SILLY RHYMES FOR ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

Dictionary: A limerick is a nonsense verse.

The school has started to use rhymes in the limerick format with the basic rhyme scheme aabbc. The key to phonics learning is the use of rhythm and rhyme. Young students will learn to chant limerick type rhymes quickly and never forget.

THE FAT FROG

There was 
a fat frog

that sat on 
a log

and waited 
so long 
for his dinner.

He caught 
a big fly 

as it flew 
on by

and thought
that he was 

a winner.

OLD DOG 

There was 
an old dog

named Joe

that never 
would get up 
and go.

He'd lie 
on the ground, 

not making 
a sound

and not even 
wiggling

his toe.

YOUNG MAN 

There was a 
young man 

from Lae

who went 
for a walk 

every day.

He went 
down a track

and did not 
come back

He may have 
got lost

on the way.

He was found 
on the ground

the next day.

He was OK.

He had kicked 
his toe

on a stone
and broken 
a bone.

OLD HORSE

There was 
an old horse 
named Clyde
that took 
all the kids
for a ride.
But he galloped 
around
and stamped 
on the ground
and made 
all the kids
run and hide

It is amazing in this school that that teachers have stopped the sounding and blending of words in the early elementary grades. 

The words are so simple that students read and recall quickly. They can move on to more complex words in the higher grades in upper primary and high schools based on the simple words. 

Complex words are to match the complex discussion. Rocket science phonics is not needed. We start simple and concrete then move to the complex and abstract.

at, cat, mat, fat. bat, rat, sat
an, man, pan, ran, fan, ban, van, can
car, far, bar, star, 
tall, ball, fall, small

moving on to:

cattle, battle, rattle, battery, mattress, maternal, maternity, rate, 
banner, candle, handle, manage, management, incandescent, candid
carrot, farm, farmer, barrel, barrister, barter, start, stare, barracks, 
balloon, ballet, ballistic

TEACHERS REMINDED OF THE BIG PICTURE OF LEARNING

Teachers work in big boxes and many do not think outside of the box. There used to be the primary and secondary school boxes and never the two groups of teachers would ever meet to get their act together.

Now there is the elementary school box that is trying to turn literacy into rocket science. But the answer to modern teaching lies in the past. There is little new to be learned. 

Small children have a limited view of the world with self focus. They know about their parents, brothers and sisters, going to school, their teacher, going to town, swimming in the river, helping parents at home, their best friend and playing games.

Their learning of vocabulary follows the same path. They only need about 60 basic words in elementary study. 

All are centred on their self focused lives - to, from, with, and, mummy, daddy, brothers, parents, house, school, food, swim. river, dog, cat, bird, frog, hat, open, door, walk, school, friend, teacher and more. Children tend to absorb and retain such words like sponges.

They can learn these by chanting, word recognition and reading patterns of sentences. As the child becomes adolescent, their view of life expands to wider fields. So too the words they need to know. 

The elementary students focus mainly on single syllable words leading into two syllable words but now the primary school students have to read and write more complex words on wider subjects.

Then the child becomes a senior primary or high school student and has an expanded  view of life moving into other focus. They have to become more theoretical in their knowledge with ability to discuss the economic problems of the nation, domestic violence, values, alcoholism, terrorism, honesty and sexuality.

Their knowledge of words has to increase year by year. The answer was provided in past decades by derivation of words from the Latin and Greek. 

Porto - portus (I carry)

Carry across - transport
Carry in  - import
Carry out - export
Carry down - deport
Carry back - report

Jacio -jectus  (I throw)

Throw in - inject
Throw back - reject
Throw down - deject
Throw out - eject, ejaculate
Throw forward - project

Pello - pulsus ( I drive)

Drive out - expel
Drive back - repel, repulse
Drive forward - propel

Please click:

LATIN FOR PNG STUDENTS

They learned to spell by understanding prefixes, roots and suffixes - trans-port-ation, de- script-ion, pro-pell- or. The blending from elementary school has been left far behind. They have to express more complex ideas in sentences which takes them out of a focus on simple sentences. There are hundreds of words based on Latin and Greek.

Teachers of the past learned the big picture of student learning from psychology. The psychologist Jean Piaget set out how students moved from childhood to adolescence and adulthood through concrete concepts moving to abstract concepts and abstract words. Please click:

Jean Piaget - Biologist, Psychologist, Scientist - Biography.com

www.biography.com/people/jean-piaget-9439915

7 days ago - Learn more about scholar Jean Piaget's four stages of childhood mental development and his other groundbreaking contributions to the field of ...

