Hello everyone, 

 

in the past I shared some materials for teaching very young children and I made them especially for this site, even though I was not teaching young children yet. I am still not teaching them but am planning to do so shortly and I was wondering what you have been using with respect to authentic teaching materials like songs and poems etc. What has worked for you and what has not and why?

 

(When, if at all) do you use expressions like "i before "e" except after "c" when teaching non-native students? Do you have more examples of such expressions? 

 

In summary, I guess I am looking for direction when it comes to choosing teaching materials that use simple language but are not childish with respect to content. 

 

I hope some of you can help.

 

Kind regards  

 

 

 

I�m not a super experienced teacher but I�ve been teaching for some years, particularly English to very young learners (2-5 years) but also to older students (6-12 years).

I can say that authentic songs work for older children when carefully selected, you just have to ask them what they are into and you�ll get them engaged easily.

However, truly authentic songs for very young learners (I�m referring to nursery rhymes and so on) are trickier because they include language that is very uncommon and not useful for them to use in the future. I�d recommend to adapt these songs, by simplifying them, shortening them and repeating certain sections of the verses or the whole verses, changing up some words, slowing the pace down, etc. A good example of this is what they do in the Super Simple English Youtube channel. I�ve use SOME of the songs up to 8 years (maybe streching it a bit too much though) and they love them.

I don�t get what you mean with the expression part.

I liked your advice.  I have also dumbed down songs for young learners by replacing whole lines with la, la, la, las when the lines were very difficult.

 

https://blog.udemy.com/spelling-rules-for-kids/ has a few more examples that may be useful, Blunderbuster and all. 

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/10-tricks-to-help-your-child-remember-tricky-spelling-words/ suggests that we can make up our own mnemonics and gives a few examples.

Edited: I added some links below to the original post.

 

Making props to retell books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar helps students understand the story better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEAtSZ4IVyg . Adding a craft related to the story is a fun activity for children. For example,  the students can decorate a butterfly and glue it onto a cardboard toilet paper roll, which they have covered with colored paper and decorated. then when they add a string, they have a toy that they can "fly"  by  swinging it by the string in a circle.

At the start of a lesson it generates interest to introduce some words with props that are hidden in a box or bag, by pulling them out (one by one) and asking, "What is this?" https://www.youtube.com/c/JennyTheStoryLady

 

When telling the Three Bears story, using props brings it to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqd3YCPN1Ig  http://aplaceofourown.org/activity.php?id=316 The take home from this lesson was a little mini-book showing the sequence of events. http://www.eslprintables.com/buscador/search.asp?nivel=any&age=0&tipo=any&contents=mini-book+The+Three+Bears&username=&B2=Search

More mini-books on various topics can be found here http://www.eslprintables.com/buscador/search.asp?nivel=any&age=0&tipo=any&contents=mini-books&username=&B2=Search

 

When learning body parts, the song, This is the way we wash our Face so early in the morning is memorable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpXI1iFHi6Y Also related to body parts is the Hokey Pokey game/action song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7sEtc326kM shows the actions.

 

The Farmer in the Dell and Old MacDonald are songs for animal vocabulary. Examples of how to play or sing them can be found in youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mibD5lR4Kco Class performing Farmer in the Dell without props.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IngU8FRqYX0 has the lyrics.

 

We used Hoola Hoops and props of the vocabulary words to separate items into categories. The students puts a prop into the correct Hoola Hoop. Example: farm animals vs Wild Animals. The student puts the elephant in the red Hoola Hoop for Wild Animals. The next student puts the horse in the Blue Hoop for Farm animals. Another category could be Water animals vs land animals. 

For the older children, it is nice when your English lessons tie into the curriculum for other subjects they are studying, for example, you can play Twister  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A5XO0udmdo on a World Map

 http://www.eslprintables.com/vocabulary_worksheets/countries_and_nationalities/

world_map/World_Map_for_Kids_103643/ or

 https://shop.nationalgeographic.com/collections/world-maps/products/world-explorer-wall-map

to tie in to geography they are learning.  You can cut countries from a big world map and laminate them. then make a spinner that points to the various countries.  Then you can tell the student who spins Germany to put his left foot on Germany or right hand on Spain. It is an interesting exercise for older students to set up the world map. They must figure out where the countries are located in relation to each other, in order to set up the world map on the floor in order to playTwister on it.

 

I am sure that other members have their own favorite successful activities to share, so I will yield the floor. 

Hi Blunderbuster,

 

Do you know this site? https://ukgermanconnection.org/kids/de/voyage-kids/ I think you�ll find it useful.

 

With young children, I use lots of gestures and pictures to avoid translating - it�s better for them if everything is in English and just kept very simple. I make a real point of not speaking their native language at all during the first lesson, to show them that they can sdo it!

Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions. 

 

BB