Teaching Little Kids

Introduction
Teaching young children is challenging, even for the very experienced teacher. If we consider
recent theorists writings into child development, we can see the wide variety of things to take into
consideration for every lesson.
Ferre Laevers says that for development to occur children need to be emotionally involved. If
motivated, children want to learn. Howard Gardner puts forward a theory of multiple intelligence;
human beings learn in different ways in favour of another, such as visually, musically or
kinaesthetically. Margaret Donaldson says that young children in their quest for knowledge and
understanding of the world seek to make connections between experiences.
Children start learning English at Chester from the age of 7. This training focuses on 7 to 12 year
olds. It is therefore important that we understand more about child development during this time.
Here is some information using the findings of another theorist, Jean Piaget:
Age 6 to 12: The Concrete Operations stage
Children of 6 and 7 years old start to take a step back from immediate sensations and experiences
and see the beginnings of general rules and strategies for examining or interacting with the world.
A child is able to pay attention to more than one thing at a time. Understanding is not achieved in
one immediate leap. There is a broader understanding of rules by the age of 11-12 years.
Independent classification begins to emerge by the age of 11 but some 6 year olds are capable of
very simple classification with numbers or colours and basic scientific elements.
Around 8-9 years of age, childrens vocabulary continues to expand with experience and
understanding. Most children at this age can read with understanding, but still experience some
difficulty with accurate spelling.
By 7 years you will find the beginnings of gender awareness. This will increase between 8 and 11
years and individuals become aware of themselves. At this stage they are increasingly adept at
organising themselves, their thoughts and activities and can work independently. They have the
ability to see things from a perspective other than their own, and the ability to imagine situations
not actually experienced.

This training incorporates the multi-faceted ways children of 7 to 12 learn and react in two parts;
one, important matters to consider when lesson planning and secondly, ideas of activities to
reinforce the different skill bases; speaking, listening, reading and writing.

Creative Activities
As a starting point to lesson planning and choosing activities, The C-Wheel created by Carol Read
(2007) is a great guide. It enables teachers to remain child-focused and incorporate the different
learning needs to achieve lessons that are meaningful and enriching.

CONTEXT Young children will focus on constructing meaning from the whole situation rather than
the language, so activities need to be relevant, natural and experimental. You must allow for
discovery and for activities to make sense to the children.
CONNECTIONS The teacher should be allowing children to make connections within and between
lessons. Connecting activities to other areas of learning e.g. science, art and also real life
experiences such as school or home. Comparing different cultures and making content real.
COHERENCE Childrens learning will be aided if they are using meaningful contexts and making
connections to their personal experience. Children should understand why they are doing an
activity; activities that are comprehensible and relevant and not patchy and overwhelming.
CHALLENGE The teacher needs to be able to plan activities that are at an appropriate level of
challenge for the children so that the children gain a sense of achievement and increase selfconfidence. If an activity is too easy or difficult, then this can lead to boredom, de-motivation and
disruption.
CURIOSITY Activities should encourage curiosity and lead to children wanting to investigate and
experiment. If activities are enjoyable and appropriate, children will want to find out more.
CARE Children respond to individual treatment rather than in a group. Teachers must seek those
personalised moments; responding to childrens questions, giving positive feedback and praise.
COMMUNITY Creating a sense of community in the classroom, encouraging collaboration,
communication and cooperation. Emphasising mutual respect.
CREATIVITY Encouraging thinking, creativity, fantasy and imagination will allow for personal
ownership, individual talent and fluency to flourish.

