English teacher guide

Week 6 Revision of weeks 1, 2, 3 and 5 Week 7 2 sets of emotion flashcards happy, sad, angry, fed-up Week 8 1 set of real cutlery and crockery knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass 1 set for

THE TEACHER GUIDE

FOR A YOUNG CHILDREN’S COURSE

material to use with very young learners of English

(3-11 years)

Luc Ciotkowski

(with contributions from Lydia Brear)

Are we missing the point? V Lexical and grammatical fields VIII Materials XII Vocabulary games XIV The ‘chairs’ game XVI Language specific games XVII

8 This and that 15

9 This and that 15

This guide was originally conceived for the PROXILANGUE language school program and provides material for an English language course for children between the ages of three and eleven years old The course consists of thirty one lessons of one hour which, at one hour a week, represents a full academic year It can be no more than a basis due to the large differences in development between these age groups Therefore, the guide should not be looked at as a ‘one-size- fits-all’ but as a cloth ready to be tailored to specific groups and ages Clearly, you will spend longer using the more simple practice activities and games with groups of younger students, while you will

be able to move onto more complex activities and games more quickly with older groups The course is very light on materials and teaches spoken English This allows for maximum communication, interaction and participation, while promoting a new language as an interpersonal tool and not an academic discipline As a result the course is more demanding than many others: the teacher is neither able to rest nor hide behind materials and written exercises However, this is also the very thing that makes it more rewarding for teachers than many other courses

The Teacher Guide was developed on these principles: children learn most naturally and effectively through play; learning a language can and should be a pleasant experience I hope the Teacher Guide will

be used with motivation in mind I believe that this is the most important factor for increasing the effectiveness of learning (see the piece entitled ‘Are we missing the point?’) and should be a key consideration in any course The activities are designed to promote cooperation, participation and some friendly competition that doesn’t exclude less able students in favour of the more able ones The students are discouraged from reverting to their mother tongue or not participating by the risk of ‘losing’ or isolating themselves from the group; they must participate in order to ‘survive’ This is coupled with the way that activities are presented as play rather than work;

No reading or writing activities are directly mentioned in the Teacher Guide This is not attempt to deny the importance of the written language It is important as a means of making sense of what has been learned, in addition to being a communicative tool However,

in a thirty-hour course that consists of one lesson of one hour a week (as this was originally intended) the contact time for actual human communication is too precious to be spent on something which

is essentially an individual activity and penalises students with a developed level of literacy I recognise that some teachers work under the obligation of teaching written English and the Teacher Guide remains a useful resource to them: reading and writing activities can be added to the end of every lesson to reinforce what has been learned I strongly advise that if a written element must be added then it be added after new language has been introduced through listening and speaking Phonology has to come before phonics, otherwise interference from the phonics of the mother tongue will have a significantly negative effect on pronunciation

less-This is a guide and, as such, is not exclusive: your own ideas and games would be a welcome expansion and if, without losing cohesion

or coherence, you can do something better you should feel free to do

so We are breaking away from the tradition of the textbook; to follow the entire guide without adding, taking away or changing anything would be to kill the dynamism we are trying to attain I have tried and tested all the lesson plans and ideas with every age group, although I have never followed a single one to the letter and never delivered a lesson in exactly the same way twice The reason for this

is that the needs of each group are as different as the abilities, personalities and needs of the individuals who are in it We need to adapt our ideas constantly if we wish our students to reap the maximum benefit from our classes

leg we put into our trousers first in the morning, but the Teacher Guide tries to cover some of the most frequently occurring and relevant topics and language areas The Guide doesn’t work through a progression of structures and you will be able to see that present tenses appear most frequently (as they do in real life spoken English) However, the context is the deciding factor in choosing tenses; if an activity creates a situation where a certain tense is most natural we will not avoid it because it is a ‘higher level’ tense Equally, approaching activities in a different way open up the possibility of using different tenses to those mentioned The games are designed to satisfy both the fun and language aspects of the course No thirty-hour course will produce fluent speakers of English, but it can be a foundation and, more importantly, a positive first experience of learning English

You will find a list of the most useful vocabulary and language specific games that are referred to in the lesson plans; these can also be used in lessons where they are not mentioned There are language specific games that are not at all mentioned in the lesson plans; these are designed to be slotted in according to age and ability where you feel they may be appropriate You will see that the vocabulary included follows the norms of British English; this can easily be adapted if you wish to teach another variety of English

Finally, I have taught students between the ages of three and eighty-three, of all levels and abilities, and have often asked their opinions of what makes a good teacher The most valued characteristics are almost always the human qualities that are independent of teaching methods or styles I believe it is important

to bear this in mind in any teaching situation

language When applied linguists and second language acquisition experts theorise about how best to optimise the acquisition of a second language,

it seems to me, the overriding theme (consciously or unconsciously) is invariably motivation

Methodology in English Language Teaching has moved through many different trends in its history (mostly over the last century) and yet no one method has been universally agreed upon The followers of each ‘new’ method have been quick to attack the shortcomings of previous ones and declare that they have found the ‘right’ way to teach English The fact that every method has, to a greater or lesser extent, been able to yield success (people using them have learnt to speak English) prevented any one particular method from discrediting the others and permanently establishing itself as the accepted model The use of the word ‘method’ has even become unfashionable, the word ‘approach’ is now preferred In this sense an approach is taken as an umbrella term indicating an attitude

to teaching and justifying the use of several methods

The Communicative Approach, which enjoys the most widespread popularity in English Language Teaching today, works on the principle that the goal of learning a language is communication This attitude differentiates it from the idea that a language is learned for its own sake,

to study and appreciate its structures (linguistics) While the Communicative Approach holds to the primacy of fluency over accuracy and that this is achieved through authentic communication, it is non-committal enough to allow the use of a variety of methods to accomplish this In reality, this has allowed practitioners to use methods with which they are most comfortable (often grammar methods), inserting some communicative activities and games Recently an evolution of the Communicative Approach has produced the Lexical Approach, which theorises that fluency is best attained by learning prefabricated chunks of language rather than grammatical structures Once again, students have become proficient users of English with both sets of techniques

My aim here is not to criticise or discuss the merits of existing methods (approaches, techniques, etc.) in detail What interests me is that, while the various methods sometimes allude to motivation, the method is generally implied to be separate from motivation I suggest that motivation should not be viewed as a separate consideration in any methodology (and certainly not a subordinate one), but the fundamental base around which it is built and applied What I am promoting is not new

or revolutionary in any way, but a refocusing of something that is far too often neglected or forgotten Indeed, it is my hope that these suggestions sound self-evident, in which case let us pay more attention to them

I intend to talk about motivation in the context of English as a Foreign Language, dividing it into two kinds which I call DESIRE MOTIVATION and SURVIVAL MOTIVATION DESIRE MOTIVATION is motivation to do something because you like it, enjoy it, want to or are interested in it SURVIVAL MOTIVATION is motivation to do something because you feel you need to do it

