Teaching Writing to your Kindergarten English Language Learner

 Reading and researching a little on the topic, I noticed that I do include almost all that the kids needs to develop the pre-writing skill much needed in the future school years. Consider that each student have different needs that you might have to address.

I will go directly to the things that you can include in your lesson plan to reinforce the fine motor skills in your students.

1. Crafts! I know many teachers think it's a waste of time and a mess. I would do lots of crafts for the Holidays mainly. Students love it and cutting, pasting and manipulating the supplies is so good for them.

2. Cutouts. I include cutouts in all the resources. Here is an example of a sorting the cutouts into big and small. Students will use their fingers to manipulate the cutouts and put them in the corresponding bag.

3.Drawing. Students can draw on a blank paper the family, their pet, their favorite toys, anything that you are teaching. I have an example here of a worksheet that the students have to draw the hat of the community helper that they would like to be in the future.

4. Clothespin. Use the clothespin to play several games in class. The use of the fingers to grasp them is a great exercise.

5. Scissors and glue. Any worksheet or activity that includes cutting and gluing, that involves the scissors and sqeezing the glue.

6.Copying. Some students are at the copying words phase. Give them fun foam letters, dollar tree letters or magnetic letters so they can write words that you are teaching. I use the small cards from all the resources that I create.

7. Tracing. It is easy and fun for students to achieve it. After the tracing I love making puppets for other games in class.

8.Make books. The books that I have for each unit comes with a tracing sentences if your students are up for it, if not, it doesn't make a difference. But just making their own book, either a group book or an individual book, gives them a sense of value of writing.

9. Throw the bean bag game. If you make a bean bag, use as often as you can to enhance the hand-eye coordination. Use it with flashcards,small cards, cutouts, anything.

10.Follow the lines. It can be a worksheet or lines on the floor made with chalk, masking tape.

11. Puzzles. Students will have to use their hands to move the pieces. I include one or two on each unit. It is a game that students can play in small groups.

12. REWARD. Above all, reward your students. They are making an effort. There is a reward for each unit as well.

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Making the best choices for your Kindergarten English Language Students

                 As a teacher of Kindergarten English Language Learners you are up to make the decisions of how, what and more when planning the lesson for your students. I am sure that you are choosing nothing but the best. Here are a few reflections.

1. Expose students to language as muchas you can. Use books in English. If you can, starting a library for your classroom or academy would be great. Prices can escalate when the school is not in an English speaking country. I created a book for each unit just because of that. It's a book that they can make by themselves, take home and read with the parents and you shouldn't be too worried if it's going to get lost and more.  Videos are great. I had a collection of videos, such as Muzzy!, Disney and any other that I could buy. Now, you can find lovely videos on youtube to show in class and recommend to parents.

Here is an example of the family printable book.

2. Help students remember language facts. Experiment with sorting and matching activities.

Here is an example of a sorting activities with several gardn or nature flashards. Students can sort the trees abd flowers accoriding to their shapes. They will have to use the language fact of the adjective + noun phrase.

Students: a triangle tree!

3. The best way for students to communicate is through games and activities that focus on interaction between peers and you.

An easy one: the magic box! You can use it for almost anything and have the students guess what's inside.

or do the show and tell! I always include in all the resources a worksheet  for the students to draw, glue a picture of their favorite of their own item. It's wonderful for a short and tell or an exhibition in class.

4. Audit your best and not so good practices. Monitor and adjust. Check if your students were engaged with the material or activity. Did they like it? Were they bored? Can you do the activity in a different way? Just observe, take notes.

5. Lower the student’s anxiety. Make paper bag puppets, craft stick puppets to help students speak and make them feel more comfortable with the new language.

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Interactive Learning for Kindergarten English Language Learners

 Interactive Learning for Kindergarten English Language Learners

"it’s actually a pedagogical technique with a fairly simple definition. The interactive approach to any given lesson plan encourages students to interact with each other and with the subject matter."                  According to:  https://www.theclassroom.com/

How interactive are your lessons with the young learners? I know it requires a lot of planning, lots of games and activities for all the stages of your lesson plan.

Students love to play games, it takes away the pressure, they interact with their peers in a fun classroom that they love to return to. As for games for the kindergarten ELL, I love bingo, domino, puzzles, card games, board games. Here is 

Some countries don't have easy access to books in English, and if they are available, they expensive or they don't relate to the unit. I always create a book for each unit. The books can be sent home to read with their parents. The books can be created in groups, like this one.