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

When starting to learn a new language there is often an emphasis on listening and speaking.
Listening to English will naturally lead to spoken use. Children need to have the opportunity to
engage in the language in meaningful ways, even your classroom language quickly becomes a
part of their natural repertoire.
In order for listening activities to be engaging and enriching for children, spoken text must be
offered in a variety of ways: instructions, rhymes, stories, songs, dialogues, conversations or
descriptions. In addition, there should be before (clear context, prediction), during (listening for
general gist, detail, mood) and after stage activities (reporting back, expressing opinions,
personalisation).
For children to speak in a second language, they need to feel comfortable and secure. Insisting
children speak is counter-productive. If the child can relate to the activity then this production
becomes easier. In class we are encouraging children to use both spoken interaction (asking and
answering questions, exchanges with peers) and production (a description, retelling a story...).
Early learners will gain confidence through repetition which in turn will help with natural
pronunciation.
Here are some activities to aid the development of listening and speaking skills of your children.
(s) refers to settled activities and (a) to active activities.
True or False? (s) (can be connected the Finding Facts activity later in this booklet)
Age: 7-12
Aims: To listen and respond verbally or non-verbally to sentences. To reinforce understanding of
topic. To informally evaluate pupils.
Procedure:
1. First decide what verbal or non-verbal responses you want the children to use. For
example for true statements thumbs up or hands on head and false statements thumbs
down or arms folded.
2. Say a chain of true and false statements connected to the unit you are studying and elicit
responses as instructed.

Miming a Story (a)

Age: 7 - 10
Aims: To listen to a sequence of events. To show understanding through mime. To add missing
language. To associate language and meaning kinaesthetically, making vocabulary more
memorable.
Procedure:
1. Invent a series of events about something connected with the unit you are studying. Tell
this to the children and get them to respond using gestures. For example, in Kids Box 4,
you are learning about past simple verbs, One day last summer, I went to the mountains. I
was happy because I was with my family. It was very cold so we put on jumpers and coats.
In the evening, we ate delicious hamburgers with chips. Before we caught the train home,
we visited a park with a big lake. We sailed a boat and skated. It was fun!
2. You repeat the story, keep doing the mime, but leave gaps in the story e.g. (teacher) It was
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very cold so .... (children) ...we put on jumpers!....

3. For younger children, keep the story short.
Follow up activities:
For older children, they could try to write the story or prepare a similar one to tell the class.

Visualisation (s)
Age: 8-12
Aims: To settle a class and create a quieter, reflective mood. To listen to a description. To
develop the imagination. To personalise a topic.
Procedure:
1. With all pens and books away, children sit with their eyes closed or heads lowered onto
desk on folded arms. Ask them to imagine a scene in their heads e.g. You are on holiday.
It is a Saturday and it is a beautiful sunny day. You are with your family on the beach. You
are playing with your brother or cousin. Your mum buys you your favourite ice-cream....
2. Once children have their eyes open and are alert. You can ask questions What was your
favourite moment? What did you hear? Where were you?
3. For younger children, keep it short. Exaggerate your intonation to aid their imagination,
background soothing music can help too. Also notice the different responses the children in
your class have; some will find it hard to create images and settle but with others it will be
obvious that they are creating quite vivid scenes.

Board Bar Charts (a) (s)

Age: 7-12
Aims: To talk about your favourite in a category. To build and interpret a chart. To describe,
compare and classify. To listen to other peoples opinion. To practise the present simple, numbers
and asking and answering questions.
Materials: paper to write names on and Blutack.
Procedure:
1. Draw the following grid on the board adapting it to the topic you are covering (sports, music,
classroom objects...)
5
4
3
2
1

David
Maria
Ice skating

Jaime
Marta
Almudena
sailing

Sara
cycling

reading

Rock
climbing

2. Children write down their names on pieces of card or paper.

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3. Ask individual pupils what their favourite sport/music/activity... is. The child places their
names in the relevant section.
4. Once all names are up, you can start asking more questions e.g. Whats the classs
favourite? Who likes sailing? How many...? Whats Saras favourite activity?
Follow up activities:
Children can complete sentences about the chart e.g. In our class.... As a classroom display, the
chart could be written on card instead of the board. Grids and charts can be used for other
activities to reinforce unit work such as Battleships, interviews (adverbs of frequency, giving
opinions) or as a listening for detail activity.

Making Plans (s) (a)

Age: 9-12
Aims: To plan an excursion in groups. To make and respond to suggestions, to listen to other
peoples points of view, negotiate.
Procedure:
1. Announce to the class that next week instead of the class, we are going on a class trip.
2. Elicit ideas of where we could go e.g. museum, park, mountains, zoo, theatre, concert....
3. If you can get leaflets of places, maybe tourist sites in an English speaking city then
fantastic!
4. Using the following template, individually, children think of 2 activities they would like to do
for each time of the day.
Our Class Trip
MORNING:
LUNCH:
AFTERNOON:
DINNER:
EVENING:

5. Children then pair up and make their suggestions (What shall we do....?, Lets go..., What
about....?) and expressing their likes and dislikes.
6. Once plans are ready, the teacher can invite suggestions from the class to plan the trip as a
group.
Follow up activities:
This activity can be used for other contexts e.g. organising parties, holidays. You can also
integrate the advantage and disadvantages of each location, adding more language to the activity.

