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Teaching English to Kids Thread

Davey

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As most foreigners in Japan are teachers, and a lot of those people work with kids, i decided it was time for a Teaching English to Kids Thread. please post your qeustions her, ideas, tips, etc etc... maybe somebody know some good links?

i worked in Summerschool in japan for 5 days, with kids. espcially the first day was rough, because i never worked with kids before. and i am wondering, does anybody know some ways, to keep the kids PAYING ATTENTION!!!! this was really one of the most hardest things of whole week.

and does anybody know some nice games, or activities for christmas for kids?

hope this thread will be used, to share each ideas, to make the teachers better teachers, then they already are!!!!
 
For Little Kids !

Be overly expressive with your voice tones and body language, to the point of being clown like; as a kid, did you care what a up-tight/reserved adult had to say? Get down to their level, get on the floor with them, roll up your sleeves and get dirty with them. Save the "adult" times for when disapline and control are required so they still know you are the boss in control. Humm, all this from a guy with no kids; I did teach kindergarten in Sunday school though.

Frank

 
I had the pleasure of doing some teaching in the elementry schools when I was in Okinawa. I had a lot of fun. I never went in on Christmas.

But a good game could be with christmas items, The use of Snowflake, Stockings, Candycanes, etc.
 
I agree with Frank on getting down on kids level.
First thing you have to do and a lot of adults don't is making eye contacts with them to get their attention. More importantly, their attention span is much shorter than you think, and you have to be ahead of them to occupy their interests. When they seem to be bored, you are keeping them for too long.
Don't be afraid to be silly because they like it.
They love making a big mess, but it's ok because you can teach them to clean up.

For Christmas activities, these are the things I did with my class of 2 year-olds at the day care I used to work at:
-painted a big tree with their hands
-made reindeer with their footprints
-played Christmas music with the instruments they could play
-made cards for their parents
-made cookies with them
, and a lot more.

I let them do on their own as much as possible, so they would learn and experience.
 
Focusing issues - are you the only instructor or do you work with a Japanese teacher?

Games - In addition to Misa J.'s great ideas, you can make 3D Christmas trees from construction paper (two identical trees, one with a vertical slit down the middle (to the trees midpoint) and the other with a vertical slit from the bottom. A little tape and you a have a free-standing tree, and all the kids can put theirs in a group to make a forest. This is kind of time and direction intense (some of which will need to be in Japanese for the sake of finishing in under and hour), but if you are working with other teachers or have a lot of time to kill you might get it done.

Lots of games (like at www.genkienglish.com) you can just give a Christmas twist - body parts with santa etc instead of a person (also works for halloween), Christmas basket instead of fruit basket. Should be obvious at this point who I worked for at one time...

Run a google for JET elementary christmas games (or activities) and you will find a lot.

Good luck!
 
When I worked in a summer camp, I wast firm with my kids when it came to doing class work, but we had the most fun. The kids new that, and couldnt wait to finish their work so that they could have lots of fun.

One 'review' game I played with them, was got them to crush cans (this by itself was fun...) and then I would ask questions and the first person to get the answer right would get a 'shot' at throwing their can in a trash can, if they got it in their name went on the board, and was tallied up at the end to determine a winner.
If you want to make this christmassy, just paint a tree on the trash can, and make small boxes into 'presents'.

I dont know about the kids in Japan, but kids in Korea LOVE coffee, I banned mine from drinking from coffee, and only allowed them one snack or soft drink a day. After 2 days of not eating junk, and not drinking coffee they were amazingly more focused. Actually my class was the naughtiest, but they still finished their work first.
I didnt have to many other rules for them, I didnt care if they talked in class, or where they sat, I let them draw on the board when they had finished their work (which sped them up to finish).

Its a shame that its so cold in winter, because going outside for half an hour is great to re-engergise them.

Interract with other classes too.
 
Conversation between myself and English school manager:

"Would you teach kids' classes?"
"Can I spank them?"
"No!!!!"
"Then I'm not teaching them"

(true story, by the way)

Moral: Depending on your temperament, it can be more important to know not to teach kids than to know what to teach kids.

"A man's got to know his limitations"
H. Callahan
Inspector, SFPD
 
I have students from ages 3-12 at my school now and I also contract out twice a week to Chibikoland at two different locations. From my experience, attention spans are short so it's best to prep at least 5-10 (more is better) different activities per lesson (30-40 min. on average). Certain songs also seem to be almost universally recognizable no matter where you're at like "head, shoulders, knees, and toes", "abc song", etc. and these are a good way to elicit instant feedback. I tend to use lots of elementary themes for my classes like colors, shapes, animals, foods, days of the week/months of the year, etc. while making as many fun activities and games that reiterate that particular theme. Just remember not to be afraid to make a fool of yourself sometimes because when all else fails... just kick it into "funny gaijin" mode and start flapping your limbs and making strange sounds and exagerated gestures.
 
