Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

I've got the chance to teach a group of 3-6 year olds for two hours a morning five days a week.

I'm relishing the opportunity to broaden my experience, which is almost nil at this age group.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me. I've noticed that a lot of you teach to kids of this age. I teach mainly to adults.

I'm excited about it but also a little nervous. It feels like starting over again!

Thanks

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Change your activities regulary - kids get bored quite quickly.
Use many different ways to drill the language.
Use as much TPR as possible.
Keep it fun - make sure that they are learning English in a fun way.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Thanks.

I've prepared some activities along the lines of chinese whispers, simon says, nursery rhymes, colouring activities, spelling games, matching exercises.
In two hours I'd look to do at least 6 activities - do you think 20 minutes is too long for each one?

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Yes, I think 20 minutes is too long. It's always better to over-plan, especially with the young sts.
Take a look at mes-english.com, simplyesl.com (my site) and this site and list at least 5 games (on top of the ones that you have) that you can use if you run out of activies.
When you sense the sts getting restless, it's time to change your activity.

Teaching that age group can be fun and VERY rewarding, just be prepared!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Thanks, I'll check out those sites today.

Your help is much appreciated.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Glad to help!

I'll need some help when I start teaching adults in a couple months.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

You know where to come!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Also, every lesson doesn't have to be English focused. You can do a lot of things like coloring or playdough where English isn't the main focus. Then you can ask the kids questions about their work afterward like 'what color is it?' or 'what is it?'.

two hours for that age everyday is intense. i would consider making a routine for yourself. this structure will help the kids through that 2 hour period if they know that after coloring is a game and after that it's singing, etc...

i'd make a schedule like this:
9:00 - 9:15 - song
9:15- 9:25 - story book
9:25 - 9:35 - ???
etc...

that way your day will be much easier to plan and the kids will start to anticipate certain parts of the lesson.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

I agree with Eric about it the lesson not always focusing on teaching the students English. However, they should be in an English environment. At one of my locations I do arts + crafts or a special activity every lesson. Crafts generally keep the sts interested for a long time (sometimes up to 30 mins), and the sts will be immersed in a lot of incidental language (cut the paper etc).

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

another thing i used to do to keep them in an English environment is to play some English songs that they are familiar with. one young class i taught literally sat there, cutting and coloring and singing the songs. it was great exposure for them and they enjoy it.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

There's something I haven't tried. I'll use it tomorrow!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

That's great advice, especially about the non-language based activities. it's easy to forget that just 'cos teacher 'isn't doing anything' it doesn't mean they aren't learning.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

I'm intending to keep the environment as exclusively English as possible. Basic instructions will be one of the main aims of the first weeks ie sit down, come here, colour the picture etc. Using their creativity as a teaching tool is such a simple idea that it seems obvious, but I hadn't thought of it!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

it took me a long time to get used to stepping back from the group a little bit. but at that age, they need more subtle methods of delivery.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Which songs do you use?

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

i used a textbook called Super Tots in class. it came with tapes that had songs. so these were songs that they were already familiar with so it makes it easier for them to listen to. Super Tots also had a lot of activities in it where english was more the secondary focus, not primary.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

I start with the young kids today, thankfully the lessons have been cut to an hour. having prepared a few materials it became very clear that 2 hours was way too long.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

i teach this age group for three hours every saturday and sometimes i feel the time isn't even enough.these kids can do and absorb a lot of lessons . jusr provide acirivities that will make them move.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

graesta - I love the avatar!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

well it went pretty well. we did introductions and wrote our names on nice coloured pieces of paper, adding some designs too.
then we painted the numbers one to ten on pieces of paper and chanted them together. Then we played a game where each was assigned a number and they had to stand up when I called that number. Then they shut their eyes and I bounced a ball on the floor - they had to tell me how many times it bounced. All in all it was good fun!

Any suggestions for Monday's class?!

