teaching english to lil cuties--esl tips, tricks, and stories

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

may's monthly songs

i mentioned before that i pick a different set of songs each month that we do every day. i thought i'd record what songs i use each month. i'll try to do this at the beginning of the month, but since i'm just starting it now, i'll post the songs we used for the month of may:
*twinkle twinkle little star
*hot potato (from the wiggles)
*apples and bananas
*itsy bitsy spider
*roll over
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Tuesday, May 30, 2006

game: charades

i don't think this one needs a full game write up as it's pretty basic and we all know how to do it. but the kids really love charades.
this works for age groups of 4 and up, but you really need to help the children out sometimes so that they can come out of their shell. if you have a classroom full of shy children, having the teacher act out the words as well helps them to feel more comfortable--after all, they can just copy the movements that you are doing.
it also helps if you pick a theme that you are working with, for example, "animals" or "verbs"; and it's often good if you have little cards that have an idea on them. we have a great board game at the school that is basically charades. it has many cards that the children can choose from. this helps them because they don't have to worry about coming up with their own idea of what to act out.
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006

uh....what is that?!?!?!

first let me describe michitaka. he's a cute cute lil boy, chubby as all hell with a really sever bowl cut. i think he looks like a baby sumo wrestler. and he's got the cutest smile ever.
about two weeks ago, i was teaching lesson when i became distracted by something in michi's hands. it was light pink, small, and slightly bullet shaped. to my horror, i could only think of two things that it might possibly be...a tampon or a vibrator. i didn't want to make a big deal of it and stop the lesson, but i just kept looking at him, thinking "oh god. what am i going to do."
eventually, he opened it up and it turned out to be just a tube of lipstick. phew. but what a funny thing for a two year old boy to be carrying.
he had it again this monday and i mentioned it to one of the other teachers. she said that she had noticed him carrying it a lot so when mom picked him up, she asked his mom about it. turns out, he just likes carrying it whenever he goes to school. it must remind him of mommy or something.
so cute.
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Sunday, May 21, 2006

shopping

i'm actually a pretty staunch anti-capitalist who hates shopping and things shopping related. it's kind of a bummer for me that this technique is so good with the kids. but there you have it.
kids like to practice shopping. this is a really good way to teach food words and have the kids practice short conversation in a situation that they will probably encounter sometime in their life.
it works best if you have toy versions of food. review the names of the food and lay them out on a table. this becomes the store. then give the kids some fake money. one at a time they get to come up to the store, talk to the shopkeeper and make their purchase. some sentence structures that you can use when doing this are:
*i want....
*do you have ...?
*i'd like...
*...please.
if the kids are older, you can play mean lil tricks on them like asking for more money than they have and seeing how they deal with the situation.
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Thursday, May 18, 2006

stupid song #2

this one's an english song called 6 Little Ducks:

6 little ducks that i once knew
fat ones, skinny ones, fair ones too
but the one little duck with the feather on his back
he lead the others with his quack quack quack

this one really drives me up a wall for some reason. i mean first, there's the adjectives used to describe the ducks...fair just doesn't seem to be an appropriate adjective to go along with fat and skinny. fat and skinny are opposites while fair is just completely unrelated. it really should either have an opposite to go along with the fair, to make things even. i understand that this wouldn't fit in with the melody of the song, so a better option would be to have three unrelated adjectives, for example, skinny ones, fair ones, short ones too.
then the use of the word "but" makes this an improper and incomplete sentence.
but what really drives me crazy is the whole "one little duck with the feather on his back". don't all ducks have feathers on their backs? what makes this one so darn special?
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Monday, May 15, 2006

i have to admit....

sometimes i'm a little sadistic. i love to see the look on a kid's face when they know that i've caught them being naughty and they're being punished. i don't enjoy it so much when i've got a kid that doesn't know why they're being punished, but when the kid knows they're wrong, and their cute little face shows all that remorse, i secretly go away to giggle at how cute it is.
today, i heard a loud noise and some crying from around the corner, so i looked and keisuke was crying and gou was just looking at the ground. i picked up keisuke and saw that he had a small cut on his face. i took him over to the sink to cuddle him and wash the cut. i knew that gou was responsible cuz he was just sitting there staring at the ground still. he hadn't moved.
so, chuckling to myself, i said "gou gou...come here" he wouldn't come, so i went and brought him over. i talked to him in english, then in japanese, playing like i didn't know who did it. he wouldn't answer, so i knew he was guilty. my new assistant, ari, was trying to get him to confess too, but he wouldn't.
when he wouldn't apologize, he had to spend some time in the corner. AND HE WAS SO CUTE. he knew exactly why he was in the corner, and his lil face was so full of shame. i couldn't leave him there for very long.
always when a kid is finished with their corner time, i give them a big hug to let them know that i still like them, i just don't like the bad thing that they did.
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Sunday, May 14, 2006