Rhymes, chants and songs

Using rhyme, chant or song in a lesson can help change the pace; either slowing it down or
speeding it up. Why not use a favourite as a starting or ending routine? As well as developing
comprehension, speaking, pronunciation and intonation skills, rhymes, chants and songs can be
integrated into writing and reading exercises. Rhythm and music also helps with memorising
chunks of language.
Tongue Twisters (a) (s)
Age: 8-12
Aims: To aid pronunciation. To focus on a particular sound.
Procedure:
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1. Bring pupils attention to a particular sound e.g. /s/ making a hissing snake sound.
2. One sound that is often a difficulty for Spanish learners /s/. Repeat the sound, joining the
/s/ to words e.g. ssssssssssss....school! Elicit other examples.
3. Say the tongue twister (either your own, or any well-known ones) e.g. Silly Simon and his
scary snake sail from Spain to Saint Lucia. You may need to write it on the board.
4. Children repeat with you. You can vary the level and speed of your voice.
5. In pairs, they can practise saying it, timing each other under a minute. Ask how many times
there were able to repeat it. Ask for confident volunteers.
Follow up activities:
Get children to make up their own!
Routine chants (a)
Age: 4-7
Aims: To reinforce the use of classroom language and help create a positive and fun structure to
your class. To establish learning routines and behavioural expectations.
Procedure:
1. You can create rhymes and chants for stages in your lessons e.g. storytelling, greetings,
goodbyes, numbers, actions.
2. Carol Read (2007) offers this idea for greetings.
Good morning.
Good morning.
How are you?
Im fine, thanks.
And me too!
Rhyming words (a) (s)
Age: 8-12
Aims: To recognise rhyming words. To improve pronunciation. To practise numbers, past simple.
Procedure:
1. Write a series of rhyming words on the board e.g. coat, boat, chair, hair, book, cook... elicit
connection between words and more examples.
2. Write numbers 1 to 10 on the board and elicit words that rhyme with the numbers e.g. 1,
won, 2, blue, 3, knee.....
3. Start the rhyme to your chosen rhythm.
When I was one, I always won
When I was two, I liked blue
When I was three, I hurt my knee
4. When you have completed the ten and drilled it a few times changing speed or volume of
voice, start erasing key words. You can also divide the class into teams who take turns in
chanting lines.
Follow up activities:
The children can write what they really did when they were four.
Chanting games (a)
Ages: 6-12
Aims: To ask and answer questions. To follow rhythm.
Procedure:
1. This is adapted from the traditional West Indian game Who stole the cookie from the
cookie jar? The teacher can vary the starting sentence to use vocabulary or grammar the
children are learning: Whos got the rubber from the pencil case?
2. Give students numbers or their names can be used. Start the chant and the children will
quickly catch on.
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Everyone: Whos got the rubber from the pencil case?

Teacher: Marias got the rubber from the pencil case.
Maria: Who? Me?
Everyone: Yes! You!
Maria: Not me! Jaimes got the pencil from the pencil case....

READING AND WRITING

Reading in English is a vital skill; by reading in English, children can develop positive attitudes,
gain motivation and a sense of achievement. If the teacher can use reading activities in
purposeful ways, transmitting your own enthusiasm, encouraging personal responses, then
children will become able readers ready for secondary school and beyond. As with listening
activities, planning reading into your lessons should include before, while and after stages, here
below are some ideas of how to do this.
Reading for pleasure should be supported. Chester has a collection of library books for all levels
and pupils must be encouraged to use them. Show interest and ask about what they are reading.
The early stage of learning to write can often be mechanical and so writing activities for children
should be meaningful, engaging and personal so as to increase their confidence in that skill. It is
also useful for the children to have a sense of audience, to know who they are writing for.
The process and strategies involved in writing can be looked at as a class before independent
writing. Children should be encouraged to check and correct their work; creating pieces for
display often pushes them to think about the value of their effort and take a pride in their
presentation.
Correcting childrens reading and writing work gives the teacher an opportunity to add a personal
comment of encouragement e.g. Excellent Pablo, what a lovely story!
Here are some ideas:
Silent Dictation (s)
Age: 8-12
Aims: To practise reading and writing skills. To understand written text quickly and produce what
they see in writing. To practise and review key unit vocabulary and phrases already seen. To
check spelling and practise short sentences.
Procedure:
1. The teacher holds up a word or phrase written on a piece of card without saying anything.