Certain songs also seem to be almost universally recognizable no matter where you're at like "head, shoulders, knees, and toes", "abc song", etc.
Click to expand...

I like the Coconut soap song.. I just heard it 2 times, when I was teaching kids last summer, so maybe somebody know the whole part of it!! I think the nice thing from teaching , especially with kids, is that you can put all your creativity in it. well anyway, here is the song that I mean:

you first start out, with having a bottle in your hands, or a imaginary one, and ask what it is.. than tell them it is Soap, special soap... COCONUT SOAP, and then sing:

I wash my hands.... *do like you wash your hands*
I wash my face.... * same thing do like you was your face*
I wash my nose.. * .. you know what I mean*
I wash my knees... *....*

WITTTTTTTHHHHH COCONUT SOAP!!!!!!!

*and then go along with other body parts, nice different variant on the HEAD SHOULDERS KNEE AND TOES KNEE AND TOES*

... btw thanks you guys for the great posts!!!!! hope we can put on more creativie in here, from songs, to sport games, etc etc
 
Iron Chef said:
Certain songs also seem to be almost universally recognizable no matter where you're at like "head, shoulders, knees, and toes", "abc song", etc. and these are a good way to elicit instant feedback.
Click to expand...
Yeah, those songs are classic. I sang them everyweek with my class. What I did when we sang were changing the speed from very slow to very fast, and they also had to touch their body parts while they sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes".

These activities you can do to stimulate their large motor skills are very usefull during the winter when it's too cold to play outside, although getting them fresh air seems to be a solution for many grouchy kids to be happy.


I have a song that I used often while I had my class help me clean. I don't know the title, but it's kind of wellknown.
Here it goes.

This is the way we wash our hands, wash our hands, wash our hands
This is the way we wash our hands all Monday morning

You can change "wash our hands" part to different action like "clean the table", "pick up our toys" and the day depending on what day it is.
 
My two yen worth:

All the suggestions on this thread is very good--having taught little kids in my past (when I was VERY YOUNG and ENTHUSIASTIC).

One dance that I remember I did is the Hokey Pokey:
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/hokey.htm

If you don't know, I think you'll be able to figure out how to dance it from the lyrics! Also, I think you'll find a lot more clues on this website! Matane!
 
I got a new one, from my wife, everytime when you are going to an excursion, having a party like christmas, holoween, etc. Make photo's, of course you people know this, but save all this photo's and on the end of the year, give every kid, a cd-rom with this photo's. Kids will like it, and their moms will really like it!!
 
I spent most of my time teaching adults, but for a couple of years I did teach kids.

The one rule you must remember is to never have a second of slack time in your lesson because the disruptive kids will pounce on it and it is a lot harder to restore order once it has broken down than it is to maintain order in the first place.

Discipline is one of the big issues. I made sure to NEVER touch the kids unless I had to do so in order to stop a fight or prevent someone from getting injured. Some teachers I've spoken to had no problem with just picking disobedient kids up and dragging them into the corner or out of the class. I strongly advise against this sort of stuff. All it takes is one parent to say "this teacher assaulted my kid" and you are toast.
 
Way back when

The best general advice I can think of for teaching kids is to be very careful not to patronise them. Just think of how bleein annoying that aunt who insisted in using the squeeky-kid-voice whenever she talked to you was.

Having a conversation with an 8 year old where they say 'Eh, I don't know anything about thermodynamics, I'm only 8!' will forever endear you to them. This doesn't preclude mentalism, just be sure that you are willing to join in any activity you decide upon.

As for activities the age range is important, kindie to 2窶扼ﾂ青ｶ you want lots of repetition. You have to keep them short but you can use the same one twice or even 3 times a lesson and they will be happy with it. Keep them on their toes by bringing in old vocab at inappropriate times (pick up your book, put down your book, pick up your friend, eat your chair...)

I like to teach the nouns I can with like and dislike, have a B4 sheet each split in two and small cut up versions of your noun. You ask the question to the class 'Do you like Apples!' and they run off shouting 'Yes, I do!' to hunt down an apple card from the pile at the back then stick it onto the 'I like' side of the sheet. You can then get them to report 'I like...and.... I don't like...and...'. (warning, they will probably like almost everything but green peppers so plan your sheet accordingly)
Remember to write the names on the sheets and sign them, they love signatures. If you have time you can have them ask you for each colour of crayon, and have a power trip at the same time, or they can colour it in at home.

Urgh, its late and I have kindies tomorrow. I may add more later

Shadar.
 