The reason for learning the language in the first place is a survival motivation Here are a few examples: the student lives in an English speaking environment; the student needs to pass exams or get good marks; the student’s boss wants him/her to learn English; the student’s parents want him/her to learn English; the student feels he/she needs English for his/her career; the student would like to integrate into an English speaking community; the student likes the thought of being able

to speak English; etc Coercion is a form of survival motivation Examples

of coercion are: fear of punishment from parents, teachers or bosses if a student does not learn; fear of social exclusion (isolation from other students or people in general) Rewards are also a form of survival motivation, whether that is praise from parents/teachers/other students

or pay rises, etc

Everyone (that is able to) eats, sleeps, learns to walk and learns his/her mother tongue Why do you eat? Why do you sleep? Why do you learn to walk? Why do you learn your mother tongue? These are all examples of survival motivation at its most potent However, ‘Why do you learn a second/foreign language?’ is not a rhetorical question and it is unlikely in the extreme that the survival motivation for this could reach the same strength as in those four examples Let us look at when survival motivation for learning a foreign language is at its strongest: when learners live in a foreign country where their native language is not spoken A British family of five moved to France Amongst the family members were a five year-old boy and his forty year-old father The five year-old boy spoke no French at all and the father had learned a little at school, but had barely an elementary level The boy had done six weeks of his first year of school in the UK and said that he did not want to learn French The father, skilled as a builder, said he wanted to be able to speak French for work purposes and to integrate into the local community The son reluctantly began French primary school and cried every day for the first three weeks as his parents left him at the school His teacher reported that after a month he started to speak French in class with no accent After six months his fluency was exactly the same as the other French children in his class The father took intensive classes in French and studied specialised vocabulary in the field of construction He secured building work after two months but relied a lot on help from his wife for communicating in French After a year he felt his French had improved, but still found it a struggle and said there were lots of misunderstandings

exposure to French was clearly different, also What interests me is the difference in survival motivation The father could use lots of different ways to ‘survive’ without having to use French He could rely on his wife

to communicate for him when he got stuck He could use the similarities

to English words when he saw written French to understand signs He could go about his day-to-day business speaking very little French He

could fill in official forms using dictionary translations without needing to

assimilate the words he was writing In interpersonal relationships he could speak English: with his wife; with his children; over the telephone with his family and English-speaking friends Only in the workplace was he

truly forced to use French to survive (and still, lots of gesturing and

waving could see him through) On the other hand, the survival motivation was quite different for the son His world consisted of home and school Of course, at home he spoke English and at school he spoke French He could not fall back on the survival strategies that his father was able to Once at school, everything depended on learning French If

he did not use French he could not participate; he could not make friends;

he could not be accepted He could not ‘survive’ without it

Desire motivation is the stimulation of curiosity and enjoyment that has

an effect during learning If people think of what their favourite subject was at school, followed by the subject in which they achieved the best grades or put the most effort into, I am sure a high percentage would give the same subject for both answers The same is true if we look at it the opposite way round: we tend to enjoy the things we are ‘good at’ This is why it is so important to give students a sense of achievement Desire motivation, or lack of it, is what makes someone go the cinema twice to see the same film and leave half way through another Newer ‘methods’ and ‘approaches’ advocate the use of authentic materials instead of contrived and wooden examples of English What is the difference if they both give the same end result?

There are two reasons: if students can ‘see the point’ they will invest themselves more willingly; if activities or subjects are more relevant to

their lives and interests they want to do them The movement towards

‘student-centred’ activities and classrooms away from ‘teacher-centred’ ones is also based on desire motivation (as well as promoting learner autonomy) ‘Student-centred’ activities exploit students’ two greatest interests: themselves and other people

While considering these observations allows us to recognise what

motivates students, it is our job as teachers to exploit them in order to optimise student motivation Indeed, there are more and more teachers who believe the ability to get students motivated and help them to

become autonomous learners is as important as (if not more than) the teacher’s knowledge of the language

Topics

Numbers (12+): One; two; three; four; five; six; seven; eight; nine; ten;

eleven; twelve…

Halloween (6+): Ghost; witch; vampire; pumpkin; devil; skeleton…

Eating/drinking (5+): Knife; fork; spoon; glass; plate…

Seasons (4): Spring; summer; autumn; winter

Christmas (6+): Father Christmas; snowman; presents; stocking;

Christmas tree; reindeer…

People/Family (10+): Me; you; boy(s); girl(s); man(men); woman(women); mum;

dad; brother; sister…

Animals (7+): Dog; cat; rabbit; fish; bird; mouse; spider (+ students’

pets)…

In the house (7+): House; bedroom; bathroom; lounge; dining room; kitchen;

garden

Easter (2+): Easter Bunny; Easter eggs…

Body parts (15+): Arm; ear; eye; fingers; foot; hand; head; knees; leg;

mouth; neck; nose; shoulders; stomach; toes…

Clothes (8+): Jeans; jumper; shirt; shoes; skirt; socks; trousers;

T-shirt…

Times of day (6+): Morning; afternoon; evening; night; o’clock; half past…

Meals (3+): Breakfast; lunch; dinner…

Food (8+): Apple; bread; cheese; fish; ice cream; meat; potato;

Weather (6+): Sunny; raining; cloudy; snowing; foggy; windy…

Colours (9-12+): Blue; red; yellow; green; black; white; brown; purple;

blond (Orange; pink; grey…)

Feelings/

Other adjectives (11+): Fine; happy; sad; angry; fed up; hot; cold; big; small; good;

bad; thirsty; hungry…

Possessive (2+): My; your…

Prepositions (6+): In; on; behind; in front of; next to; under…

Actions

I can / Can you? (5+): Climb; fly; jump; run; swim…

Commands (21+): Be quiet; clap your hands; close your eyes; come here;

count to twelve; do this; do that; go over there; hands on heads; jump; open your eyes; ready, go; sit down; stand up; step backwards; step forwards; stop; touch your ; turn around; wait…

(With ‘don’t’ for negative imperative.)

Miscellaneous (taught directly or indirectly)

If; and; but; or; with; to; the; a; an; of; this; that; these; those; I; you; he; she; it; we; they; for; at; from; here; there; by; not; all; everyone; everybody; not; which; how; where; who; what; when; again; another; other; now; then; some; any; more; up; down; him; her; them; yes; no; out; first (and any other frequently recurring language that the teacher uses)

This list is flexible and non-exhaustive and is meant as an indication of the language to which the students will be exposed during the course It is NOT a restriction on what can be taught

Are you in the ?

Are you wearing (a) ?

Are you scared of ?

Are these your ?

Are those your ?

Can you ?

Do you like ?

Have you got any ?

‘Question word’ questions

How are you/How’s it going?

How old are you?

How many are there?

How many has it got?

What’s your name?

What colour is it?

What colour have you got?

What colour have you got?

What’s this?

What’s that?

What’s the weather like?

What time is it?

What’s wrong?

When do you have ?

Where do you live?

Where’s my ?

Where’s (the) ?

Where are you?

