The concept of The English Day in Santa Ana Fraga School began 3 years ago from an initiative of the Preschool teachers (3 – 5 years) and the English department and was established as a project one year later in the Preschool stage (3 – 5 years). The English Day is a project based on English language immersion of our children throughout the whole day. It was born because of the necessity of our students to reinforce their basic English language skills in a favourable environment.
The English Day at school is carried out the last Thursday of every month and the topic of the day depends on which English or American cultural celebrations happen each month. For example, this last October we celebrated Halloween at school. On the other hand, if we don’t find an adaptable cultural celebration for our younger pupils, the teachers together with the English department will decide on a theme to be followed that day.
The English Day is divided in 5 steps: 1- kids’ immersion (storytelling), 2- prior knowledge (vocabulary and grammar structures), 3- small activities (activities in groups of 4), 4- main activity (activity in the class group) and 5- evidences (reflections about what they have learnt).
The methodology used to carry out the English day is the Project Based Learning (PBL). We use that methodology because we want to get our students involved at all levels of the teaching and learning process which makes them feel the protagonist of their own learning process.