In the past, teachers applied the basic axioms of learning that teachers should proceed from (1) simple to complex (2) known to unknown, (3) concrete to abstract and (4) part to whole.

This is still the very basis of learning. Elementary teachers must not turn phonics into a rocket science study that still leaves the slower students behind. 

There is no need to blend words with fancy symbols for early elementary students if most of the words are single syllable - house, car, dog, cat, mat, sat, fat, bat, rat, tall, small, wall, ball, hall, school, pool, tool, fish, dish, mad, sad, bad, van, ran, can, pan, man and many more. 

TOK PISIN IS BASED ON ENGLISH NOT GERMAN

There is a misunderstanding in this country being perpetuated as late as The National today that Tok Pisin is derived from German. This is completely false. 

The assumption was that the Germans came to New Guinea first before World War 1 which made German the basis of Tok Pisin.

There are words that derive from German. The Tok Pisin word "maski" means "It matters not". This comes from the German "macht nicht".  We all know the meaning of the tok pisin word "raus" if we remember the Nazi slogan "Juden raus" or "Jews get out".

The word (h)amamas seems to have come from the Latin and brought to the country by the Catholic Church. It would be related to the words of the romance languages to mean love - amo (Italian) amour (French) amorous, amiable, amicable (English).

If we check out the old dictionaries we find German words mainly related to ship building tools. The word meisel comes to mind. But these terms have become extinct like the dinosaurs.

The structure of Tok Pisin comes from English. As a teacher of Tok Pisin for many years, I found that it was a simple task to teach Tok Pisin to Australians because they spoke English. 

I once tried to teach a group of Koreans which was like teaching language to brick walls. The Korean language allowed no direct transfer to Tok Pisin. 

Australians just flowed along in the same basic patterns as English. Some Tok Pisin still had the flavour of uneducated Australians of a century ago.

That is why there is a direct transfer of structures in the elementary school phonics program on this blog. There is straight transfer from the Tok Pisin course at the RAAF School of Languages to the present English phonics program.

Yumi go
Yumi go
Yumi go long taun
Yumi go long taun
Yumi go insait long haus
Yumi go insait long haus
Yumi go kisim wara
Yumi go kisim wara 
Yumi go wantaim em
Yumi go wantaim em
Yumi go insait long haus wantaim ol
Yumi go insait long haus wantaim ol

Of course there are complex English patterns but there is direct transfer from simple sentence English to Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin can be used to explain detailed and complex concepts but at times there has to be a short narrative to get around the topic.  Please click:

DUK Tours: Tok Pisin Tree (Pidgin English)

www.duktours.net/2010/05/tok-pisin-tree-pidgin-english.html

By Bruce Copeland. Tok Pisin Tree (64 patterns). I came to PNG to serve at Igam Barracks during 1976-1977. I had just completed a Bahasa Indonesia course at ...

RHYTHM OF LIFE IS A POWERFUL BEAT

Can you recall the hit song from decades ago called "The Rhythm of Life" ? I can not remember all the words except "the rhythm of life has a powerful beat. Rhythm in the bedroom rhythm in the street". They forgot to mention rhythm in the classroom.

Earlier generations at school up to the 1970s were used to rhythm in the classroom. They chanted the multiplication tables, sang songs, recited poems and nursery rhymes and danced folk dances.

Then it all stopped in the 1960s and 1970s when some fool teachers decreed that memorization was an inferior way of learning. Noise in classrooms stopped. There is still silence in classrooms as students are not required to recite anything.

Even phonics is silent in modern classrooms with students required to work out the meanings of words by blending - all silent work.

We are bringing back chanting at elementary school. At the Eriku school students love to chant patterns and may well remember these patterns into old age. The phonic patterns bring rhythm memory back to the classroom.

We go
We go
We go to town
We go to town
We go with him
We go with him
We go into the house
We go into the house
Don't go
Don't go
Don't go with them
Don't go with them
Don't go to town with them
Don't go to town with them

Why make young kids focus on intellectualizing words with exclusive focus on sounds and blending? Let them chant and memorize the literacy music of simple words. There is so much rhythm in poetry and nursery rhymes:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
to fetch a pail of water

/        x    /        x      /     x    /
x     /    x   /    x       /   x

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow

/  x        /    x    / x     /
x      /        x       /     x       /

Then we have rhythm in the nation

Oh arise all you sons of this land
x     x /      x   x     /      x    x      /
Let us sing of a joy to be free
x     x    /      x  x   /   x   x    /
Praising God and rejoicing to be
/       x          /   x     x   /   x     x   x/
Papua New Guinea
/    x x     /      / x

Listen to kids in the playground. Can you recall the clapping chant. " Down by the river down by the sea, Jimmy broke a bottle and he blamed me. I told mummy and mummy told daddy and daddy got a big stick and bam bam bam" - pure rhythm in the playground.