I always go to the
market on
2. After a few seconds, the teacher puts the card down and the children have to write down
what they read. It is important to only show the language quickly so they do not copy and
focus on individual words but read, understand and remember the message to be able to
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write it down.
Follow up activities:
Pupils could write down their own sentences on scrap pieces of card and do a silent dictation in
pairs. For older children, you could just show one word e.g. Cinem and they have to produce a
sentence with the word e.g. I like going to the cinema. As a further idea, pupils write down
opposites e.g. Beautiful ugly.

Shared Writing and Reading (s)

Age: 7-12
Shared Reading
Aims: To read a text aloud with the children. To build up content and understanding in a
collaborative way. To practise sound patterns. To aid independent reading.
Procedure:
1. Before reading, pre-reading activities such as discussion of topic, eliciting vocabulary, and
prediction should be done in order to contextualise and motivate children to read.
2. Start reading the text aloud and encourage the children to follow and join you.
3. You can stop at key places to check comprehension, asking carefully prepared questions to
aid understanding and also personalisation, eliciting personal opinions.
Shared Writing
Aims: To think about writing strategies as a class. To edit and correct in a collaborative way. To
aid independent writing. For older children, this technique is useful when introducing new forms of
text e.g. essay, letters, story, poems. The children then have a permanent model in their
notebooks to follow when writing alone.
Procedure:
1. Build up interest before writing begins. Show some visual prompts connected with the
theme, a film clip, a letter to reply to etc.
2. Make it clear what you are all going to do. For example, for older children, write an essay
about the difference between British and Spanish stereotypes. Start planning it together,
using the board as your paper. Ask guiding questions: So what do we mean by the word
stereotype? The teacher writes down ideas on the board. What are the things you
associate with the British? Students: Cups of tea! Red buses! The Beatles! Teacher: How
would you describe the character of a typical British person? How is this different to the
Spanish? What do you think about...?
3. The children are listening, writing notes and making comments, whilst the skeleton of an
essay is being written on the board.
Follow up activities:
The model could be repeated with a different essay title in pairs. Using the model in their notes,
they can complete a full text for homework.

Finding Facts (s)

Age: 8-12
Aims: To motivate children to read. To check predictions from true and false statements. To
introduce children to vocabulary they will see in the text.
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Procedure:
1. Once you have introduced the topic, write statements on the board, create a handout or
dictate sentences about the text the children are eventually going to read. For example if it
is a Kids Box Lock and Key story you could write 5 true or false statements e.g. Lock finds
the car thief in the bank.
2. In pairs, pupils decide which are true or false.
3. Ask for their answers and encourage reasons using We think.... because...
4. Read the text together and find out how many predictions they got correct.

Written messages (s)

Age: 8-12
Aims: To practise writing short sentences. To ask and answer written questions. To review giving
instructions and orders. To write personal messages.
Procedure:
1. Give each child a small piece of card or paper. You may need to show an example on the
board. Pupils are going to write letters to each other in the class.
2. Secretly give each pupil a pen friend. On the piece of paper write a letter, using the model
you have given on the board, either giving their correspondent an order or asking a
question.
3. Place all letters into a bag and the teacher takes on the role of postman.
4. Pupils read their letter and either carry out the order or reply in writing.
Dear Jorge,
Whats your favourite colour?
Best wishes,
Sara
Hello Sara,
Thank you for your letter.
My favourite colour is blue.

See you soon,

Jorge.

