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These
Routines are thought for young learners, from 3 to 8 years old. Following
routines in the English Classroom is very important for young children: they
feel confident and they like it a lot. The routines must involve students'
participation as much as possible. This will give you the opportunity to
reinforce the most important contents every day, without the students
getting tired of it.
Daily
routines:
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Make
the calendar and weather wallchart. You can make a big poster with the
questions What day is it today? What is the weather like?, etc. Then
you make all the flash-cards and words that you might need to answer those
questions ('Monday', 'Tuesday',...'Windy', 'Sunny', etc) and you
put all them in a box. Every day, one student has to stick the right
flash-cards on the wallchart.
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Count
the students and ask if someone is missing. This way you can practice
the numbers.
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Ask if
there is any birthday in the classroom. This is the best occasion to
practice the question How old are you?. You can also make a fake
cake with plasticene and practice the numbers counting the candles. I
suggest to make this cake at the beginning of the course and use it
whenever you need. And don't forget to sing the happy birthday!
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Dressing Mr. Parrot. It is very useful to have a pet in the classroom
if you teach very young children (it can be a teddy bear or a puppet). You
can ask the students to dress him/her according to the weather. It is a
good way to practice vocabulary about the clothes.
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The
English Corner. Make an 'English Corner' in the classroom. You can put
there all the flash-cards of the vocabulary that has been taught during
the course. It will provide an 'Peripheral Stimulation' for the students
and it will help you to make vocabulary revision from time to time.
Choosing
one student: Every now and then we have to choose
one student (for games, tasks, etc.) You can take advantage of this moment
following these ideas:
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Counting Out Rhymes (The child who is pointed to at the end of the
rhyme is chosen to play). You can easily invent one or use a traditional
one. I have invented this one to practice the numbers:
One, two, three four five,
This is English, English time.
Six, seven, eight nine ten,
Come with me we're going to play.
(To the tune of Once I caught a fish alive) |
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Counting out. Ask one student to say one number and then count out
that number to choose one student.
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Someone
with... Close your eyes and say: 'I want someone with... yellow
stockings!! (For example). In this way you practice the colours and
the clothes at the same time. It also enables you to choose the student
that you want and make children think that it was fortuitous.
Discipline and Classroom Control: if you teach
very young children you will probably agree that routines are the best way
to control the class, better than punishment or threatening.
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If you
are happy and you know it... I suppose that you know this chant. I
will tell you that I use it almost every day to make commands: 'If you
are happy and you know it close your mouth', 'If you are happy and you
know it sit down', 'If you are happy and you know it stand up', etc.
At the beginning of the course I teach this song and I make it look like a
game (with variety of actions, quickly, slowly, etc.) Then I use it during
the whole course to make commands, and children follow it like a game. Of
course, I don't use the complete song to make commands, just one sentence.
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Close your mouth... This is just another version of the previous
one. Children like to change from time to time.
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Use
your pet. Your classroom pet will be very useful to keep classroom
control if you teach very young children. If you want silence, you can
tell them that the pet is sleeping and, if there is a noise you can say
that the pet is getting angry. (You can get close to the pet and pretend
that s/he talks to you).
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