Teachers have to bring back rhythm to the classroom and phonics will look after itself.

COMMENT ON JOLLY PHONICS

Post Courier of Papua New Guinea 8 June 2016 Page 24

Jolly Phonics has much value but stops short at teaching words in sentence structures.

There is a report in the media on Jolly Phonics that can not go uncommented on. Written by Russell Jackson, the report claims that Jolly Phonics is fun and transforming reading and writing all over the world and that teachers have noticed huge improvements to the point that they are absolutely amazed.

The report states that Jolly Phonics focus on 42 sounds, letter formation, blending letter sounds to read words, segmenting identifying sounds, learning tricky irregular words. The report claims that the number of students needing remedial help is being dramatically reduced.

We would express the view that Jolly Phonics certainly helps with reading, understanding and writing words which is what every new phonics program does. But it does not teach the basics of sentence structure. 

It does not teach students the rhythm of words and sentences that is the very basis of written and spoken English. This is a massive shortcoming that is being addressed in our program in Papua New Guinea.

Students have to feel the smooth rhythm of sentences and feel the ways sentences are put together. Phonics is about feeling the poetry of words in structures. Jolly Phonics does not appear to do that in any way.

Over the last month, we have posted 5 reports on reading and feeling the poetry of sweet English. Students chant and clap. 

Teachers help them to understand new words by telling them to blend but the key focus is the rhythm of sentences. Students will come to implant on their souls the rhythm of all the basic patterns of English sentences. 

They will write elegant English as they advance through school with the memory of the rhythm of words and sentences. Some will become journalists, writers and masters of sweet and rhythmic English.

See the reports on this blog below that have attracted 1500 hits in the last month from Papua New Guinea. Clap your hands and chant the patterns below in weak-strong-weak-strong stress. 

There will be at least 80 sequences by the end of the year. The students will be skilled at stringing patterns together to make sentences. Then complex words will be slowly integrated year by year.

I go
I go
I go to town
I go to town
I go to buy some food
I go to buy some food
I go to school
I go to school
I go to learn to read and write
I go to learn to read and write
I go to bed
I go to bed
I go to bed to sleep at night
I go to bed to sleep at night
I wake up in the morning light
I wake up in the morning light.

Ours is the only program in Papua New Guinea to take children past words. Language is about sentences not just words. Jolly Phonics is about teaching words which is important but appreciation and use of sweet sentences must must be the primary aim of learning from elementary to Grade 12.

Bruce Copeland BA BEdSt (Qld)
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Cambridge)
Teacher of Tok Pisin - RAAF School of Languages Melbourne 1978-1992.
Teacher of English in Papua New Guinea schools - Elementary to Grade 12.

Monthly hit tally: 197, 236

Papua New Guinea

44889

United States

19737

Russia

17783

Australia

8774

Germany

2576

Indonesia

2319

France

2057

United Kingdom

1248

New Zealand

1148

Ukraine

794

STRINGING PHONIC PATTERNS TOGETHER

Mikhaela Palin2 June 2016 at 20:45

That is great and good progress for the students. I am very excited and looking forward to the end of the year.

For a week at the Eriku elementary school, I have begun a revolution in teaching the English language to 8 year olds, some having started to learn English only eighteen months before. There was no mention of grammar but only sequences of rhythmic patterns.

The structures were mainly those of simple sentences with a limited vocabulary to be used while the patterns were being learned. 

Students were learning to go to town, go into the house, go and get water at the river, buy food at the market, sit with me, read a book, walk to the house, go into the house, open the door, shut the window, close your eyes, open your eyes, wash the clothes and more. 

These were enough to produce basic patterns. Complex vocabulary comes when the patterns are mastered in simple words.

Last week, we focused on single thought patterns:

Open the door.

Go into the house.

Sit on the floor, 

Close your eyes.

Go to the market.
Open the window.

Read a book. 
Call the dog.

Buy some food.

Talk to me. and more

Now it is time to extend the structures with and, but, with, to. We will start with the connector and:

Open the door and go inside.

Sit on the floor and read a book.

Go to market and buy some food.

Open the window and call the dog.

But that opens the door to further stringing of patterns as lists which is most relevant at high school and business college in report writing.

Open the door, go inside and sit on the floor.

Go to the market, buy some food and come back to the house.

Go to bed, close your eyes and fall asleep.

He went to the room, looked around and then went out again.

