Teaching Valentine's Day in South Korea

Here in the land of Kimchi and other spicy foods, Valentine's Day comes with a bit less commercialization yet the same funky desire to have somebody to love and receive gifts from. The Harrington's will be celebrating the day in a traditional Harrington manner and of course, we at The Harrington Times will bring the story in due time. Today however, we bring the story of Valentine's Lessons in Middle School and Elementary School settings.

One fabulous aspect to teaching English in a foreign country is the opportunity to have darling or un-motivated students (whichever the case may be, currently in Korea students fall into the latter category as one school year comes to an end and a new one will soon begin) help the Native English Teacher send some love and joy to friends and family back home. So it was, Michael Teacher conducted a weeks worth of Valentine writing requiring his students to write a sweet Valentine to some of the special women in his life before having the opportunity to write a Valentine to a person of their choice.

At the elementary school level, Melissa Teacher strayed from writing Valentine's with her sweet and darling group of 2nd graders and chose instead to do a little Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes action before using this worksheet to have students add a face to their own cupid. Should you find yourself in need of a Valentine activity or an easily adjustable body parts lesson in your own teaching English as a foreign language try this out:

Introduce the 'topic' with this YouTube video. Ask students what they heard, what they saw, etc.
Play or sing the song; Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, use this video if you like.
Lead students in singing the song at increasing/decresing speeds. Quiz them on body parts i.e. Head, Knees, Eyes (they move their hands accordingly).
Make sure students really know Eyes, Ears, Mouth, Nose before passing out this worksheet and viola - easy end of semester lesson for young English Language learners!





Happy Valentine's Day to all our Readers!