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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Need help teaching children
Need help teaching children
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lillizen
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Need help teaching children
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Hello, everyone:
This week, I started teaching English (ESL) to two groups of kids.
The first group has 8 kids of mixed ages, from 3 to 5,
and the second group has 5 kids, aged 6 to 8 (some can read/write, others, cannot).
I have been a longtime teacher of adults, but have barely any experience with small kids. So it was quite difficult to speak the same language as they do and to put myself in their shoes. Most of all, it was dreadfully difficult to teach without being able to write or present written texts. :S
I need your help on how I should deal with these young kids,
and I would also appreciate ideas of activities, games, lesson plans, etc.
Thanks in advance,
Lilli Zen. (^.^)
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19 Mar 2010
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Vivi Quir
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I have lots of experience with those age groups, so I may help. With the little ones: the very first thing I do is make them sit in a circle on the floor and we say hello with a song, then I add other songs, ALWAYS WITH GESTURES, such as incy wincy, the rainbow, then I take out a finger puppet and tell them we have a visit to say hello. The puppet says hello and gives each kid a kiss then "he goes to sleep" Next, I show 3 flashcards of weather (sunny cloudy rainy, I ask them, we sing another song, Then, some kinesthetic activity: I make them stand up and tell them they are robots so they perform different actions, I even pretend I turn on a switch (which is their nose) "robots, sit down, robots, stand up, robots fly, robots walk, of course at the beginning I do it with them. Then we sing "hokey pokey" or "head shoulders.." Next, they sit again and I introduce a vocabulary area, no more than 4 / 5 words at a time, always with flashcards of course. and we play something with them. we repeat them with different gestures as well, a lot of movement as u can see. Then we go to the tables and we colour sth in connection with what we have seen or we illustrate / colour a song. Every class there �s sth new, either a puppet or a game, different resources, the main thing is to make and take with yourself plenty of stuff: ballons, pieces of cloth, caps to play bingo, the puppets, a magic wand to turn them into animals or toys, a hat, objects in a bag to pass it round and when u stop the music each child takes out a thing, could be stars/ flowers of different colours, small cards with sth, anything... Sth else, make them pretend they get on a bus and sing "the wheels on the bus" If u need printables take a look at my wss, if u are interested just pm me and I will give u a hand. I have lots of more ideas pm me |
19 Mar 2010
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yetigumboots
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I was going to answer your message but Vivi just about said it all. I teach kindergarten kids and use mainly the principles Vivi set out. Lots of little short exercises cos kids dont sit down for very long, so as she says lots of songs, games, books and fun. I have found out the hard way that the kids pick up right away when you are feeling a bit unsure of yourself... so always go in happy and bouncy and they will be too. I use a puppet too, who come out of his box every week and brings something new with him every time. The puppet always sings a hello song and then goes round all the kids asking �what �s your name � after a couple of weeks they then ask the child next to them �whats your name � and it goes round the circle. Then songs, finger play, read simple books with some activity attached. Then at the end we have a creative 10 mins. colouring, drawing or making something.
Go to www.supersimplesongs.com and watch some of their videos. I bought the CD set and have not looked back. They have a song for every theme. I am not advertising for them but just saying how I work. Hope you have fun with your little kids. (they drive you nuts sometimes but it is worth it to hear them start saying their first words...)  hugs Yeti xx |
19 Mar 2010
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lshorton99
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I agree with both vivi and yetigumboots and I would add that with kids it �s really important to establish a routine.
Some games and activities that work well.
Slam
Either put flashcards on the board or on the floor and students have to touvh whichever vocabulary item you say. you can also get students to be �teacher �.
TPR
Students have to follow instructions such as �Touch your... � �Point to... � �Stand up... � �Dance � etc. Again, get ss to be teacher.
Guessing games
Again with flashcards, make a big show out of something being secret and get the students to guess what it is - �is it a... � Kim �s game also works well.
Teaching kids is the highlight of my day so I �m sure you �ll enjoy it! PM me if you need anymore help!
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19 Mar 2010
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ramon.moravski
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Well, as I think you already have all the help needed, I �d like to take advantage of your situation to state something that I think is horrible.
What is happening to you, happened to me some time ago. I was used to teaching adults (mainly in business context) and suddenly I had a group of 15 kids, aged 8-10. And I was excepected to do a good job.
Excuse me for the way I �ll put it now but, WHAT THE HELL??? How can a person teach in such a different context without any real training. I think there are lots of schools who just take for granted that if you are a teacher, you can teach anything for anybody.
This is a protest against the schools that doesn �t offer necessary trainings and workshops for their teacher and still demand an excellent job.
What about you people? What do you think of this?
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19 Mar 2010
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lillizen
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First of all, thank you very much, everyone.
Comments:
Vivi, your comments are very helpful,
I am writing them down, so I won �t forget anything!!! 
"... so always go in happy and bouncy and they
will be too." - I �ll do my best, Yeti. 
And I �ll take a look at the songs site later (or maybe tomorrow). ^^
Lshorton99: thank you very much - thanks for the routine advice and Kim �s game idea!!! 
Ramon: I am sorry to hear you had no choice but to take that group. In my case, actually, it was my choice to teach kids, and I hope to have a good time with them!
However, it was kind of too quick, I talked to the principal, and she said: "Can you start tomorrow?" and I said, "Well, ok!" LOL 
Tks again!!
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20 Mar 2010
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