatever you are teaching and you can also increase the challenge by varying the type or instructions.

We had free afternoon  for sightseeing and we made the most of our time. We visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The museum is housed in a purpose-built Victorian Gothic building. The principal collections include skeletons of dinosaurs and skulls of our ancestors. A collection of rocks, selected to represent the most important in the British Isles, is also built into the fabric of the building - each delicate pillar round the gallery is made of a different stone. There's also a stuffed cheetah which children can stroke, and a bee colony you can observed through glass.

We finished the day by doing punting. This is the favourite past time for visitors, residents and students alike. At Magdalen Bridge you can hire a punt and sailing leisurely upstream or down river, trailing fingers in the silky water, admiring the wildlife or picnicking on a river bank. But if you are a beginner like us, you also can drift!

                     

Goodbye friends!