A Rainy Day

Creative drawing in English class-1

 

It was raining outside. All the children in the class room were watching the rain through the window. The day before had been a hot day. So they were happy to see the rain.
“Hai, rain!” Sreehari exclaimed.
“Do you like  rain?” I asked him.
“Yes, sir.” He said happily.
“Why do you like rain?”
“Playing.”  He said.
I know, he wanted to say more. But he could not express it all in English.
I told the whole class.
“Children,look. Sreehari likes  to play in the rain.”

Then,I repeated the question to the whole class.
“Do you like rain?”
“I like walking the rain.” Varsha said.
“Oh,Varsha likes walking in the rain.”I said loudly correcting the sentence.
“I like sleeping.” Malavika said.
“Malavika likes sleeping in the night, hearing the sound of the rain.”
“I like to walk in the rain taking an umbrella.” Gopika said.
“Gopika  likes to walk in the rain holding  an umbrella.”
“I like to sit in the sit-out and look at the rain.”  Dhanith said.
“I want jumping.”
“I like running.”
“I like playing cricket.”

“OK. That's enough.” I said. Then, I wrote on the black board- 'A Rainy Day.'
“Children,this is the caption.” I told them  pointing to the  black board. “Can you draw a picture?”
OK. We are ready,sir.” All of them said.
“Don't use pencil and rubber. You draw with sketch pen and colour it using crayons.”

I gave them paper,sketch pen and crayons and asked them to fold the paper  to leave a little space for writing .

The children started drawing. I played some soft music in my mobile phone. They were very happy to hear the music. Some of them sat on the floor. They were interacting with each other and exchanging ideas. Drawing allows more chances to interact and co-operate with each other. They exchanged different coloured sketch pens and crayons. I asked them to speak in English as much as possible. They tried. But I know,it would take time.

I was walking around the class and watching how they draw. It made me so happy. The children were drawing well.
“Safeeda,it's good. What's this girl doing?” I asked.
“She is dancing, sir.”
“This girl is dancing in the rain... very good.”

“What is this?” Pointing to Faya's picture I asked.
“It's a river. Full water. So many fishes. A boy  catch fish.” Fayas described his picture.
“Good. A nice drawing! It's a river. Full of water. A boy is  catching  fish.”

In this manner, I asked each and every child about their picture and made comments. This was to give the necessary language input for writing a description later on.

  

They took 30 minutes to finish their drawing.
The next task was to talk about their picture. They stood up and showed the pictures to  everybody in the class and started to talk about what they had drawn.
This time most of the children could talk in full sentences.
My interaction and comments during the drawing turned out to be a good support for them.

Vishnu talked about his picture like this:

“There is raining. There was so many clouds. Some birds are flying in the rain. There is a stream. The stream is flowing. There is so many trees and houses. A green bird is sitting in a stone. Some man collecting rain water. A girl will running in the rain. A boy holding the umbrella. A bird is going near the nest. There is so many grass. There was lightning. The trees are dancing in the wind. The trees are happy. The village is happy.”

There may be mistakes. But they could express their ideas in English. That was a step forward which filled their minds with confidence.

The next task was writing a description. All of them started writing with much enthusiasm.  Writing  the  description was much easier compared to talking about the picture. They finished their writing within  ten minutes.

Swetha's description was like this:

'The small rain drops falling down. So many hills and clouds in the picture. The sky is black. Two trees,two flowers,some rock,some grass in the picture. The small tree dancing in the wind. The flower enjoying the rain. The children playing in the rain. The small stream flowing speedily. There is a small hut. Many fishes swimming in the water. A nest and two baby birds in the big tree. A mother hen and the baby hens walking in the rain. A boy holding the umbrella and the girl playing in the rain. This is a raining day's picture and this is a beautiful picture.'

Most of the children wrote very well. There may be grammatical  or spelling mistakes. But they were on the right track. This activity made them more confident in expressing themselves in English. Here, the picture they had drawn worked as a strong stimulant in creating  language.

The children exchanged their pictures and descriptions in pairs and  groups. After reading the description they gave feedbacks to each other. They made  some corrections in their writings on the basis of these feedbacks. Finally,a few children read aloud their descriptions in the class. I exhibited all the pictures and descriptions on the display board.

M.M.Surendran