Stringing of phonic patterns can now become the very basis of teaching of English to young students. It is like stringing beads on a necklace. Limit the grammar and drill the patterns. Tell them the grammar from Grade 4.

I think that / I will go to town / to buy some food.

Would you like to / come with me / and swim in the sea?

I would like to / sit at the house / and talk to you / about my school.

I think that / I would like to / go with you / to the airport.

CON-MAN HOUSE STEALER ARRESTED IN KOKOPO

Post Courier 3 June 2016

What do you think of all this Uncle Laimo Superintendant and head of NCD police ? Do the police thugs in your family bash other care workers too? Is Grace dead ? Were the police thugs in your family helping Baragu to steal the house in Garia Street? 

The plan of the housestealers was to get me out to sell the house. So your drunken family police thugs walked into a criminal hideout, bashed the care worker and let the criminals go free. Well done coppers.  See report on Corruption in the Papua New Guinea Constabulary below.

Police in East New Britain have arrested and charged a man for one count of stealing under false pretenses the sum of K129, 739 from a business house in Kokopo town. 

The accused Allan Baragu from Raluana village was residing in Vunamami Urban LLG at the time of the incident. It was alleged that Baragu was acting as representative for Paul Tunia and George Tunia to negotiate a land deal.

When the negotiation was going well, Baragu brought in Paul Tunia and signed an agreement to purchase land with Mr Rodriguez. But the money never reached Paul and George Tunia.

Comment:  Allan Baragu is a well known con-man who sells the property of other people and National Housing Corporation (NHC)  and later the National Housing Estates Limited (NHEL) and steals the money. 

He was once the Conveyancing Officer for the National Housing Commission but sold the houses and kept the money. He was sacked from NHC but never taken to Court. The corruption of NHC is such that all fraud is kept in-house. There was so much fraud in NHC. that only the greedy officers were sacked.

Three years ago he and his family pushed themselves into a house at Garia Street 5 Mile of which I was caretaker while the old man was away for treatment in the Philippines. They did their best to push me out with the intention of stealing and selling the house.

But they failed when I refused to move. On the last night he brought two clients to move into the house but I had locked the door and threatened him that he would be hit with an iron bar if he smashed his way in through the door. He decided not to try. He had been bashing the door in with a sledge hammer.

He left for Kokopo soon after that as he had been found by Peter the Engan who lived in a street near the Gordons International School and had paid Baragu K45,000 for a stolen house. He had been given a fake title by the corrupt ex-NHC conveyancer Baragu and had searched for him for two years. 

Peter the Engan was a devout Catholic who attended St Peters Sunday mass but still received a stolen house at Hohola. He undoubtedly knew the house was stolen.

The family had been kicked out by corrupt NHC and police and the mother was thrown out of her death bed and died on the street. The daughter asked my help and came to the house but the house stealers denounced her as a prostitute come for sex. She had read reports on Baragu on our blog and found our address at Garia Street.

It was the Baragu wife who started the hate campaign to remove me from the NHEL unit so that they could steal and sell. When that failed she passed the job to the criminal neighbours who had me evicted by police and their corrupt aunty Madelaine  

CEO of NHC, Aunty Madelaine turned  a blind eye to these criminal neighbours and wantoks in Garia Street building blocks of flats at the back of the NHC unit and collecting rent. Other tenants were punished and made to pull the flats down. Not the Kendi family related to the CEO.

The Baragu wife Aunty Carol to the Kendi family spread the word that I was running a brothel. I did not need to tell them that this unit was a care centre for AIDS Holistics helping people with HIV, AIDS and TB. It was quietly known by several people in the neighbourhood suffering from sickness.

The Baragu wife warned girls that I was sexually dangerous. She did not have to worry about me. She had the grossly ugly sex appeal of an overweight elephant  seal. AIDS Holistics had conducted a care centre at this address for 7 years. 

Within 2 months of the Baragus invading the house, we were being told our centre was a brothel and had to be cleaned out of the neighbourhood. An NHC unit was being stolen by criminals.

At last Peter the Engan found Baragu walking along Kanage Street, said 10 Hail Marys  and had him bashed by two car loads of Engans armed with iron bars and hammers. Baragu had promised to repay the stolen money and desperately needed to sell the house in Garia Street to get money. 

When that failed, he ran away to Kokopo where he was recently arrested playing the same tricks. The Engan is probably still looking for him  Please click:

house stealers on run from police - family positive living - aids holistics

familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/2014/02/house-stealers-on-run-from-police.htm

l

Feb 27, 2014 - The house at 83 Garia Street is quiet. House stealers have gone 

on the run from police. There is no more raucous screaming fro