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Preschool resources reviews

teachers and preschoolers at kindergarten

Reviews for preschool resources sold by Shelley Ann Vernon

Find out how my preschool resources can bring joy and learning to your child or kindergarten. Below are genuine reviews from ESL teachers I have been honoured to help over the years.

You will also find plenty of reviews of my work on Amazon, where they take steps to ensure comments are verified.

A clear understanding of how to teach pre-school kids

I totally recommend Shelley’s preschool resources. I have been so happy and stress-free since I bought this book. It gave me a clear understanding of how to teach pre-school kids. I am a new ESL teacher who was “freaking out” before reading it. Now I am a happy teacher looking forward to my lessons with my pupils. I will keep this book forever with me and it is my number 1 resource. It’s a shame didn’t discover it earlier since it would have made my first months so more enjoyable and relaxed.

I also like the structure and the extra advice inside. Contrary to other books, you don’t spend a lot of time thinking over the activities as it presents them so clearly. It improved my planning time and the quality of my lessons. And I am now a happy customer, since I bought other resources from the author and they are really great. In addition, I love the stories and the fact that they come with clear lesson plans and resources already made, just have to press print. However, I prefer to laminate mine. Thank you so much for creating such fantastic resources.

Jessica Duguet Souber-Broglio, France

Instant success!

I had my first class this morning and it went really, really well! The kids didn’t answer me but they played all the games perfectly, loved the song and the story. I think I can say the lesson was a hit as they didn’t want to leave!!

Carrie Harvey, Dax, France, 2018 (carrieharvey.com)

Making a difference

First, let me thank you for the wonderful stories and activities for the little ones! I have very little experience teaching 3-4 year olds, and your stories have made a big difference in my classroom. Thank-you so much!

Geri Snow, Canada

It has been a breeze

I have been working with your materials for Pre-School children since last February and it has been a breeze! I am working on a new project here in Austria called “Englisch im Kindergarten”. The kindergarten teachers love your materials and particularly like the way in which each story/theme links to the next.

When the 6 year olds moved up to Primary School last September, the teachers were amazed at how much English the children already knew – so it must be working!

My classes work so well

The stories are fantastic, the games are great and the plays are wonderful !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for making my classes work so well.

Lisa Brownwell in Spain – the second person ever to buy my first book – thank you Lisa!

Words cannot convey the depth of my appreciation

Thank you for all your help. By using the techniques you have kindly mentioned in your web site, I feel LOVE, HONOR and PLEASURE about being a teacher. My students are more active now and we all enjoy learning. Words cannot convey the depth of my appreciation.

Yours sincerely Ildikó Gaspar, Hungary

Thumbs up to you for providing an for those of us teaching preschoolers as easy to access and workable program. It takes a lot of stress off us to have this material available.

The funny thing is I really didn’t want to do this original playgroup at all, but the mother’s kept at me until I finally relented, and now I enjoy it a lot. It is very rewarding for me to have the children greet me enthusiastically when I come, cuddle and hug me, sit on my lap and enjoy themselves so much during this 1.5 hour lesson.

Mary Catherine Aschauer-Daer, Cambridge University Examiner

Enjoy teaching enthusiastic pupils

Enthusiastic students

I’m just writing to you just to thank you for your great ideas when developing these great games! They are really amusing and interesting. My students get very enthusiastic when playing them and I do as well !!!

Marcela Elias, Neuquen, Argentina

Cut your prep time, have fun and motivate!

I really love all your games, plays and tips for teaching English – it really has cut my prep time in half as well as adding a lot of fun and motivation. Thanks.

Jacqui Bassett, France

Helpful for a Speech Language Therapist

I work with children with Speech and Language delays and your books just hit the mark, short sentences, lots of repetition & good clear language targets. Also, the illustrations are engaging and clear but not too busy. I must say they are great!

Jaki Sexton, Speech Language Therapist, New Zealand

Superb materials that really, really work!

Thank you very very much for all the superb materials you sent me!!!!! I put them into practice and what I can say is that they really, really work! I could see how these games move everybody. The smart children are very fond of them. But in the same time the slower students and even those with learning difficulties are so enthusiastic. Each time I enter the class they ask” Are we going to play that game..?”