Focus on student participation when writing your lesson plan. It's better to have lots of activities for pair work or group work and games for every step in the way you deliver your lesson. Check my blog for Kindergarten teachers to check on ideas for teaching with flashcards, small cards, cutouts, worksheets and more.

                                    Link to the blog:             https://eflpreschoolteachers.blogspot.com/

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Calculated Risk for ESL Teachers

                 What is a  calculated risk? It's a noun defined as:  

1 : a hazard or chance of failure whose degree of probability has been reckoned or estimated before some undertaking is entered upon

2: an undertaking or the actual or possible product of an undertaking whose chance of failure has been previously estimated

              https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

For us teachers,a calculated risk is giving ourselves and our students a chance to try something different that is defined in the text book.

Find new activities to try. There is a lot of activities to search for on Pinterest, for example. I always find inspiration to create the resources. Instagram is also a great place to see what other teachers are doing, I am happy to find new ways to use the resources. In a personal level, I loved creating the booklet with my students. Now, I include a booklet in all the units, it's fun and creative. It's nice to have a personal collection of books to read over and over again in class or to send home. 

Innovate in your classroom. I know, sometimes it's hard to find innovation for our class. You might say, I have tried everything, but there's always more to give it a try. I love to bring in a new resource to the young learner's class. The feed me box are so cute and I am sure that your students will light up when they see it. It's easy to assemble and carry around with you. This one is made out of a cereal box.

Change practices. A little twist in our lesson planning works wonder with the little ones. I love to include crafts. Yes, it's messy but organization is key. Make the craft yourself and bring it in already done and you will notice the steps to make it easy to recreate with your students in an easy way. 

Try a new method. A new way to do things in class with your preschoolers,to move on to the next activity faster is important.Those extra 5 or 10 minutes are horrible if you don't have anything in hand. That's where games will help you. I have lots of printable  games for you to keep in a bag just for those extra minutes, students can play by themselves and speaking English. I have dominos, game boards, file folder games, Bingos, half card games, puzzles and more.

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Tailor to your English Language Classroom

 As we write the lesson plan for our specific learners we have to tailor the materials to the students that we have in front of us, to their specific needs, to their abilities and to where they are in their English abilities.

David Nunan "It has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all, and the focus in recent years has been on the development of classroom tasks and activities which are consonant witn what we know about second language acquisition and which are also in keeping the dynamics of the classroom itself"

As a materials writer I keep in mind that each school year your students are completely different from the ones you had last year. I add different resources for different abilities for the Preschool and kindergarten students so you can choose the ones that you need. You can also adapt the materials to your specific group.

I suggest games, the more games that you have the better. Here are the ones available for the transportation unit. Print and have them available for each class. Games usually meet students to the stage they are at their language abilities. Adapt your games to your specific group, challenging them.

The text books for English Language Learners sometimes are short in Practice materials. I used to copy lots of extra worksheets and even made them to suit my students needs, even more for the younger students. I like to include review of previous units, such as numbers, shapes, colors and more.

I got hooked on printable books when I was teaching English to kindergarten in my hometwon, there weren't many English books available and the ones around we so expensive, so I used to include printables as much as I could and send them home to read with their parents. Here is one of the printable book from my resources.

Crafts for each unit. A good way to add fun to any group and to keep their interest. Some groups are so bored and a craft just changes the pace of the lesson.

The Holidays are always there to integrate culture to language. I have seen that the most celebrated Holiday in the English class around the world is Halloween. I love to do Halloween along with specific units.

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Thanksgiving Printable Book for ESL: Turkey on the Farm

 Adding a new Thanksgiving resource to all the other that are already here on the blog. Check them at the label section on the right column.

LINK to the resource:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Printable-Book-for-ESL-6213262

                                                             Print the pages of the book.

 Students can make individual books or group books. Students will color each page as they read the sentences.

There is a set of a turkey surrounded by several objects and pages describing each item. You an put them together.  I would make the students color the separate items first and then look them up in the turkey picture and color accordingly.

Another example:

       The pages are meant to review vocabulary from the farm unit that might have previously taught.

the last set of turkey and vocabulary pages.

                                       Put all the sets together and bind the pages of the book.

Prepare all the toilet paper roll puppets. You can also do craft sticks or flannel board cutouts for storytelling.

                                       You can also practice prepositions. 

Teacher: Put the turkey in front of the barn.

Teacher: What color is the barn ?

Students: It's read and white.

More examples for practicing prepositions.

Students can say positional sentences to other students to find the items and place them in the correct postion.

Student: The turkey is in front of the barn.

You can place the puppets in any position and ask questions.

Teacher: Where is the turkey'

Students: It is between the basket and the chicken.

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