Getting
Started: Teaching English to Children with Songs and Flashcards
New
to Dream English? If you are just starting out with this site, and
teaching children English using songs, please take a few minutes
and read through this page. I hope it will give you enough information
to get started, and give you the tools to make your lessons great!
You can get everything you need from the Dream English website
for free to begin teaching English to children. Teaching
children English is a fun, challenging and rewarding experience.
Good luck, and have fun!
The Basics:
To me, there are some basic concepts that I start off all my beginning
students from 1- 10 years old: ABC’s,
Colors, Numbers,
Weather, Feelings,
Animals,
Basic Questions and greetings: What’s
your name?, Hello
and Goodbye Song,
and How
old are you? This is what I call my core curriculum. These topics
contain vocabulary, phonic sounds, and concepts that I believe will
create a great foundation for Children to start learning English.
I also chose these topics as my core curriculum because they are
all things that most children are familiar with. Almost all children
have seen a dog, been happy, seen colors, and have been asked their
names. The topics relate to them, so they are fun to learn in English.
Below is a list of the song pages from Dream English that
I recommend for teaching the basic topics. You can get all you need
to start your classes from Dream English for free; the songs, flashcards,
coloring, worksheets, game and lesson ideas and more.
The Basics:
1. ABC’s: For this topic I recommend beginning
with the ABC Song. You can download for free the following: ABC
Song mp3, ABC flashcards, ABC coloring and writing worksheets, click
here to go to the ABC Song page.
2. Colors: The Color song is a simple and fun way
to introduce colors, you can download for free the Color Song mp3,
flashcards, worksheets, and a game, click
here.
3. Numbers: Start with Let’s
Count 1-10, and then move onto counting with the new One Fish
song. You can download numbers flashcards, a game and more here
on the One Fish
song page. Download the Let’s
Count 1-10 song here. Here is a video of how I teach this song in my classes:
Check out Dream English Kids YouTube Channel with over 150 Videos for Children. Click here!
4. Weather: Children know they can’t go out
and play when its raining! Teach them the basic English Weather
vocabulary with these flashcards and the Weather song. click
here to check it out.
5. Questions? What’s Your Name? How old are you? –
Simply play these songs for your students and have them sing along
with you and fill in their own names and age. Click
here for “What’s your name?” and here for “How
old are you?”
6. Animals: Children love animals, so I made this
simple song, flashcards, and coloring sheets to introduce children
to some English animal names and sounds. A dog says woof, woof,
a cat says meow! Check
out the song page here.
7. How are you? I’m happy! Children can easily
identify these feelings and even if they can’t say them yet,
they can touch the flashcard to tell you they are happy in English!
Download the free How
are you? song, and Flash cards here.
Ok, so now I have all of this material how do I make a lesson
plan?
That’s a great question! This all depends on your situation,
how many students do you have, how often do you see them, etc. Below
is a sample lesson plan for 2-8 year olds:
30 Minute English Lesson for Beginner 2-8 year olds.
1. Warm up- get the students comfortable by doing simple actions
with them. Say and do the following, don’t worry if your students
don’t follow you right away: clap your hands, jump, spin around,
sit down, stand up. Also, I usually start out the lesson saying
Hello and waving my arms. You can also start your class with this
easy and fun
Hello Song.
2. Numbers- Practice counting objects from 1-10, or using flash
cards. If the students are comfortable with numbers, play a simple
touch game. Call out the number and ask the students to touch the
flashcard.
3. Song- Let’s Count 1 to 10, a free Dream English download.
http://www.dreamenglish.com/numbers
4. Alphabet-Using flash cards introduce the alphabet from A to Z.
You may want to introduce phonics at this point, or just the alphabet
letters. Next, have the students stand up and make the shapes of
ABC with their body.
5. Song-ABC Song, another free Dream English download.
http://www.dreamenglish.com/abctraditional
6. Colors- introduce the colors using flashcards, objects, or items
around the room. Try to have the students repeat after you.
7. Song-Color Song, yes another Dream English free download
http://www.dreamenglish.com/color
8. Coloring- this is optional, but you can use crayons to have the
students repeat the names of the colors again. Then have them color
something simple.Try our Dream
English Animal coloring sheets.
9. Read a book- Any book for kids is great. I recommend asking the
students questions when reading. “What do you see on the page?
flowers, that’s right. What color are they? how many?”
10. Goodbye Song- I use the Dream
English Goodbye song, though you can use anything you like.
I just make sure to say thank you to the kids when we are finished,
and ask them to repeat.
Ok, these are some suggestions and ideas. One other point is that
it is important not to force the beginners to speak right away.
Once they become comfortable they will begin speaking. The time
this takes varies from student to student.
If you are new to teaching English with songs, please check out
the Free Teaching Children
English with songs Ebook here.
What if I want to plan a full month of lessons with one
lesson per week?
What I do is I rotate the basic themes as the main part of my class,
then I add another topic for the month. For example, each week you
can teach numbers, basic questions (what's your name?), ABC’s,
and colors. Then pick a main topic like animals. There is a lot
you can do with animals. The basic way I introduce a monthly topic
when I see the students once a week for an hour or less is this?
Week 1: Introduce the vocabulary and song, play
a simple touch game, and maybe do some coloring. In the case of
animals, introduce the animal names (dog, cats,etc.) and then put
them on a table or floor. Ask the students to touch one of the cards
name you call. For example, “Touch the dog” Next, sing
the It’s a dog song, and finish up by coloring one of the
Dream English animal coloring sheets.
Week 2: If you feel the students are ready, have
them play a simple game where they have to say the name of the vocabulary.
You may have to review it with them first. It can be a simple game
where you place the cards on the floor, and ask them to say the
name of one of the cards then run touch it.
Week 3: Introduce a question phrase: What’s
this? It’s a dog. Have the students take turns asking each
other these questions while holding the flashcards. Keep in mind
this is probably a bit difficult for students under 4 years old.
Week 4: Review the previous weeks material, play
a game like the tower game where the students have to answer the
question; “What’s this?” It’s a dog”
If they get it correct, they can try to stack the flashcards on
a cup, and see how many they can stack up. This works best with
paper cups and laminated flashcards.
Note: The whole time each week I am also reviewing the other basic
topics of the month, like the ABC’s and numbers. It takes
awhile to figure out what the best balance of time for each topic
will work for your classroom. Again, these are just ideas to get
you started. I recommend finding the best way for you and your situation.
I encourage you to explore the Dream English site, as there are
many more song topics, and chants to help you and your students
learn English! I hope this helps get you started!