Where are they?

No, it’s not

I’m fine thank you

I’m wearing [a] (item of clothing)

I’m in the (place)

There are

It’s (colour)

It’s (weather)

It’s (time) o’clock

It’s half past (time)

This is a That’s a There’s He’s (adjective)

She’s (adjective)

He’s not (adjective)

She’s not (adjective)

He’s a (job/profession)

She’s a (job/profession)

The man/woman is (adjective)

I’ve got (number)

I’ve got (number + family/pets)

I’ve got some

I haven’t got any

It’s got (number + body part)

I’ve got (colour + body part)

I have (meal) in the (time of day)

Week 6 Revision of weeks 1, 2, 3 and 5

Week 7 2 sets of emotion flashcards (happy, sad, angry, fed-up)

Week 8 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)

1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery

Week 9 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)

1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery

Week 10 2 sets of weather flashcards

Weather bingo and tokens

1 set of big country flashcards

1 set of season flashcards Week 11 3 sets of Christmas flashcards

A set of small Christmas flashcards for each student Card

Glue

Week 12 Revision of weeks 7, 8/9 and 10

Week 13 1 large picture of the Funky family

1 set of members of the Funky family

Week 14 1 set of body part flashcards

Plasters

Week 15 Body part flashcards

1 set of monster’s body parts for each student blutack and drawing pins

Week 19 Garden and room pictures

The doll’s house (open and closed) Counters to represent the students Week 20 1 set of man, men, woman, women flashcards

Flashcards of hungry and thirsty

12 pictures of Funky with different hair and eye colour

Week 21 Easter Bunny

Easter eggs Revision of weeks 16, 18 and 19

Week 22 8 large pictures of a girl

8 large pictures of a boy

8 small pictures of a girl

8 small pictures of a boy

8 ‘bad’ pictures

8 ‘good’ pictures

Week 23 1 set of real clothes

1 set of clothes flashcards

1 large picture of the wee man

8 little pictures of the wee man

Week 24 Revision

Week 25 1 set of parts of the day flashcards

Breakfast, lunch and dinner flashcards Week 26 3 sets of food flashcards

Week 27 2 sets of job flashcards

Week 28 2 sets of transport flashcards

Counters to represent the students Week 29 Revision of weeks 25, 26 and 27

Week 30 Digital times to represent 1 – 12 o’clock

Digital times to represent half past 1 – half past 12 Week 31 Revision of weeks 28 and 30

This is just a small selection of vocabulary games that you may find helpful

Circles

This game works for any vocabulary that is used in sequences (I have used this game to teach cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, days of the week, months of the year, meals and parts of the day.)

We practise the words together to begin with Repeat with individuals to check pronunciation and when you’re happy, put the students into a circle For example, we’re doing morning, afternoon and evening (and perhaps night), and we have to go round the circle in order So in this case, begin with morning and the next person must say afternoon, and so on Sounds a bit rubbish, doesn’t it? Well, they’re practising new words and the order they go in, it’s not so rubbish for them Make sure the group is not divisible by three (or four), so each student’s word changes with every turn (I join in if needed) The better they get, the faster they have to go They’ve got to remember the word, pronounce it properly, say it in the right order and as fast

as they can

Start again, this time with meals Show them pictures of breakfast, lunch and dinner

We practise as before, then we go into our circles

Once we’re really good at this, the hard part comes We want to put these pieces of vocabulary together and make a sentence We now need the ‘glue’ that sticks a sentence together We’re going to learn ‘I have breakfast in the morning’, etc

It depends on the vocabulary as to the ‘glue’ needed, and you might choose to move

on to a different task to teach this

Pick up a pair

You need a set of flashcards with two copies of each picture After the vocabulary has been introduced and repeated, shuffle the cards and lay them face down on the table or floor A student turns one card over, revealing a picture To have their

second turn, the student must say the vocabulary item out loud If they can, they turn

over a second card of their choice and say the word that it represents If the two cards match, they keep the cards and have another go

Keep the card

Show a flashcard, the first person to say the English word for what it represents keeps the card It’s as simple as that When there are no flashcards left, the person with the most cards is the winner You can show only a part of the flashcard, reveal it slowly, or show the card for just a split-second

stop, those who are holding an item must say what it is in English This can also be used for specific structures such as ‘to have (got)’ and ‘to be’

What’s missing?

For this activity you need objects for the vocabulary you want to teach, it can be used

to teach just about anything you can fit on a table It’s up to you how many objects you use, although you run the risk of the students retaining very little if you confuse them with too much new vocabulary I normally use six or seven objects maximum if they are all words that are new to the class If only a couple are new and the rest are pretty well known to the class (You just want to reinforce, revise a little, or test retention if they learnt the words a while ago), I might use up to ten If you use more than that you’ll more than likely be wasting your time – you want them to learn English, not develop a photographic memory

Choose a student to go into the corner and close their eyes Repeat the names of the objects in no particular order and, showing the rest of the class which one, take an object away and hide it Then it’s, “Ready, go!” and the student comes back to find the missing object If they get it right, great, start hiding several objects at a time When they can’t do it go through the objects that are there to see if it jogs their memory If they still can’t do it, see if the other students can remember, only then should you give in and tell them (showing the hidden object) Even if they get it right you need to show them the object and repeat it, reinforcing it for those who knew and reminding for those who didn’t After a while, you can start giving the students the chance to pick an object to hide They have to remember the one they picked in particular, and when the student who closed their eyes says which objects were missing they have to say which one they chose It’s just a way to stop the students who aren’t doing the guessing from switching off

If they get really good at it, hide all the objects and see if the students can remember them all

Change chairs/places

The students sit in a circle and each one has a flashcard Call out two or three items (shown by images on the flashcards) and the students holding these items change places

You can have one less chair than students, in which case one student stands in the middle This student must try to get a chair when others change places This second variation is more fun, but play it at your own risk! If you have more than one over-competitive student, mayhem and injury can ensue

The next activity is meant to be used little and often: In lessons where you need to change the focus if your students are bored or need a break from the main topic; if you go through your material too quickly or if you have a spare five minutes to fill It can actually be a free-standing lesson on prepositions, but its value as a ‘get out of jail free’ card is the reason we’re including it here

For this activity you will need a chair and a stuffed animal or doll

After making sure the students know the word ‘chair’, place your doll in the various positions in relation to the chair and tell them where it is, i.e on; under; next to; in front of and behind the chair Signal to a student to repeat ‘on the chair’, repeat it back to them and give them a second or more chances if the pronunciation is poor

Do the same with the rest of the class, then get an ‘on the chair’ in unison

Do another couple of rounds of telling them the different positions before concentrating on another in particular, perhaps ‘under the chair’, giving everyone a chance to repeat the position of the doll Before you repeat this process for the remaining prepositions go back and test some students on the first one

Now that everyone has had a chance to say each of the prepositions, you can encourage them to repeat together each time you move the doll This was also the point at which I decided to say, “Where is (name of the doll)?” each time I moved it

to a new position and before I told them where it was Of course, you can do this from the start, but I chose to wait a little to avoid any confusion

