How can we keep nursery kids engaged, motivated and at the same time teach English to them?
It might be considered a "mission impossible", especially if you are not used to teach English to very young learners. I was not used to teaching English to very young learners, at least not for an entire course lasting many weeks. I had taught a few classes in other nursery schools before, but they were one time experiences and all I did was plan a few games with the English language involved. this time it was different. Three different courses for three different groups of five year old children. Almost fifty children all together in groups of fifteen. First of all I thought of how they would see me. A new teacher teaching them a very strange language. I wanted them to think of me as a nice and funny teacher so... I decided I had to dress up and I dediced to always look the same for the entire course.
So this was me. Long black skirt, black t-shirt, a teacher apron and a Mary Poppins hat! I decided to call myself MISS ALEX as this was easy for the children to remember. I also had the Mary Poppins bag where I kept all the things I need for the lesson. I do have to say that this was a good idea, as the children learned to address me as to "Miss Alex" and some of them thought I was sort of a magic figure!
After having decided how I should present myself I had to think of.... the lessons! What could I do with those children?
First I decided to establish a sort of routine so I chose simple songs that became a recurring theme. In this way children had the chance to hear the same songs over and over and to learn the words, the songs and connect it to the right moment of the lesson. We had the "Hello song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN1Cyr0ZK9M
and the children LOVE it!
After the greetings I had to try to make a circle with the children so... this was the song to get the children to sit in a circle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALcL3MuU4xQ
At this point the children were all sitting down. I chose a story and I planned the whole course around this story.
I bought this book, I created my magic wand and my Winnie the Witch!
I also created some flashcards, laminated them and used them to tell the story, to pre-teach some vocabulary and to re-tell the story each time. I divided the story into sequences depending on the number of lessons I had with the kids. If you are used to deal with nursery school children you know that it is very difficult to keep them sitting down and listening to you for a long time. I read or told the story ( with flashcards) only for the first 15/20 minutes.
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So these were the parts of the lessons:
- Welcome song and Make a circle song
- Re-tell the previous parts of the story ( using flashcards)
- Pre-teach the key vocabulary of the new part of the story
-Tell the new part of the story
At this point we stopped and worked on one single topics ( taken from the story). The topics were:
- colours
- numbers
- objects
I have to say that this experience was challenging but at the same time it turned out to be exciting and very stimulating for the children but most of all for me! I hope to have the chance to repeat something like this sometime in the future!
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| NUMBERS |
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| NUMBERS |
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| COLOURS
Thank you,
Miss Alex
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