Picture Writing (s)

Age: 7-12
Aims: To personalise a topic. To use description and develop imagination. Using questions
prompts to organise and structure writing.
Procedure:
1. Ask pupils to bring a picture or photo they like connected with the topic you are covering
e.g. holidays, weather, travel... this can be a photo taken themselves or a picture from a
magazine. Make sure you have one too.
2. Use your example first. Stick your picture on the board and around the picture write the
following as prompts: WHO? WHEN? WHERE? WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHY? Adjust the
prompts according to level.
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3. Build a description with the class, writing sentences on the board.

4. Then individually, pupils look at their pictures and answers similar questions to form a
description.
5. Once complete, in pairs, children can show and describe their pictures. This can be used
as a wall display piece.

What are they saying? (s)

Age: 7-12
Aims: To write and act out a dialogue the children create. To interpret images. To practise the
present continuous.
Procedure:
1. You need to have an image of people interacting, preferably connected with what you
are studying in your unit. Show this picture to the children.
2. Ask questions to elicit ideas and interpretation e.g. Where are the people? What are
they doing?
3. Prepare some appropriate speech bubbles for the images. Show these to the children
who have to decide who is saying what.
4. Using blank speech bubbles you have already prepared, pupils can think about people
in the picture and decide what they are saying. They write these in the bubbles and
stick it next to the relevant person.
Follow up activities:
Pupils can continue the dialogue and act it out.

Creating poems (s)

Age: 8-12
Aims: To visualise and imagine. To practise the verb can. To review unit vocabulary.
Procedure:
1. Write the topic you are studying on the board in a circle, surrounded by the verbs of the five
senses: see, taste, touch, smell and hear.

taste

The City

see

2. Elicit from pupils what they can see in the city, what they can smell in the city. This can be
continued in pairs.
3. They can eventually create a poem, for example:
In the City
I can see the flats and cars,
I can hear the traffic and people,
I can smell the pollution and restaurants,
I can taste the air,
I can touch the green grass of the parks.
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4. Poems can be illustrated and presented to the class.

Storytelling to encourage reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Interviewing Characters (s)
Age: 8-12
Aims: To practise answering and asking questions. To think about character development. To
conduct interviews.
Procedure:
1. Choose a character to focus on, maybe from a story within the course book, a famous
person well-known among the class. Explain that they are going to meet that person later
in the class.
2. First build up their character with the class.
3. Pupils think about the questions they want to ask the person.
4. The teacher will then play the role of that person; maybe even leaving the room and coming
back in character.
5. Pupils take turns to ask their questions and take notes. Leave the class at the end and
come back as teacher. Ask for feedback. What did they say? What were they like?
Follow up ideas:
If you have confident students they can play the roles instead. The interview can be written into a
report or article. For younger children, this is great before or after a listening or reading which
involves the character.
Using Chinese Whispers to tell a story (a)
Age: 7-12
Aims: To build up a story in teams. To listen to detail. To encourage comprehension and active
listening. To aid clearer pronunciation.
Procedure:
1. With two teams sitting in parallel lines, stick the complete story at the back of the line. Cut
up sentences in jumbled order and place this at the front of the lines. Make sure the font is
small or place the papers far away from pupils.
2. The pupil at the back reading the first sentence quietly and whispers this to the next person
until it gets to the pupil at the front. The child at the front then looks at the jumbled
sentences and finds the correct sentence, placing this first. This child then moves to the
back and the routine is repeated.
3. Once the sentences have been ordered, the complete version can be placed close by in
order to check.
4. Ask comprehension questions and see how much the pupils can remember.

Useful websites ... for resources and ideas

http://www.earlylearninghq.org.uk/
http://carolread.com/index.php
http://carolread.wordpress.com/
Useful websites... for classroom management
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http://www.pivotaleducation.com
Bibliography
Dix, Paul (2005), Pivotal Behaviour Management Handbook, Pivotal Education
Dix, Paul (2007), Taking Care or Behaviour, Practical Skills for Teachers, Pearson Education
Ellis,Gail and Brewster, Jean (2002), Tell it Again! The New Storytelling Handbook for Primary
Teachers, Penguin English
Halliwell, Susan, (1992), Teaching English in the Primary Classroom, Longman
Holden, Susan (Ed), (1980) Teaching Children, Modern English Publications
Read, Carol (2007), 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom, Macmillan Education
Wright, Andrew (1985) Picture Dictionary for Young Learners, Collins

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