When you feel that the prepositions are starting to sink in you can start to test their retention of the language individually

If all you get is blank looks, you can always go back and work on positions they find more difficult to say or remember The first time I used the exercise I found that the students had particular difficulty in remembering ‘in front of the chair’, and that some were saying ‘on de de chair’ for both on and under the chair It is best if you alternate between two positions for a few goes before they get better You will know if they have cracked some and not other positions, so you should be able to judge which areas to work on

To get more participation from the students you can have volunteers to move the doll

or teddy, while you pick another to say where it is If they cannot answer, it is for the person who moved it to answer If neither they, then nobody else from the class can answer, you tell them In addition, you may want to bring students to the front, give them the doll and tell them to place it, for example, under the chair They place the doll and you ask the rest of the class if they are right - Yes (Big smile, thumbs up, nodding head) or no (Sad face, shaking head) If they are right, give them praise, if not tell the students where it actually is, show them where the doll should be and repeat ‘under the chair’, or wherever If a student gets it wrong, give them another chance and try and make sure they get one right They will get extra confidence from the praise of their peers as well as yours

This is the simplest form of the ‘chairs’ game, it can be expanded with commands like

‘sit in front of the chair’ or ‘stand behind the chair’ A game can be played where everyone moves in front of the chair, another where one person does it and someone else says whether it is correct, or even where one student tells another to move somewhere in relation to the chair

This activity can be revisited later to practise a variety of vocabulary, by placing

Language What time is it? It’s…

Everyone stands in a circle and asks in unison, “What time is it?” Choose a time such

as 4 o’clock Say, “It’s 4 o’clock.” The group mime the time by using their arms The results can be funny Anybody who gets it wrong is out of the game and sits down The game continues until there is one person left standing, they are the winner You could vary this by choosing a student to say the times

First to 20

Sit the students in a circle and count to 20, first together and then go round the circle Each person says one, two or three numbers each They can choose how many they want to say The person who falls on 20 gains a point Play the first to 3 points

Directions

Language Directions: left; right; forwards, backwards; stop

One child stands in the corner of the room and the group or individuals give him directions to get to another part of the room Continue until everyone has had a go Your wish is my command

Language Giving instructions

This is an extension of the idea in ‘Directions’ Ask two students to go to the side of the room Give them instructions on how to cross the room For example: walk slowly; put your arms in the air; wave Give one instruction, and then another, and then another The students are not allowed to stop doing one action before they start another; they do them all simultaneously As soon as the students reach the other side of the room they stop, take over the role of giving instructions and two more students go up to be commanded

Colours and clothes

Language What colour is ……?

Stand in a circle and ask a few questions about the colour of clothes that the students are wearing For example, “What colour is Jack’s T-shirt?” After a few examples, blindfold one of the students The rest of the group ask the blindfolded student questions about the colour of students’ clothes When the blindfolded student answers correctly, he gives the blindfold to the student whose clothes were being talked about

1 A Is John’s jumper blue?

Question and answer activities Conveyor belt

The students sit on chairs in a line and you sit on a chair facing them Ask the question that you want to practise, beginning with the student on the end of the line Each student replies as you ask them the same question When you have asked all the students, everyone moves round one place: you join one end of the line and the student at the other end takes your place Continue until everyone has been up to ask the question (The person who asks the questions can wear a hat This can be funny and can help to distinguish the roles.)

Answer, quick!

Using the same lay out as the conveyor belt, the person at the front directs questions

at everyone There must be a choice of several questions so that the group must recognise what the question means and give the appropriate answer As soon as they know the answer, they stand up and shout their answer out They students must try to be the first to shout the correct answer

Introductions

Target structures:

Hello

How are you? I’m fine, thank you

What’s your name? My name’s…

Where do you live? I live in…

Materials: None

This is always going to be the hardest and most stressful lesson of the course However, this is not only true for you; your students feel exactly the same If there is one lesson plan that you are going to completely disregard and do things your own way let it be this one If you want to put your students at ease, you need to be as comfortable as possible with what you are doing Read the plan, understand what you are trying to get from the lesson and adapt it so that you are comfortable with it

“Hello”, introduce by shaking hands with everyone in the room, then get them to shake hands with each other

Ask a student, “How are you?” (Think about intonation, it’s got to sound like a question, we want them to learn a realistic and interesting style of English from the start Maybe it’s obvious, but unfortunately there are still a lot of foreigners learning HOW ARE YOU robot English.)

In a circle each person asks his or her neighbour, “How are you?” Do the same with,

“I’m fine, thank you.”

Ask all the students individually, “How are you?” and get them all to answer in turn They might think you are looking for them to repeat again If they do, you step in with

a pre-emptive, “I’m fine thank you.”, so they know that you’re now looking for an answer Now in the circle, they can ask their neighbour the question, before their neighbour replies and then in turn asks the next student

Point to yourself and say, “My name’s… ” Point to somebody and ask the question,

“What’s your name?” If you need to help them, say it and get them to repeat The first child then asks their neighbour “What’s your name?” the neighbour replies “My name’s… ” and then asks his neighbour and so on

Go round the circle again, this time shaking hands and asking everything, “Hello”,

“How are you?” “What’s your name?” Put the children in pairs and get them to shake hands and ask each other the questions, change the partners until they’ve all spoken

the question so that they associate it with the answer Then, get each student to have

a go at asking everybody the same question Do this with each question and answer, starting with the teacher asking the question and then the students having a go You can change the focus by introducing the chairs game if you feel you need to As necessary and logical as introductions are, a taste of the more fun and inspiring activities that are to come may do both them and you some good

Then at the end, you can put all the questions and answers together Stand up and ask one student all the questions and he replies Do this with all the students in turn Then one of the students can ask the questions, taking the role of the teacher Everyone has a go

Numbers

Target vocabulary: 1 Numbers

2 Boy; boys; girl; girls

Target structures: 1 How old are you?

