Learning Italian through yoga and songs

Article by Giorgia Garbuio, Rasarit Kindergarten volunteer

Let me tell you one of my most interesting experiences since I work with the kids from Rasarit Kindergarten. It’s about one of my best lessons, that I’m really proud of. I had to teach the little children from the groups called Buburuze and Fluturi, the animals in the Italian language.

After five months working in the kindergarten, I wanted to combine all the competences that I learnt here day by day. I have structured my lesson as a combination of yoga, songs, non verbal expressions and interpretation so that the kids can learn with pleasure and they can easily remember this lesson afterwards.

I considered that it would be a very easy way to learn the animal name with a very famous Italian song  ‘Nella vecchia fattoria’. So, I’ve asked every child to choose a favorite animal and to do some simulation of it. In this case they felt motivated because they’ve chosen what they wanted.

After practicing their favorite animal, the next step was to mix the song, the foreign language and the interpretation with yoga. I did some research and for each animal I’ve associated a very easy and amusing yoga position. In the end it was a very easy and fast way for the children to learn the name of the animals in a foreign language and they were very happy and joyful.