Before, I noticed some of my students were really afraid to speak. Now they speak freely and this is an excellent result!

There was a time when I was upset because some of my students were quiet but not really paying attention.Their thoughts were somewhere else. But now they just learn everything and don’t struggle to learn everything.

Ileana Bors, teaching ages 3 and upwards in Romania

Chris' story

From desperation at 3 a.m. to being excited about his teaching future!

Hi – having been out of teaching for 5 years and having never taught pre-school before I had just agreed to 12 hours of classes aged 1.5 to 6 per week in a private nursery school in Hanoi. Last night I was desperate and convinced I could not prepare anything satisfactory for these classes every week – I was ready to quit after only 2 days.

So I set the alarm for 3.30 am this morning as a last attempt to come up with something for classes today, searching the internet in vain until  your site came up. I used the intro lesson plan you emailed me this a.m. and it was not only a revelation to me but also to the VN teaching assistants who said how much they and the children had enjoyed the lesson.

Needless to say I am now excited about my teaching future and looking fwd to receiving and using more of your excellent materials.

Chris Kibble, Hanoi, Vietnam

I thought it was going to be impossible to teach ALL the prepositions from the Easter story

I started using your material and ideas 3 or 4 years ago, and the kids who started with stories 1-10 are now really enjoying stories 21-30, especially (and I have to admit, to my surprise!) the songs.

In fact I teach stories 21-30 in a slightly different order due to the seasonal content, but although it is still very much summer here, the kids loved the groundhog story, and ADORE the song!

This morning even the 7-8 year olds were hopping round like bunnies to the Easter bunny song. A week or so ago I thought it was going to be impossible to teach them ALL the prepositions from the Easter story, but they really know most of them already.

Inge Willems, Ingles Brincando, Brazil

Preschool resources review

From Rosina Reyes, Spain

As a mother of three I know the importance of story-telling from a very young age. Children are eager to listen and to participate in the stories, they have such imagination! It’s no surprise that I would use stories in my preschool classes, but teaching English as a Second Language is not easy when you have twenty minutes to teach 25 three-year-olds or thirty five-year-olds…how to keep their attention and make classes fun became a lot more difficult than I had originally imagined.

I came across this wonderful resource.

Looking through the internet for ideas I came across this wonderful resource for teaching ESL to young children while making it fun. It’s called ESL Preschool Games and Stores for Ages 3 to 5 by Shelley Vernon. It was as if someone had read my mind! Not only are there easy, creative stories for the children to enjoy, there are flashcards, games and ideas to pre-teach the vocabulary, a guide on how to actually present the stories and post-story ideas to reinforce what they have already learned. 

Preparation is now so easy!

I can’t believe how easy preparing for my classes has become! After printing and laminating the flashcards and bingo boards once, I have a full set of ESL resources at my fingertips for a lifetime. Shelley gives ideas on how to vary the games depending on the size of the class, available space and even the mood the children are in! This is so important for me, I teach 5 three-year-old classes of around 25 students each (twenty minutes), and 5 five-year-old classes of 30 students each (twenty-five minutes). Some days just getting them to settle down and pay attention takes up most of the class time! 

But all children love stories, the trick is to get them interested in what you do with the stories and letting them participate. Here’s where Shelley’s stories saved me time and effort.

Kids are looking forward to my classes.

The stories are presented in an order which allow for revision of what has already been taught without becoming tedious. My children love them! When I walk into a class the first thing they ask is if there will be a story that day. The fact that they are looking forward to my classes because they enjoy them so much is proof of what a wonderful resource this is. Before, I would take different stories to read to them, but after the third or fourth time they would say “You already read that” or “Again?” With these stories I can bring the same story back to the class, but the children don’t know how we’re going to work the story or which game we’re going to play. 
 
And the games are great, Shelley’s ideas take most classroom scenarios into consideration, even how to ensure the classes don’t get out of control with the forfeits. I don’t have anyone to help me in my classes (as large as they are), but with these ideas I can play games with the children and keep the classes controlled while teaching them basic concepts like waiting their turn or following rules. How cool is that? 

As a teacher I like to have little surprises up my sleeve.