I’m ……

Materials 3 sets of number flashcards (numbers 1 – 12)

Introduce the numbers 1 – 12 Say them slowly and show the relevant figure at the same time Getting all the children to repeat after each number, do this twice Then, do it with each child individually, you saying the number first then them All count in a circle together, then go round with everyone saying a number each

in sequence Continue getting faster and faster, checking that everyone knows the numbers and can pronounce them correctly

Choose one of the children to go and close their eyes and move them away from the group Show the rest of the group a number of your choice from the set of cards, which are lined up in order The group say the number together (this reinforces for those who are struggling) “Ready, go!” the one that has not seen the number rejoins the group and has to find the number that has been said A possible problem could be if someone blurts out the number in French If this happens you need to make it clear that it’s not allowed Stamp this out now and you’ll save yourself a lot of problems in future lessons One way to do it is to tell them that they lose a point if they say the word in French They take turns until everybody has had a go

Divide your class into two teams One student from each team comes over to you Their remaining team members have a set of cards with the numbers on You show the child from team one a number He says the number in English to one of his team-mates, who finds the number If he can’t find it, or gets it wrong, the rest

of the team can say If they still don’t have the right answer the other team can try

If they get it right first time they get two points, if their team gets it right they get one point and if the other team get it, they steal a point

To make the link between numbers and age write how old you are in figures on the board and point to yourself Point to the number on the board and to yourself again and elicit what you are trying to convey If they can guess it will be in their own language, that’s ok, you are merely looking for them to understand the concept of numbers representing your age (also, they haven’t learnt as far as the number you will have written) Tell the students, “I’m (your age)” If you get blank looks you can take a picture of the boy and hold, for example, the number five next to it and say, “I’m five” Take a picture of the girl and hold, for example, the number six next to it and say, “I’m six” Point to a student, asking, “How old

are you?” and motion to the number pictures, “Four, five, six, seven?” When the penny drops and your students realise you are looking for their age go through with each of them how to tell their age, insisting on ‘I’m’ before they say the relevant number Set up they conveyor belt activity to practise the question and answers

Show the students two pictures, one of a boy and one of a girl You say them, the students repeat together Do the same individually Take another picture of a boy and put it with the other Take another picture of a girl and put it with the other You’ve now got boys and girls Introduce these the same way as boy and girl Now you need them to recognise the difference between the singular and plural They have done enough repeating, so you can show them one or two pictures at

a time, the students reply together Some might get it right, some might get it wrong, make sure you reaffirm the correct answer

Test individuals by saying boy, boys, girl or girls for the student to point to the

appropriate cards or cards After that you can point to the cards and they can say

what it is Once you’re confident that they can distinguish between the singulars and plurals you can combine the numbers with the people

You need several more pictures of boys and girls on individual cards, so that they can be counted Give a few examples, such as “There are two boys”, pause and pick up two cards with the boy picture on Go around the group telling individuals how many girls or boys there are, while they find the pictures to represent it Don’t spend long on this; what you’re really looking for is for them to use the language themselves This time you show the cards, ask “how many …… are there?”, and the children reply saying, “There are …….” Split the group into two teams; choose one member of each group One is going to ask the question, “How many boys are there?” and the one from the other team is going to make up an answer e.g “There are three boys.” The child who asked the question then goes to find the correct number of boys to represent the answer, from a nearby table for example If he gets this right, his team wins two points If he gets it wrong his team has a second chance as another member of the team can go up to find the cards, if this one gets it right, his team wins one point Then, choose another two children, one from each team and start again, this time with the other team asking the question first

At the end of the class, ask the question, “How many boys / girls are there?” Point

at the students to show that you mean them They can shout out the number of boys or girls in the class This is just to make it authentic; they apply the words to real life girls or boys You can then integrate this into your lessons for the future, starting at the beginning of each class, by asking “How many girls / boys are there.” All the children count and reply This is very good to do on a regular basis; it’s both fun for the students and consolidates the language

Commands (Total Physical Response)

Target structures: Positive and negative imperatives

(Orders/instructions)

Materials: None

It’s more than possible that you didn’t get through everything in Week 2, so begin this one by finishing the last if you need to Even if you did, it would be a good idea to go back and do any points that were rushed or do the activities that involved the students producing the language Most importantly make sure that

the students recognise the difference between there is one and there are

two/three etc They will have less problems with the numbers and girl or boy, but you’re also teaching them an extremely useful structure with the how many and there is/are

Start the habit of asking how they are and how many girls or boys there are now, doing this at the start of every class will make it second nature Further on you can add all sorts of extra everyday things: What day it is; what the weather is like etc

Arrange the chairs into a line, including your own (It’s preferable to have no chairs or other obstacles in the middle of the room, and as much space as possible.) You are going to give orders, which are carried out by moving Begin with “Stand up”, you stand up to show the students what to do “Sit down”, you sit down and they follow, they know what you’re doing now The orders are up to you, but I recommend: Jump; turn around; step forwards; step backwards; be quiet (finger on lips, short silence), clap your hands; close your eyes; open your eyes; count to ten Sit down and stand up are obvious, but also essential for controlling the class and setting up games Deep breath, close your eyes, followed by count to twelve (Everyone counts to twelve slowly), open your eyes, this is amazingly useful for calming the group after a boisterous game or to curtail any messing about

Once you’ve introduced all the different orders you want to use, bring in ‘don’t’ When you don’t move they see that they’re not supposed to either You can use positive and negative together now, “Do this!” “Don’t do that!” You no longer need

to show them first, so take a chair opposite the line of students and give the orders without performing the actions This is fun for them, but it can’t last too long (especially for the very young groups) We’ll come back to it later in the lesson

We’re going to go back to Week 1 now, to practise the introductions in full (including how old are you, from Week 2) You can choose how to do it from the activities in Week 1 Ideally you want the full interview in an order a bit like this:-

A “Hello!”

B “Hello!” (Shake hands)

A “What’s your name?”

B “My name’s What’s your name?”

A “My name’s ”

B “How are you?”

A “I’m fine thank you How are you?”

B “I’m fine thank you.”

A “How old are you?”

B “I’m How old are you?”

A “I’m ”

B “Where do you live?”

A “I live in Where do you live?”

B “I live in

The order isn’t important, of course, you’re looking for the right question with the right answer and pronounced as well as possible The better the students become, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to put two of them in the middle This is what you’re aiming for, but of course you’ll need to help

If your group find this too difficult (which is likely), conveyor belt questioning (see

‘Games and activities’) is an excellent way to practise question and answer recognition

Go back to your orders now Don’t give them any clues this time; see if they can remember from before Once they get good again (they need to be good for this bit), put a student in your place in front of the other students They now give orders for the rest of the group to follow If a student struggles, swap over quickly The better someone does, the more it will inspire the others to try (They should enjoy it, they get to tell everyone what to do) The younger the group is, the more help you’ll need to give and it may help to limit the orders they can choose from It’s obvious that you need to keep a younger group under tighter control, but you can get good participation if you give just enough freedom You’ve got a handy calming technique now (“Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to twelve.”)

‘Commands’ should make frequent comebacks in future lessons to revise, warm

up or change emphasis to re-capture short attentions spans (slowly introducing more and more verbs or actions through mime)

Halloween

Target vocabulary: Ghost; witch; vampire; pumpkin; devil; skeleton

Target structures: Are you a ……?

Materials: 2 sets of Halloween flashcards

Introduce the vocabulary Go through it a few times, as a group and then individually until you are satisfied with the pronunciation Then play two vocabulary games to put

it into practice An example would be to hand out the cards, say one of the words and get the child with that card to hold it up Another would be to play the ‘What’s missing game.’ This is good to get the students to practise pronunciation

Go on to teaching the structure, “Are you a ……?” Do this by giving everybody a flashcard each Turn to the person next to you and say, “Are you a ….?” followed by the name of whatever they are holding Prompt them to answer, “Yes I am”, do the same for each student in turn After you have gone round the circle once, go round again this time asking, “Are you a … ?” followed by something they’re not This time prompt them to reply saying, “No, I’m not.” Go round a third time with the aim of mixing up the two answers You might be tempted to say, “Are you the ghost?” for example, as you are talking about the picture of the specific ghost on the flashcard, but if you were outside the classroom, you would be more likely to use the indefinite article ‘a’ if you were talking about things in general So be careful not to slip into saying “the ghost” which might be an easy thing to do

E.g

Teacher (A has the ghost) Are you a ghost?

