Natasha Nath
Class 10
Neuqua Valley High School
Naperville, IL 60564, USA
E-Mail: natashanath75@gmail.com
KidzPlanet Report
Natasha Nath
July 21st, 2014
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Abstract
My purpose of volunteering at KidzPlanet was to teach English to the underprivileged children of this
community, and make a difference in their lives. Ultimately, my desire was to gain an insight of the
education systems of village schools here in India, and attain an understanding of the lives of these children.
Throughout this opportunity, I have truly learned the various aspects of a classroom from the teacher’s
perspective, and about individual character as well. This report will dive into the specifics of my
experience, what I have learned, and how I will use this knowledge in the future.
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Introduction
Each day I volunteered, I put together a lesson plan for what I would teach the children. I
incorporated a variety of activities, including both lectures and stand-up activities, in hope that the children
would want to stay involved and pay attention the entirety of the lesson. For lectures, I found flashcards to
be very useful as a visual aid in teaching the children English objects, letters, numbers, etc. The stand-up
activities consisted of nursery rhymes, which I taught by slowly stating one line of a rhyme, and having them
repeat the line. I taught in this manner for each line of the song, and then repeated the song multiple times
until most of the children remembered the words. Throughout the lessons, I made sure to review what I had
taught in previous lessons, along with what I had taught in that lesson day as well, so that the information
would constantly be fresh in their mind. Below are copies of the lesson plans I had for each day, including
the flashcards I used to teach, as well as the lyrics of the nursery rhymes we sang together.
Methods/Results
Day 1 (July 3rd, 2014 – 1 hour 30 minutes): Alphabet, Colors, Numbers, and Classroom Objects/Pictures
Alphabet:
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The children knew the alphabet very well, so I moved on to writing small words on the board, such as
‘cat’ and ‘dog’, to see if they could read the words accurately. They were able to say some of the words,
while other words were hard for them to pronounce accurately.
Colors:
Learning the colors was easy for the children, even though they did not know most of them at first.
For example, they did not know the colors pink and purple/violet, but after review, they were able to
differentiate the colors correctly.
Numbers:
Reciting the numbers as I wrote them on the board was a breeze for the children. I reviewed the
numbers once afterwards on Day 3, and they had a great grasp over it.
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Classroom Objects/Pictures:
I used these flashcards, as well as physical objects in the room to teach the children the names of
common classroom objects. This was also a good activity to review colors. Eventually, by Day 3, I was having
the children recite sentences when I pointed to objects. (For example, I had them say “This is a blue sky”
each time I pointed to the sky on their wall posters.)
Day 2 (July 11th, 2014 – 1 hour 30 minutes): Body Parts, “Ring a Round a Rosie”, “Twinkle Twinkle Little
Star”, “Row Row Row”
Body Parts:
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I was quite surprised by how fast the children were able to learn the body parts. By the end of class,
they had memorized most of the body parts in English. They had trouble with joints, such as the difference
between ‘knee’ and ‘ankle’, but otherwise, they learned quite impressively.
“Ring a Round a Rosie”:
‘Ring a Round a Rosie!
Pocket full of Posies!
A-CHOO, A-CHOO!
We all fall down!’
Along with the Body Parts, I started to teach the class three English Nursery Rhymes. The first was
“Ring a Round a Rosie”, which the children loved! They had difficulty pronouncing the words, however, by
the end of Day 3, most of the children knew the words by heart.
“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (with actions):
‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are’
The second Nursery Rhyme was “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, which most of the children already
knew. I taught the entire class the actions to the Nursery Rhyme, and made some children individually
present it to the class.
“Row Row Row”:
‘Row row row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream’
The third nursery rhyme was “Row Row Row”, where I made the children sit down on the floor in two
lines, across from each other, hold hands, and rock back and forth to the tune. They had difficulty
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pronouncing and remembering the words, however by the end of Day 3, they seemed to catch along to the
words easier.
Day 3 (July 17th, 2014 – 3 hours): Nature, Transportation, Sports, Insects, Animals, “Humpty Dumpty”,
“Johnny, Johnny”
Nature:
For the most part, the children were able to grasp most of the Nature material, but additional
review would be ideal.
Transportation:
The children knew most of the Transportation vehicles when I taught it, so I moved on to having the
children recite the colors of the vehicles in sentences. (For example, “The plane is green.”)
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Sports:
The children had difficulty distinguishing between the sports, and more review will be needed in
order for them to fully grasp the ‘Sports’ material.
Insects:
Learning the insects was another challenge, but the children knew some of them by the end of class.
Animals:
The ‘Animals’ material was very easy for the children, and they learned most of the animals quickly.