counting ideas

when teaching counting to the kids, i like to be really hands on and let them be touching the things that we are counting. occasionally, i'll read a "counting book" and sit at the front of the class, while i point to the pictures that we are counting. but i really prefer more physical activities for this type of thing.
this tends to be a bit time consuming when you want to make sure that every child has a chance to do the activity. most of these activities work best when counting 1~10, but i'll give some tips for higher numbers at the end.
here are some ideas that i've found very effective:
*build a block tower--kids count the blocks as they are building up to 10. once you have reached 10, then they get to knock the tower over. they really like to knock the tower over. :-)  when working with young children, make sure that you are holding the tower as they place the blocks on, so that the tower doesn't fall over prematurely.
*egg counting/shopping--we're really lucky in that we have these little egg toys where you match the shapes to make a full egg and we also have a little toy shopping cart. i have the kids count out 10 eggs to put in the cart and then they can take the cart for a walk around the room.
*lego tower--i also sometimes use legos. they get to count 10 legos and put them together.
*playtime counting--when the kids have playitime they often make something that they are proud of. this is a good opportunity to have them count out how many they have.
*stair counting--count the stairs as you go up them.

for higher numer counting:
*work together as a class--do the same thing as lego counting or block counting, but instead of having each child count out so many, let each child put one into the class' effort.
*circle count to 100--with older children who can count to 100, have everybody sit in a circle. go around the circle and have each child say the next number. to make this more of a challenge, you can turn it into a competition. if a child makes a mistake he or she is "out" and you can see who can count the highest.
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Thursday, May 11, 2006

dave's preschool forum

the ever popular dave's esl cafe now has a preschool forum. please come and join us.
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Sunday, May 07, 2006

easy craft ideas for 2 year olds

one of the hardest things about working with very young children is that if you want them to take home a craft that looks really nice, you're going to have to do a lot of the work yourself. but here are 5 quick ideas that you can do almost any time and which require little preparation:
1. painting with an alternative paintbrush. instead of letting them paint with a paintbrush or their fingers, use something a bit more unexpected. cotton balls, sponges, q-tips, and crumpled balls of newspaper are all fun to work with and give a very different look to the finished piece.
2. make a "feelie book". this is a craft that spans a few days. each day, have the kids glue something that has a different type of texture. fuzzy, smooth, crinkly, hard, and soft are all examples, but of course you can come up with your own. after they have made each of the pages, staple the book together.
3. rainbow crayons--take three or four crayons and stick them together with a rubber band. when the kids use them, it makes a rainbow with just one stroke.
4. mixing colors. teach kids about how mixing colors together produces a whole new color. put a small glob of yellow and red paints on their paper (or red and blue; or blue and yellow; you get the idea) and have them paint as usual. ask them if they notice a new color on their paper.
5. coloring. it's always a good idea to have a few different coloring pages lying around that you can always pass out to the kids that want to color a picture. (or draw their own on the back.)
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Thursday, May 04, 2006

tip for teaching vocabulary

when you're using flash cards or other objects for teaching vocabulary, here's a good way of teaching it.
say the word once, and have them repeat it.
say the word once again, and have them repeat it.
say the word three times fast and have them repeat it three times fast.
this fast repetition of the word allows them to get the proper pronunciation because you don't have time to think about it as much. it would look something like this:
apple (apple)
apple (apple)
appleappleapple (appleappleapple)
plus it gets really fun when you're using a long word and even you have a hard time pronouncing it fast.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

game--sumo

i can't remember where i found this game, but it's one that the kids really like, especially if you've got a very active group of kids.
aim:vocab drilling
things you need: vocab cards, clothespins
age: any (works best with 8-13 year olds)
level: low
game outline:
*pick 2 children to battle.
*attach the vocab card to the back of their shirt, using the clothespin. make sure that the other child cannot see it.
*children face each other. when teacher says "go", they must try to see what is on the back of the other child's shirt. they are not allowed to use hands.
*basically they run around in circles until one of them sees and correctly identifies the card on the back of the shirt. if it starts to go on too long, teacher can count down from 10. then, time's up and you show them what's on the back of the shirts and have them identify it.
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Monday, May 01, 2006

glorious golden week

it's golden week here in japan, which means that i have the week off. woohoo! i should still have some time to make some posts, but don't expect to see any of my cute stories. :-(  actually, i know that i haven't really posted any cute stories about my kids lately, because it has just been too stressful and crowded in my classroom.
after golden week, however, things are going to go back to normal. i'll have a normal sized class again and can focus on paying more attention to the students. i'm so excited.
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