Observation of two lessons (children aged 6)

I observed two groups of six-year-olds.

The best activities in the first group:

• "Carpet Card" - The teacher spreads pictures on the carpet depicting different furniture such as a desk, a chair. He also brings colored balls and markers. He then gives instructions to selected children: "Touch the desk with your finger," "Color the desk orange," "Pink ball on the table, "Red ball under the chair," etc.
• Children say what they are wearing starting with the phrase "I have got...".

Notes:

• I really liked the carpet card and how the children repeat such vocabulary words as: on, under, next to, and colors and names of furniture. I think an even better solution would be to give each child a card and give them instructions, as children who have to wait for their turn quickly get bored and distracted.

The best activities in the second group:

• Introducing new vocabulary: "Milk soup," "Spinach," "Snails." The teacher names the dish and asks the children to repeat. The children say the name several times and do it faster and faster while the teacher reveals the flashcards. Later, they repeat all the dish names once more, as the teacher shows.
• The phrases "I like...", "I don't like...". - The teacher reminds the students and shows a thumb up if he says he likes something, and a thumb down if he doesn't. Then he lays out cards with different dishes and asks selected students to indicate what they like and dislike by adding the corresponding drawing to the cards.
• A game depicting situations in a restaurant - children order the dishes shown on the cards.

Notes:

• The children were very focused on the lesson and it was clear that they enjoyed the proposed activities. 
• The teacher shows a lot with his body, which is very good because children remember faster.
• The game in which the child is a customer in a restaurant is very interesting and shows the children that English will be useful in their daily lives.
• There is a lack of movement play, exercises to do in pairs or groups.

Observation of three lessons (children aged 5)

I observed three different groups that included children as young as 5 years old.

BEST ACTIVITIES:

• Movement game - the teacher sets up three chairs and chooses four children. He plays music. When he turns off the music the children have to sit on the chairs. The child who did not sit on the chair performs a task invented by the teacher, e.g. he/she has to point out on which flahcards is the number eight.

• Movement game - "Fly and spider" - The teacher plays the tambourine and then the children have to move. At the word "Spider" they must stand still and not move. Whoever responds last must answer the teacher's question - what is on the flashcards.

• Repetition of vocabulary involving showing flashcards with a hole card superimposed. The teacher moves the flashcards under the card and only, part of it can be seen. Children have to guess what is on it.

• Store game - The teacher is the seller and the children are the customers. The children say what the seller has to give them and pay with the blocks, for example, they had to pay for their shopping with two yellow blocks. The children used the phrase "Can I have a...".

Notes:

• The children enjoyed the movement games the most.
• There were no tasks in pairs or smaller groups.
• While playing store, children who only watched - were bored. On the other hand, children who were customers had trouble using more difficult phrases. 
• The teacher used a lot of L1.
• The teacher uses simple commands "Make a circle", Line up", "Sit down", "Close your eyes", and the children follow them, which helps to better organize the activity.

Observation of lesson - mixed age group

Course of the lesson:

The lesson began with singing the Hello song. Then the teacher chose one child who had to count how many students there were. Then the children repeated what is on the flashcards (Santa, present, Christmas tree...). Then the teacher throws a ball and asks the students how they feel today. Children answer "happy", "sleepy", "hungry". Then the children, together with the teacher, say the rhyme and show with their bodies: "Criss-Cross Applesauce". Then the teacher distributes blocks to the students and asks individual students how many red, green, blue and yellow blocks they have. As students give the answer the teacher shows two flashcards and tells them to point with the corresponding number. Then the teacher tells which blocks the students should bring and arranges a Christmas tree out of them. He puts three small boxes under it, but the condition for opening them is to sing a song. The children sing the songs and find a spider in the gift. 

Notes:

• The children were focused on the activities and they enjoyed them.
• The teacher used a lot of native language.
• All activities take place in a circle on the carpet.
• There was a great deal of repetition of vocabulary regarding holidays, numerals, feelings and colors.

In my opinion, these classes were well organized and tailored to the mixed age group (children aged four and five). The children knew the vocabulary words that were during the activity. I would have added working in pairs or groups. I liked the songs, however, when singing and showing them, the children could stand up and not sit on the carpet.

Observation of five lessons

Best activities:

On December 6, I watched an English teacher conduct activities with different age groups. At each class, the children repeated the words they had already learned. The teacher used flashcards for this, but in each group differently. As a result, I learned a lot of different ways to use this teaching aid. I liked covering the flashcards with blocks. The children had to guess what was hiding under them (chocolate, orange juice, cake). If they gave the correct answer they took the blocks and counted how many they had, thus repeating not only the names of the dishes, but also the numerals. Another activity that I plan to use in my work is to cover one child's face with a magic hat and utter the incantation "Hokus Pokus Abracadabra How are you today?". The child's task is to show, some emotion, and the other children have to guess whether their friend is happy, angry, sleepy, etc. The children enjoyed this a lot and it was clear that they know this game very well.

Notes:

• Each class begins and ends with a song. 
• The teacher uses simple instructions in English so that the children understand what to do and are not lost. 
• The teacher uses L1 frequently, mainly when maintaining group discipline. 
• Teacher uses body language. He gestures a lot and shows different things, so children remember new words faster. When a child forgets, this is also a way to give him a hint. 
• All the activities were very interesting and I could see that the children were engaged in them. 
• The only thing I would add is movement games. It only showed up in one group, during a vocabulary reminder about the weather. The children showed different weather phenomena with their bodies, such as sun, rain, wind.