Teacher (B has the pumpkin) Are you a witch?

Continue doing this until you are happy with what the students are saying Go onto play a game Hold up the picture of the witch and give it to the person next to you Ask them, “Are you the witch?” the student answers, “Yes, I am.” Take the card from the student and give it to the next student, ask the same question again and gesture for the first student to repeat the question after you He should say this with a questioning tone and he should direct it to student number two Student two answers and then asks number three the question and so on, until it has gone round the circle twice or three times For the game, split the class into teams and sit them at either sides of a table Give everyone in the first team a different flashcard, and give the second team copies of the cards you’ve given the first team Make sure everybody hides their cards so that nobody can see We’ll call them team A and team B Team

A are going to start The first member looks at his card, say it’s the skeleton His aim

is to find the skeleton in the other group, so he picks someone and asks, “Are you the skeleton?” They reply accordingly If they say, “Yes, I am.” the two players but their cards down on the table If they say “No, I’m not.”, it’s the next member of team A to have a go If the answer was yes, team A get a point, but only if they guess right first time Let every team member find their partner (even if it’s the second or third time of them asking the question.) Now, all the cards should be laid down on the table Pick

up the cards and deal them out again, keeping one set of cards for team A and the copies for team B If you haven’t used all the flashcards in the first round, (because you have a small class), use this as an opportunity to swap over and use the remaining flashcards Do exactly the same but this time with team B asking the questions Record the points each time they guess correctly the first time and get them to keep taking turns until all their partners have been found At the end, add up the points and see who has got the most Play the game again If you feel that the students would benefit from it

For the next part of the lesson, use the ‘scared’ and ‘not scared’ flashcards Hold one

up at a time and say what they are using the phrases, “I’m scared” and “I’m not scared” Then, choose one of the Halloween flashcards, hold it up in the air and say,

“Oooh, I’m scared.” Choose another one of the flashcards, shake your head and say

“I’m not scared.” Hold up the “scared” card and the “not scared” cards once again, and repeat the phrases that they represent Then, the students can have a go Put the pictures down on the table and get the students to point to the correct picture when you say “I’m scared” and “I’m not scared” After they are getting them all right, point to the pictures and get the students to say what they are, first altogether then individually

Moving onto the question, get everyone to stand up and stand in a circle Say the question this time, “Are you scared?” Say it several times getting the students to repeat after you as a group Ask individuals to repeat after you Do some more repetitions as a group and then go round the circle, encouraging everyone to say the question in turn (If it is a small, well behaved group, throw round a cuddly toy to choose the student who speaks.)

ghost flashcard ask, “Are you scared of the ghost?” The students can reply how they want to Practise with all the flashcards and go through them several times Then, play the game Choose someone to ask the question and the first person who is going to answer Give the scared pictures and all of the Halloween flashcards to the person who is going to ask the question – Student A Student A picks up one of the Halloween flashcards e.g the pumpkin and asks student B, “Are you scared of pumpkins?” Student B replies how he wants to “Yes, I’m scared,” or “No, I’m not scared.” Student A, then gives the corresponding scared picture to Student B Student A asks Student C the same question, and gives him one of the scared pictures, depending on student C’s answer

A (Picks up the pumpkin card.) Are you scared of pumpkins?

B (He’s not scared.) No, I’m not scared of pumpkins

A (gives the not scared card to B.)

A Are you scared of pumpkins?

C (He is scared.) Yes, I’m scared of pumpkins

A (gives the scared card to C.)

Student A asks everybody a question about one Halloween flashcard After he has asked everyone a question, use some TPR

E.g Stand up if you are scared of pumpkins

Clap your hands if you’re not scared of pumpkins

Then it is student B’s turn to ask the question, so do the same again with a different Halloween flashcard Finish the round with some TPR An idea to finish off the lesson

is something like a Halloween jigsaw or some Halloween colouring in

Hello, how are you, how many boys are there, how many girls are there? Easy, obvious, but don’t forget to keep this going Also, take your first five minutes or so to

go over the previous lesson This is another habit to get into early, it’s essential for two reasons: To internalise the language, iron-out any faults and to make the students feel good about themselves (they are doing something they already know,

so they can express it confidently and begin the class on a high)

Using pieces of coloured cardboard, introduce the colours above or of your choice, but ideally no more than seven colours, as this is the average number of words we can retain in the space of an hour Hold the pieces of cardboard up, saying the name

of the colour as you do so Get the children to repeat the names all together, at least three times Then ask the children to say the names of the colours individually as you hold the colours up ‘Red’ and ‘green’ are often the most difficult, due to the pronunciation of the English ‘r’

To reinforce the names of the colours, play a game Split the group into two teams and get them to sit behind each other on the floor Give the two children at the back

of the line a set of the colours each that you have just taught them Ask all the children apart from the two at the front to close their eyes They should know how to

do this, after Week 3 Show the front two children a colour Shout, “Open your eyes.”

to the other children, and then get the first two children to turn around and whisper the name of the colour to the second child, the second child to the third etc Try and make sure that they whisper and that they say the name in English You can reinforce this by taking away points if they say the colour in French When the

‘Chinese whisper’ has got to the child at the back of the line He selects the correct colour from his set and holds it up in the air The first team to do this correctly gets a point Unfortunately this game will only work with a fairly large group, so use your judgement as to whether it will work in your class

Stop the game when one of the teams has got a set number of points, for example play the first to 5 Then you can move on to the question, ‘What colour is it?’

Ask this question and then point to the red piece of cardboard and say, “It’s red”

individually, correcting any mispronunciation Then, all ask the question together Point to one of the colours and all say in unison, “It’s …….” It is quite likely that the children will just blurt out the name of the colour without “it’s”, in this case insist on them saying “it’s” by getting them to repeat the answer after you each time