As a teacher I like to have little surprises up my sleeve to keep the children guessing, that way they’re never bored or tired of the same type of class. With this resource I have found that I can think ahead several classes using the same story but focusing on different concepts and ways to make it fun for the children. Plus, I always have several ideas ready in case the one I was planning to use that day didn’t fit the “mood” of the class. This way I am more confident that I am prepared for whatever I am going to find in the class when I walk in, whether they’re in a run-around kind of mood or more calm and quiet.

Recommended

I would definitely recommend this resource to anyone who works with children. In fact, I use them with my own children (who are bilingual Spanish/English) using more complex language and structures. Children have so much imagination as it is, so we teachers can use that to our advantage to make our job easier. These stories and games show you how to do just that, making teaching easier for us and more enjoyable for them. 

So many different benefits...

Enjoyment and results!

I have been enjoying the Fun Games and Stories I bought in August. My students love the stories with dialogue, especially story number 1. They now tell me everyday that they are”Fine, thanks, but I’m hungry and I’m going to eat you!!” I was suprised at this long sentence coming out of the mouths of very limited speakers! And they thought of it themselves during our circle time!

Anne Barnard, teaching and researching in the US.

Her classes are becoming more and more popular

Your materials are great. After I bought stories 1 to 20 with text and lesson plans for each story more and more kids want to attend my lessons. With the help of your materials I make my small kids speak English as if it’s their native language. Thanks a lot for what you are doing and for your excellent service!

Katei Ekaterina Denisova, Russia.

Students love the games and the teacher is now “cool”!

First, I want to thank you for your wonderful program. I have been using the preschool 3-5 program adapted for a single student and we both love it. I feel safe and confident teaching in an area new to me (beginner EFL for preschoolers).

He really gets a kick out of the songs and games. He asks for “Funky Monkey” every week, and during “Let me sing you a story,” he sits with his eyes closed and his hands and legs in yoga pose. It is very cute! I actually just recommended your site to the other EFL teachers in a course I am taking.

Eleanore Gann, teaching in Israel

The teachers’ busy lives are made easier

Please know that all your excellent resources are very much appreciated – by us, the teachers and the pupils. We love that the flashcards are not all the same, but different types for the different stories. The children are in eager expectation of what the next card will be!

And the instructions and lesson plans just make our lives as busy teachers so much easier, while still keeping the lessons interesting and, above all, FUN for the pupils. Thanks so much and keep up the good work.

Val Miller, Spain

This English teacher finds the resources creative

I’ve been kept awake til 2 am night after night since I got the materials. Never ever have I met (term used loosely) anyone that creative. I am so grateful that I’ve come across your site. It’s another dimension altogether. Thank you.

Dragica Jordanoska

She had never taught 5 year olds before and now they are all loving it

Your back up service with tips and add-on’s is superb. My partner (Spanish), is a teacher of English here is Spain and we were so taken with your methods and the free story that we ordered the rest as soon as we were able. She has never taught 5 year olds before and was somewhat dubious as to how to start. Her students, (including a group of 8 year olds), are loving it all, and so is she!

So as her assistant, now making masks for them to wear whilst the stories are being told and the like, we would like to say thank you so much for your excellent systems of teaching and of course the stories that accompany them. With out sincere thanks, Techu.

Graham George and Techu, Spain

Well organized and easy to use

I wanted to tell you how much the kids love this curriculum. The teachers find is very well organized and easy to use. It has been such a blessing to our bi-lingual English/Khmer school. Thank you for all your work.

Tabi Gates, Cambodia

Children feel proud

The kids love the stories, and I love it when I see how proud they feel when they recognize the words in the stories. It makes teaching a lot of fun.

Paulien Loenen

They can’t get enough. Even the shyest children are shouting out when it’s there turn

You truly are amazing! What can I say, the children just LOVE “Hetty and the Lion”. I thought they would be too young for it, but they really enjoyed it. I made a few adjustments to some of the games and they can’t get enough of them.  Even the shyest of the children are shouting out “apple” or “orange” when it’s their turn.

The pictures are beautiful and it was just too cute for words watching their little faces absolutely horrified at the lion gobbling everything up!

Nicole de Broglio, France

Receive a free story & song here!

Preschool Games and Stories for Children

Catchy songs for preschoolers

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