ESL Preschool
Activities
Frequently
Asked Questions
What is the ideal group size for these
ESL preschool activities and stories?
These
games are best suited for a ratio of one teacher to six to ten pupils.
If you are alone and have more than fifteen pupils you will find that
the children will either become over-excited or will get bored waiting
for their turn in many of the games, so you will have to work quite
hard during the lesson.
I would say that if you have more than twenty preschool children and
you are the sole adult in the room during lessons then these games
would not be suitable. At this young age you need either
smaller groups or more adult help. If you have an
adult helper to the ratio of one adult to about 10
children then the games will be OK as you will be able to spend much of
the time splitting the group.
What
age groups can benefit from these preschool activities and stories?
While
the games and stories have been written for three to five year olds you
could use them for older children although the stories would not appeal
much beyond age six.
If you are teaching 6-12 year olds then you would be better off with a
different product which you can read about here: www.teachingenglishgames.com
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What materials do I need?
With
preschool children it is best to use real objects as often as possible
however if this is not practical in your situation then using picture
flashcards will suffice.
Printable picture flashcards are included so that you may teach all the
vocabulary in the stories, and the stories come with colour
illustrations. Therefore you have everything you
need to
play all the games and teach all ten stories.
If you are to teach vocabulary outside of the scope of the ten stories
then you will need pictures of the relevant vocabulary or objects.
Aside from pictures some props are useful for some of the games, and
these are always simple things that are easy to find, such as a ball or
a few bean bags, a sheet or a blanket.
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How much space do I need
for these activities?
In
order to play these games you do need an open space. This
space
does not have to be vast but there needs to be enough room for your
children to sit in a semi-circle on the floor and move around the space.
If you have a classroom set up with benches bolted to the floor and no
room to move around then these games will not be useful to
you.
If you are able to push your desks and chairs to one side of the
classroom and create a space then that would be fine.
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Is there a curriculum I
can follow?
The
stories can be used as a curriculum. The games can be used to teach
anything you like, where ever you are in your own personal curriculum.
If you are starting from scratch you can follow the vocabulary
presented in the stories and make that your curriculum. If
you are already using another curriculum you can use the games and
stories to revise what you have covered as well as introducing new
language.
Stories
1 to 10 cover numbers, colours, zoo and other animals, nouns
from
nature, action verbs, fruits, the days of the week (optional),
greetings and a few other miscellaneous nouns and verbs. Stories
11 to
20, which are available separately, cover family members,
rooms of the
house, farm animals, more words from nature, body parts, clothing and
some other miscellaneous language.
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Will the children learn
English if they are playing?
Preschool
children learn best through play, through TPR (total physical response)
and through frequent repetition. At this age children love
fantasy, games and stories and this method of teaching is best for
them.
The movement allows the children to be involved on many
levels
for more effective learning. The abundance and variety of
ideas
keeps the childen interested despite their short attention span.
The stories allow children to absorb language subconsciously
while simutaneously reviewing vocabulary and phrases, and putting
language into a meaningful context. Through these games and
stories the children will also learn through intrinsic motivation.
You
will find more information on how children learn, including TPR and
instrinsic motivation on the articles and tips page. Please
use the link at the bottom or the top of this page to Articles and Tips.
I have some older classes and was
considering buying the
other e-book for 6-12 year olds. Are the games in the "older" book the
same as the 3-5 year olds e-book?
The
games in the ebook for children aged 6 to 12 are mostly very different
from the games in the 3 to 5 ebook. Firstly the 6 to 12 resource
includes reading, spelling and writing games while the 3 to 5 has only
listening and speaking activities, aside from a few ideas for the
alphabet. Secondly the 6 to 12 takes into account the fact that the
teacher is likely to have a large class while 3 to 5 year old children
are generally taught in smaller gorups. Thirdly the 6 to 12 includes
lesson plans, activity sheets around 150 flashcards in themes and these
are all different to the 3 to 5 flashcards.
Many
teacheres do have both resources.
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What is an ebook?
An
ebook is an electronic book. This means that you download the
games and stories onto your computer and you can read them there or
print them off.
The flashcards are in PDF format so you can save them to disk and print
them from any computer.
The
cost of printing has been taken into account with the price of this
product. With hundreds of colour illustrations as a hard copy
this teaching resource would be extremely expensive. Instead
it
is available to you at a very reasonable price by European standards.
My european customers frequently tell me it is too cheap!
But there are people worldwide who benefit from these
materials
because I keep the price down for everyone.
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