Now, you can play another game Give each child in the circle a colour Start by saying, “I’ve got red”, for example Prompt the child next to you to say “I’ve got … ” whichever colour he has Go round the circle until everyone has said which colour they have Give everyone a different colour and do it again Lay out a set of the same colours that the students have on a table or on the floor Then, introduce the

question, “What colour have you got?” ask everyone individually and get them to reply They mustn’t show you the colour, but say, “I’ve got ”(Green for example) Find the corresponding colour, (so the green card in this case) and hold it up Beckon for the student to show you their card The two cards should match (If they don’t the student is wrong.) Ask, “Is that right?” The students reply yes or no If no, give them and the others a chance to correct before you do Make this a habit for everything, always let the class correct themselves first Doing this keeps the attention and involvement of the whole class, while being corrected by your peers is less harsh Repeat the colour one more time as a group, just to reinforce When everybody is a bit more confident, you can start the game Divide the class into two teams (This is a game played individually, but keeping the points in teams avoids an individual loser) Choose a student to play the role of the teacher, asking everyone the question in turn If the student picks the correct colour from their classmate’s reply, they take the pair Give a point for each pair of cards chosen correctly If a reply is wrong, e.g a student says, “I’ve got blue” when they have a red card, that student’s team loses a point The student counts their points in English at the end of their turn Everybody having a turn at this should enable them to retain the question and how to reply You can keep this game going until the end of the lesson, changing teams to keep interest, or revisit something from earlier in the lesson Of course, you can also add any game of your own, but nothing involving new vocabulary (they’ve had enough to deal with already)

Yes, you are / No, you’re not

(Present simple - to be + feeling.) Target vocabulary: Happy; sad; fed up; angry

Materials: 2 sets of emotion flashcards (happy, sad, angry, fed-up)

This week, we’re going to concentrate on teaching the present simple of ‘to be’ (I’m

and you’re in this lesson) You can also see that it is contracted (I’m, not I am etc.) If you think about it, pretty much the only people who say I am in normal spoken

English are foreigners (apart from in the affirmative – “Yes, I am”) Don’t worry; they

will most certainly learn to write I am at school in the future So once you’ve used

your first five minutes or so to look back at the last lesson, you can start to teach these emotions

Start by showing the students the ‘happy’ flashcard; pull a big happy face and signal for the students to do the same “Happy!”, you say, and the students repeat “Sad”, everyone pulls a sad face and says “Sad” Practise all four as a group, and then individually Move onto ‘You point, they say’ (You can probably skip ‘You say, they point’, as there are so few words to remember), again as a group and after that with individuals

Give each student a flashcard, organise them into a circle and start with yourself, “I’m ” Each student says “I’m (emotion shown on their card)” when it’s their turn Swap the flashcards around and do the exercise again a few times (you’re insisting

on the I’m now)

Once the I’m has sunk in change the cards again, this time showing the students that

they are not allowed to let anyone else see their card

Teacher- Are you happy? –Yes or no?

A- No

Teacher- No, I’m not

A- No, I’m not

Teacher- Are you angry?

Teacher- (Turns to C.) Are you fed up?

C- No, I’m not

Etc

That’s how it should go In reality it will take longer than that to get ‘yes, I am’ and ‘no, I’m not’ replies to come out naturally, but we’re going to practise until they do

Choose a student to replace you, i.e they ask the others, “Are you ?” When they get one right they take the card You decide how long to let each student ask the questions It’s the guessing game part that the children will like, but you’re interested

in making them confident and able to use the question; the answer and the vocabulary Give everyone a turn to ask the questions before you end the game The next task is to teach ‘Am I ?’, ‘yes, you are’ and ‘no, you’re not’ Take a flashcard and ask, “Am I (happy)?” (You’re actually angry.) The group tells you,

“No!” “No, you’re not” , you correct “Am I (angry)?”, you ask “Yes!”, they reply

-“Yes, you are”, you correct this time Continue this, deliberately getting ones wrong now and again to practise ‘no, you’re not’ as well as ‘yes, you are’

Pick one or two students to go and close their eyes away from the rest of the group The remaining group members pick an emotion for them They come back to the circle and ask the others, “Am I ?” You choose who replies, to make sure they all participate You can get this to go quite fast as the students get quicker and better with the language They may get quite excitable If so, warm them down with a “Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to ten, be quiet, open your eyes”

This should take you pretty much to the end of the lesson If you do have some time left, you can try another version of the activity where everyone is in a circle and each student has a flashcard They look at the flashcard, hold it so that the rest of the group can see, and instead of saying “I’m ”; they have to say “I’m not ” They know what they are, so they have the freedom to choose from the other three emotions that don’t apply to them

A (Has ‘angry’ flashcard) I’m not happy

B (Has ‘fed up’ flashcard) I’m not angry

C (Has ‘happy’ flashcard) I’m not sad

Show them what you want with a few examples E.g You have a ‘happy’ flashcard Show the card to the students and say, “I’m not sad” Change the card for an ‘angry’ and say, “I’m not happy”, etc

This is just if you have some time left, but it gives the students some freedom in exercising what they have learnt

This and that

Target vocabulary: Knife; fork; spoon; plate; glass

Target structures: This and that

Present simple – to be (is)

This is a /that’s a Where’s my ?

Is this/that your ?

Yes, it is/No, it’s not

Materials: 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate,

glass)

1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery

This was originally going to be one lesson, but when tested it became clear that it was too dense and the concepts couldn’t be done justice in one hour Go as far as you can comfortably go in the first hour without rushing You can then re-do some of the earlier activities, before concentrating on the ‘Where’s my…? Is that your…?’ game, in the second hour

Introduce your vocabulary, it’s best if you get hold of the realia (real objects) for this one instead of showing flashcards (for your master set) Choose a couple of vocabulary games to practise (try to avoid the ‘what’s missing? game’, because it’s the basis of the activity for producing our sentences)

Give each student their own paper knife, fork, spoon, plate and glass from the printed sheets Everyone stands in a line with their paper vocabulary in front of them (laid out like it would be for a meal) You stand opposite the group with your items in front of you, just like the students You practise, “This is a ” for all of the vocabulary with the students (group and individuals)

Teacher (Picks up the knife.) This is a knife

Group This is a knife

Teacher What’s this? This is a knife

Group This is a knife

Teacher (Picks up the plate.) What’s this?

Group (Holding the plate.) This is a plate

Teacher (Picks up the plate.) What’s this? (Looks to A.)

A (Holding the plate.) This is a plate

Teacher (Picks up the glass.) What’s this?

Group (Holding the glass.) This is a glass

Teacher (Holding the glass.) What’s this? (Looks to B.)

B (Holding the glass.) This is a glass

Teacher (Picks up the fork.) What’s this? (Looks to C.)

C (Holding the fork.) This is a fork

Etc

It’s important that you hold up any item that you are going to use for a ‘this’ sentence Why? – Let’s be sure of the difference between this and that

‘This’ is something physically or ‘psychologically’ near

‘That’ is something physically or ‘psychologically’ remote

French doesn’t distinguish between ‘this’ and ‘that’ (e.g this tree – cet arbre; that tree – cet arbre) This is why you should always hold up a ‘this’ item (shows that it’s close), and why you should point at a ‘that’ item (shows that it’s remote)

Take one item from your set and put it on the floor further away from the others (so that it’s clearly separate from the rest of your set) Point at it and say, “That’s a ” Teacher (Separates the knife from the rest of the set and points at it.)

The students need to personalise their cutlery and crockery You should write their name or initial on their knives, forks, etc You can let them scribble or draw on them a bit if you’ve got some coloured pens (it could also be a little revision of colours) Don’t spend any more than three or four minutes doing this, the main thing is that each person’s vocabulary items be distinguishable from the others’

Sit everyone in a circle, meal settings in front of them Take one item from your set, stand up and put it on your chair behind you The students do the same (with the

Teacher No, it’s not

Teacher (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?