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Let them bounce the ball! And you guess wrong every time.
It's a great way to get them using negatives.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Hi Clive,
I have been teaching English to 4-6 year olds in Italy for two years now and am about to start the third year this week. Where abouts in Italy do you teach? I have loads of advice I could give you, and lots of printed sheets etc. you may find useful so if interested please get in touch and I would be happy to help. My advice is similar to that you have already had, it totally imperative you vary activities, I teach over 80 kids divided into 6 groups and each child does two hours of english a week which can be daunting for them given that they cannot yet read or write. Some of the children are already learning another language at home and are therefore uninterested in a third, but others are enthusisastic and a pleasure to teach. I divide my lessons into about 5 short activities, including games, music, colouring etc. The most important thing in my lessons is routine, when I first started in the schools I had no experience at all of teaching kids and my first lesson, although well-planned was a nightmare (never get a ball out until they know how to behave!) but as I managed to establish a routine, starting with the register and finishing with a story it improved. I use lots of flashcards, with pictures of how they should and shouldn't behave (like 'in a line' and 'quiet please') and they seem to work. Hope its going well for you, if you need any help please get in touch. Jen

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Hi Clive...

It looks like you've been given a lot of wonderful advice and ideas to help you get started, but I did want to jump in on this one as well because I specialise in fun learning games for this age group.

I do have to say that I agree that 20 minutes is often too long for this age group as you may not be able to hold their attention that long (sometimes they'll surprise you, however). The idea of setting up a general schedule for them is also a great one because kids of this age like to be able to predict what will be happening next.

Since kids of this age don't know how to read or write much more than their own names, playing games is the way to go. When teaching with games, especially to young children, you'll want to take into consideration the competition factor, however. While competition is often a motivator for older kids, preschoolers can easily get discouraged if competition is weighed too heavily on the game, so you might want to consider finding ways to make everyone "winners" or just play the games "for fun".

I hope this helps!

See my preschool games book for tons of short activities for kindergarten kids.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Hi
There's been lots of suggestions on this thread about music and movement. There are lots of free chants, songs and games for primary kids on http://www.pamseslclassroom.com

I just added some song packages that enable you to download the mp3 as well as the lesson plan, flashcards and worksheets in pdf format. I am putting more up all the time and hope these help you.
Also there are free downloads and lots of lyrics for songs suitable for the primary kids you have.

Good luck

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

Hi,

I know this thread already abounds with great advice and links, but I wanted to share my experience as well.

I used to teach this age group (Korean 5 year olds, which range in western age from just under 4 to nearly 6). I saw two groups for 80 minutes each 5 days a week. The group that were slightly younger (by a few months) were nightmarishly difficult to control. The slightly older group were angelic.

The best advice already given that I wanted to stress was developing a routine. I broke the lesson down into short segments of action and quiet time like this:

*15 minutes of song and dance (a few old songs and a new one every few days)
* 5 minutes of language review (usually with flashcards)
* 10 minutes of new language presentation (using one or two sit down games)
* 10 minutes of language practice using a game with movement

*break time - 10 minutes

* 10-15 minutes of storybook and activities (our school curriculum had one new book per week for us, by the end of the week they could often repeat many parts of the whole story, if not the whole thing)
* 5 minutes of stretching/ exercise or Simon says type activity to get the blood flowing again
* 10-15 minutes of colouring/ worksheet, often while playing the songs from period one or another English tape
* clean up time with the clean up song

It sounds fairly rigid, but of course you have to read the class's spirit of the day to gauge the timing of each segment. At first I thought 80 minutes would be impossible, but with the breakdown time went really fast.

It's true variation is good, but repetition is also good. One day one little guy saw me point to the clock and he exclaimed "Look at the time!" which I then realized was something I must have been saying all the time without noticing.

Anyway, good luck with your class. This thread has a bunch of activities you can use to fill in the time slots.

Re: Teaching 3-6 year olds - Help me!
 

I've started teaching English as a foreign language to 3 - 5 yrs olds in 30 min slots 3 times a week and it is scary at first but it's a lot of fun.
Plan your lessons carefully and in a structured way but kow that some days your plan simply goes out the window.
I'll be honest with you - I found Super Simple Songs CDs (Super Simple Songs - Easy English songs for kids.) to be the BEST resource ever. Whenever I feel the kids want to do something different, they get a new TPR song (with or without the CD/video) and it works!

Good luck!