Teaching Kids Under 6

More and more language schools are opening classes available for 3 year olds. There are many mixed opinions about this new idea. Personally, I think it is insane to try to teach a student that young weekly English classes, and then, expect these kids have learned something. Especially, teaching them for only an hour per week. An hour can be a long time for a 3-year-old. Exposure is good at any age but parents who put their children in an hour class to learn a language when they barely have a grasp on their own can be wasteful. Imagine trying to learn a language by watching TV in that new language an hour a week for a little over half a year. You may pick up a word here or there, but nothing really sticks. I'm not saying ESL teachers are watching tv with a class of 3 year olds but pretty similar. You have young teachers entertaining your 3-year-old with music, games, stories and crafts. It's an interactive Mickey Mouse Club (or Mister Robinson, depending on your age) TV show.

And it can be exhausting! There is an idea that kids' attention spans are the equivalent to half of their age. So if the student is 12, then 6 minutes of focused attention is the limit. Meaning teachers need to have smooth transitions into another activity by the time 6 minutes have been and gone. Otherwise, your class will start going off its tracks. Inexperienced teachers usually don't have the skills to get students back on the rails. They just watch in horror as everything goes horrible wrong.

This can be a nightmare when teaching kids under 6! So inexperienced or not, the best way to get around classroom train wrecks is prevention. That means preparing your activities that last only for the attention span time. Not to say that some activities are so awesome and exciting that kids will go for a long time. This can happen. However, always have something for that fast finisher or hyperactive or even 'I don't want to do anything because I'm  miserable' student(s).

Basic plan for a class of 3 year olds:

-Activities that are no longer than a minute and a half. (One long activity can be broken into minute and a half intervals. Example: When reading a story, add breaks where you act out a scene, ask a question about what is happening, or a vocabulary drill. Or just have a sequence of activities.)

-The key is theme. (Songs, story, activities all should refer to the key vocabulary you want to expose them to. Repetition and patterns stick.)

-Repetition and patterns stick but don't make it dull. (Mix it up a bit you can always repeat activities later in class.)

Basic rule of thumb when teaching the youngins:

Song with key vocabulary

Vocabulary drill

Songs

Game(s)

Story with key vocabulary

Songs while coloring/doing a simple craft

Game(s)

End with Exit Ticket

See toolbox page for details on these particular activities.

Further Assistance

Most textbooks for ages 6 and under have lessons designed for 15 minutes per lesson. With very few lessons in the text and 45 minutes left to fill, teachers need lots of supplement material.

Here are a couple of books I like to use for this age group.

Here are some helpful links by subject.

Check out the "Connect to TEFL Resources" page for lesson plan material.