Teacher No, it’s not

Teacher (Waves for A to ask B.)

Teacher (Shows B by pointing to plate in the middle.) Is that

B (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?

Teacher (Shows B by holding up plate.) Is this

B (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?

Teacher (Waves for A to ask C.)

C (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is this your plate?

Teacher (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) This? Or that?

C (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?

C (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?

A No, it’s not (Looks at D.) Where’s my plate?

D (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?

D (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?

A No, it’s not (Turns to E.) Where’s my plate?

E (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?

E (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?

Give everyone a turn, changing the vocabulary item each time

You can keep playing this, the questions and answers becoming faster and more fluent all the time, until they get bored (or until the end if you like) If you do want to change the game, here is another one:

The teacher takes everyone’s forks, mixes them up, and gives them to Student A Student A is now holding all the forks The teacher takes everyone’s spoons and puts them in the middle of the circle (with space between each so everyone can tell which one is being pointed at) Student A has to get all the forks and spoons back to their owners

A (Holding B’s fork.) Is this your fork? (Asks E.)

E No, it’s not

A (Turns to B.) Is this your fork?

B Yes, it is

A (Gives fork to B Points at C’s spoon.) Is that your spoon? (Asks B.)

B No, it’s not

A (Turns to C.) Is that your spoon?

A (Holding D’s fork.) Is this your fork? (Asks E.)

E No, it’s not

Etc

What’s the difference that shows them whether to use ‘this’ or ‘that’ ?

They know that it’s ‘this’ when they’re holding something (it’s near), and it’s ‘that’ when they’re pointing at something (it’s more remote)

You can finish by playing the ‘What’s this/that? – This is/that’s a ’ game from earlier on See if the students can conduct it by themselves (with a little help from you

if they need)

Weather

Target vocabulary: raining; cloudy; sunny; snowing; foggy; windy

(The UK; Ireland; France; Spain; Italy; the USA.)

Target structure: What’s the weather like?

It’s …

Materials: Two sets of weather pictures

Pictures of the above countries

As always, use your first five minutes to look back to the previous lesson (that’s the last time we’ll say that, you should do this automatically now) Introduce the above types of weather by using pictures Show the pictures and say what they are, using the construction, “It’s…….” Do this a few times, then give each child a picture If there are more children than pictures, put the children into pairs Then, shout out a type of weather and the child or children with that picture stand up with their picture Do this

a couple of times and then change pictures

Put the pictures on six chairs in the room and pick out one student to go and sit on the chair with the picture that corresponds with what you say It’s best to do this with just one student rather than the class as a whole, but change over the students quite quickly so that the others don’t get bored Each time the child finds the picture that you ask for, ask the class if they have chosen correctly or not, this will keep the group involved and interested After you have done this several times with different children, move on to getting them to practise saying the phrases Choose someone else and say a type of weather Again, get him to sit on the chair with the corresponding picture, then say what it is All the class can say this together

After a few goes, introduce the question, “What’s the weather like?” Place the second set of pictures face down on a table away from the group and choose an assistant The assistant is going to reply to your question (What’s the weather like?) by turning over one of the pictures and saying what type of weather it is Again, pick one child to

go and stand by the corresponding picture and repeat what the assistant has said Change over the student every one or two questions

After everyone has got a fair idea of the language you are using, you can move onto

a game of weather bingo Prompt the children to ask the question, “What’s the weather like?” use the second set of cards to determine the order in which you say them The children can then take turns in being the bingo caller (There will have to

be a couple of the same pictures on each bingo card as we are only teaching six types of weather.)

A further game you can play would be to do a mini weather forecast Have pictures of the above countries that you can stick on the board or on a wall, present the pictures

of the countries to the children, saying what they are called as you put them up Go through the names of the countries several times, and then say, for example, “It’s sunny in France.” The children can then take turns in choosing the correct picture (laid out on a nearby table) and sticking it on the appropriate country Again, ask all the other children if it’s right or not, to keep them involved

You can pick a student to do your job now (Not with three year olds, but with slightly older groups.) Tell a student to close their eyes away from the group, while you show the new ‘teacher’ a kind of weather and the place it’s going to do it They can say what the weather’s doing and where it’s doing it, and the ‘eyes closed’ student comes back to take the correct weather to the correct country

Now, come back and sit in a circle, introduce your pictures of the seasons by holding

up the pictures and getting everyone to repeat the names after you Do this several times and then, place them on the table Ask each child in turn to point to the picture that corresponds with what you say After everyone has had a go, point to the pictures and get the children to say what the names are, watch the pronunciation of autumn as it is similar to the French word, but not the same Get them to say the words, first as a group then individually

At the end of the class, point out of the window and ask, “What’s the weather like?” The children should now be able to tell you From now on you can introduce this into the beginning of your future lessons, the weather is a good topic to practise little and often

Christmas

Target Vocabulary: Father Christmas; snowman; present; stocking;

Christmas tree; reindeer

Target structure: I’ve got some…

(Regular and irregular [snowmen, reindeer] plural forms

Materials: 3 sets of Christmas flashcards

A set of small Christmas flashcards for each student

Use pictures to introduce the vocabulary Choose other words if you wish, but limit them to seven or eight You could also use the poisoned pass the parcel game to teach the vocabulary After everyone is confident, stick 2 sets of the flashcards on the wall, in two separate areas, and give another child in the group the third set of flashcards The child with the set of flashcards in his hand is going to call out the names of the pictures on the cards If you think he might struggle, give him a helper

to give him a hand Two more students are going to go up and stand next to a set of words each on the wall As the child with the flashcards calls out the names, the two children have to point to the corresponding picture, the first one to do this correctly gets a point Make sure you ask the rest of the class if it’s right after each go to keep them involved After the child has read out the names of the flashcards, change over all the players and start again

After all the excitement, it may be an idea to calm the students down, by getting them

to sit down, close their eyes and count to twelve Hand out all the pictures so that everyone has got a set each For two minutes, go over the vocabulary again, by calling out the words without showing any pictures and getting all the children to hold

up the corresponding picture Hand the pictures out again, but this time not fairly so that some children have two or more of the same picture, this is to introduce the plurals Do an example first e.g call out “Christmas tree” and hold up one Christmas tree, then say “Christmas trees” and hold up a few Call out all the vocabulary in singular and plural forms getting the children to hold up whatever you ask for, then move on to the next part Collect in all of one picture, for example everyone gives you their presents Introduce the saying, “I’ve got some presents.” Hold up all the pictures

of the presents and say the full sentence at the same time Pass all the pictures of the presents to the next person and get them to say the same phrase Go round the circle getting everyone to say it one by one as they are holding the pictures Go round the circle until everyone has had a go Then do this with all the snowmen for example, to emphasise that the objects can change but the structure stays the same