I found this Pod cast, its about an English teacher in Japan, he has 14 episodes, where he talks about how it is to teach in japan. pretty interesting for people who want to become a teacher, or are teachers.

http://englishteachinginjapan.blogspot.com/
 
I did some volunteer work at a kindergarten, at first it was just sitting at the counter greeting people and making sure they signed their kids in, by the end I had been dragged in to sing songs in English and just mess about with the kids. Best memory is probably when I was standing keeping an eye on them getting dirty outside when this little girl with her hair is pigtails wobbles over to me and just looks up at me innocently.
"Whats wrong?", in english, the tone is enough to get the idea across
"bleeergh" is my reply, and I get to be a dietician for a day and see what she had for breakfast.

I also did some volunteer work with elementary aged students (9-13 years old) in english lessons and in an after school club. Theres a great photo of me being 'attacked' with a kid under each arm, about three of them up my back and another two hanging off the front.

I found it to be alot of fun, make what your doing interesting for the students and it will make it more interesting (and less of a headache) for you.
 
Opinion

OK people, I would like to have your opinion on my lesson plan. It is finished for 75%, and I would like to know what you guys think about it.
The subject is Directions.

The Lesson takes about 45 minutes, and is for kids from age 10-15 elementary level!

So yeah what do you guys think, maybe some tips or advice? I need to write down what could be anticipated problems, and solutions on that.

(I also should fix some grammar, and spelling in my sentences, but please let me deal with that myself haha )
 
Looks like a good plan!

Age 10-15 can be tricky. Kindergarten classes are the easiest in my experience, the kids will do whatever you tell them. 7-10 year olds are a little trickier, but they are still managable.

11-12 year olds were the toughest for me. They aren't as entertained with simple games as the younger kids are and they aren't as mature as teenagers, so they are more difficult to control and keep interested in the subject matter.

I'd like to give specific advice, but its hard because I don't know the level of your students. I take it this is your first lesson?

I would usually start out with a vocabulary activity to introduce some words that would be useful in the lesson. Like if you are giving a lesson about giving directions, I would start with a vocabulary game about names of buildings (bank, hospital, etc.). This kind of eases the kids into the lesson because generally vocabulary is much easier than any other skill (grammar, pronounciation, etc), and it also acts as an introduction to the lesson theme.

How many kids are in your class? If its a small class, I wouldn't worry, but if its a large class then giving open questions and trying to elicit answers might pose a problem. I say this because A) 90% of the kids are probably shy and you'll just be getting the answers from the same 1 or 2 smart ones and B) kids have short attention spans and they are likely stop paying attention and start talking to each other or something.
 
Well the thing is that this is my final module of my Online- Tefl Course. all information I have is that I should make a lesson plan, and I choose Directions and it should be in Elementry level. Young kids or adults that doesn't matter so much, but I choose kids, so age 9-12 would do better in this.

also the amount of children is not given. so let's say 16 kids in the class.

I decided to change the warmer into another game : Memory Vocabulary game. What kind of buildings can you see in a town? Starting with the sentence: "When I am in a town, I can see a gym…". The next student will repeat the sentence and add one new building to it, then the next students will do the same, until someone will forgot a building.

what are could be the anticipated problems with teaching directions? I have: using the wrong prepositions, and the solution on that is to discuss prepostions in the beginning using a box. any other problems?

Thanks senseiman for your reply, and I hope that other can reply a bit more.
 
Just adding a nice game: ABC 123

This game is simular to Janken, but it is a counting game.
1. you have to say ABC 123
2. then you will show 0-5 fingers, so that in example person A shows 2 fingers, and person B shows 3 fingers.
3. count the fingers... 2 + 3 = 5.
4. the fastest person to say the answer wins the game.

You can also do this with 2 hands, so that you have a total of 20 fingers; or you can do this with 3-4 persons.
 
Since last Saturday I started my new job at a Kindergarten in Toyonaka, and I would like to have some advice on teaching "Phonics" and other stuff. Any advice is welcome.
 
Dutch Baka said:
Since last Saturday I started my new job at a Kindergarten in Toyonaka, and I would like to have some advice on teaching "Phonics" and other stuff. Any advice is welcome.
Click to expand...

I'm no great expert at teaching kids, and have only ever done it in Japan, but am happy to chip in with my opinions D_B fella. To that end: a couple of questions for you, from me, then:

1) Phonics is a huge area of language learning, can you be a little more specific about what you'd like to know (and for the 'other stuff' too please! )

2) Are there any questions you previously posed on this thread that you'd still like feedback on? All of them? None?

Cheers!

made of little rascals
 
Dutch Baka said:
Since last Saturday I started my new job at a Kindergarten in Toyonaka, and I would like to have some advice on teaching "Phonics" and other stuff. Any advice is welcome.
Click to expand...

Two words to remember about teaching kids and phonics together here in Japan......GENKI ENGLISH
 
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