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“Humpty Dumpty”:
‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again’
Along with the material listed above, I also taught the children two English Nursery Rhymes. The first
was ‘Humpty Dumpty’, where the children still have yet to differentiate the last four words between the
first and second lines. They also had difficulty pronouncing the words ‘Couldn’t’ and ‘together’, but after
repeating both words slowly in bits, they were able to pronounce it accurately.
“Johnny, Johnny”:
‘Johnny, Johnny? Yes, papa!
Eating sugar? No, papa!
Telling a lie? No, papa!
Open your mouth! Ha, ha, ha!’
The children already knew ‘Johnny, Johnny’, and were very familiar with the rhyme.
Day 4 (July 21st, 2014): Verbs, House Objects, Fruits, “Itsy Bitsy Spider”
Verbs:
House Objects:
Fruits:
Vegetables:
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“Itsy Bitsy Spider”:
‘Itsy Bitsy Spider climbed up the water spout,
Down came the rain and washed the spider out!
Out came the sun, and it dried up all the rain,
And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again!’
This is a preview of Day 4’s lesson. I plan to teach verbs, house objects, fruits, vegetables, and the
English Nursery Rhyme “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, as well as review previous lessons.
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Discussion
I love working with children, and have experience teaching from volunteering at a learning center
called ‘Kumon’ back in the United States, so gaining this opportunity to teach English to village children has
been a truly exciting experience. I must say I am very impressed with the school system that has been
started through Kidzplanet Towards Future. The teachers and administrators are very passionate about their
work, and they treat the students well. The first-generation students that I taught were kind, smart,
intelligent, and very well behaved, and it gave me great pleasure to teach them. I found no major areas of
improvement, but I do have a couple minor suggestions. First, I would teach the kids to raise their hands
when they have something to say. This would develop their discipline within the classroom. Second, I would
have the kids sit in an assigned spot on the floor everyday. That a way, they would not have to sit in a
random spot on the floor, and they could develop closer friendships with the ones they sit close to. Overall,
my impression of the Kidzplanet Towards Future School has been wonderful.
Through this experience, I have also gained my first, unforgettable experience of working in a village
along with gaining a glimpse into the lives of the school children. I thought that the children would be hard
to handle. However, my assumption was incorrect, and I have genuinely realized that just because the
children live in a village, it does not mean that they are any different from the children of suburbs or urban
areas. For the resources that the village has, compared to the resources the suburbs/urban areas have, it is
truly amazing to realize that the children of both societies are not much different from one another in their
character and mentality.
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Conclusion
It is always a joy for me to teach children, and watch them learn and flourish with the knowledge.
Teaching the children at this school has been an enlightening experience for me, compared to my past
experiences, and there are many aspects I have learned. For the first time, I have understood what it is like
to teach an entire class of curious students. At first, it was a little nerve-racking, but after observing their
exciting reactions to learning new material, it felt exhilarating to work with such attentive children. I was
amazed to see how bright some of the students were, and if given the opportunity, I’m sure that they would
go very far. They were very cooperative in my lessons, despite the fact that I was not fluent in their
vernacular. I have even learned what it is like to have a ‘favorite student’ in class!
On a more serious scale, I have learned how important it is to look past the appearance of a person if
I want to know the true character of the individual. I have always learned that it is important to understand
situations before speculating, but I realize that I never truly understood this lesson. Similar to the quote
‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’, I have realized that it is important to ‘read’ an individual on the inside
before assessing his or her nature. As I mentioned earlier, I assumed that the children would be hard to
handle just because they lived in a village. However, once I actually came to teach the children, I got to
know them better socially and intellectually, and I realized that my notions were wrong. For this reason, I
have learned never to deduce information based on the ‘cover’ of an individual, or object, but to instead
take the time to understand the character of another before coming to conclusions.
I will use these two lessons in the future to broaden my view of life, and to strive towards my current
and future goals as well. Working with the children has been a truly amazing experience, and I look forward
to coming next summer!
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Sources
http://pdf.mrprintables.com/mrpfc01_a4.pdf
http://pdf.mrprintables.com/mrpfc10-color-a4.pdf
http://pdf.mrprintables.com/mrprintables-fc12-number1-30-a4.pdf
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/classroom2_cards.pdf
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/nature1_flash.pdf
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/transport_flash.pdf
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/sportsplay_med_flash.pdf
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/insects_cards.pdf
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Acknowledgements
There are many individuals I would like to thank for this opportunity. To Lipica Bhattacharya, for
organizing this volunteering opportunity for me, I am extremely grateful. To Supriya Roychowdhury and
Prasun Mondal, for allowing me to teach the oldest class of children each week, I am thankful. To the
children I taught English to, who cooperated in my class, I thank them all. Finally, to whom I am grateful the
most, I thank my grandfather, Manab Pal Chaudhuri, and my mother, Roopa Nath, for devoting the time and
effort to make this a reality.