39 ESL Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten: Fun Ideas for Teaching English to Very Young Learners

By Jackie Bolen

Have better ESL/EFL classes with preschool and kindergarten kids. It's time to find some fresh, new ideas for English lessons for very young children!

 

Whether you're a first-time ESL/EFL/TEFL teacher, an experienced but overwhelmed instructor, or an instructor without a textbook, you need more activities for your English classes for kindy and preschool kids.

 

In 39 ESL Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten, you'll get a ton of creative and interesting ideas for speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and more to use in your own classroom. The highly detailed descriptions will show you exactly how to use the activities during your lessons. The clearly and concisely explained activities will help you add instructional variety and put the focus back on your students.

 

Pick up a copy of the book if you want to...

• Have better English lessons with very young learners
• Save a ton of time when planning lessons
• Help students improve their English skills in a big way
• See lots of happy, smiling faces in your classes
• Add some variety into English classes

If you're extremely busy or you're simply out of new ideas, this book makes it easy to try out new and exciting activities your students will love! Buy 39 ESL Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten: Fun Ideas for Teaching English to Very Young Learners to get new lesson plans ready to go in minutes!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jackie Bolen
• Release date: Aug 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201951450

Book preview

39 ESL Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten:

Fun Ideas for Teaching English to Very Young Learners

Jackie Bolen

www.eslactivity.org

Copyright © 2021 by Jackie Bolen

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher/author at the following address: Jackie Bolen: [e-mail].

Table of Contents

About the Author: Jackie Bolen........................................................5

How to Use this Book................................................................6

First Things First: Teach Students How to Read ...........................................7

Absolute Beginners: What Should I Teach Them? ........................................10

Multi-Skill ESL Activities...........................................................12

Adverb Game...................................................................12

Ball Toss.......................................................................13

Can you List the Words? ..........................................................16

Circle Time.....................................................................17

In Front of/Behind/Between........................................................18

I Spy .........................................................................20

Is that Sentence Correct?..........................................................21

Picture Prompt..................................................................22

Please/Thank You/May I/Sorry.....................................................23

Round Robin Story...............................................................24

Show and Tell ..................................................................26

Spelling Bee....................................................................28

Telephone......................................................................29

ESL Speaking Activities.............................................................31

Basketball Vocabulary Challenge...................................................31

Blindfold Guessing Game.........................................................32

Everybody Up!..................................................................33

Flashcard Sentences..............................................................34

Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes................................................35

Hidden Object Pictures............................................................35

Hot Potato......................................................................37

Memory Tray...................................................................39

Musical Flashcards...............................................................40

Songs (In General)...............................................................42

Taste Test .....................................................................43

ESL Listening Activities.............................................................44

BINGO........................................................................44

Blindfold ......................................................................45

Can You _____?.................................................................46

Classroom English...............................................................47

Classroom Scavenger Hunt ........................................................48

Dictation Practice................................................................49

Memory Circle Game.............................................................50

Simon Says.....................................................................51

ESL Writing Activities..............................................................53

Name 5 Things..................................................................53

Spelling Challenge...............................................................53

Word of the Day ................................................................54

ESL Reading Activities..............................................................56

Concentration...................................................................56

Disappearing Words..............................................................57

Flyswatter .....................................................................58

Story Time .....................................................................59

Reward Systems...................................................................61

Teacher Caused Misbehaviour (and How to Stop it!).......................................64

Classroom Rules...................................................................67

All About Lesson Planning...........................................................69

Teacher + Student Talk..............................................................73

Classroom Routines: Practice Makes Perfect!............................................75

Quiet/Attention Signals...........................................................75

Asking/Answering Questions.......................................................76

How to Listen to Others...........................................................76

Desk Organization...............................................................77

Transitions.....................................................................77

Getting Up During Class..........................................................78

Classroom Seating...............................................................78

Cleaning Up....................................................................79

Dismissal......................................................................79

Which Rules and Routines are Most Important? ..........................................81

Before You Go....................................................................82

About the Author: Jackie Bolen

I taught English in South Korea for a decade to every level and type of student and I've taught every age from kindergarten kids to adults. These days, I'm living in Vancouver and teaching English to a variety of students. In my spare time, you can usually find me outside surfing, biking, hiking or on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi I can find.

In case you were wondering what my academic qualifications are, I hold a Master of Arts in Psychology. During my time in Korea, I completed both the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA certification programs. With the combination of years teaching ESL/EFL learners of all ages and levels, and the more formal teaching qualifications I've obtained, I have a solid foundation on which to offer teaching advice. I truly hope that you find this book useful and would love it if you sent me an email with any questions or feedback that you might have—I'll always take the time to personally respond ([e-mail]).

Jackie Bolen around the Internet

ESL Speaking (www.eslspeaking.org)

If you can't get enough ESL games, activities and other useful stuff for the classroom in this book, you can get even more goodness delivered straight to your inbox every week. I promise to respect your privacy—your name and email address will never be shared with anyone for any reason. Sign-up here.

You might also be interested in checking out these other books which are easy to find wherever you like to buy books:

39 Awesome 1-1 ESL Activities for English Teachers of Kids

ESL Classroom Management Tips & Tricks

49 ESL Writing Activities for English Teachers of Kids and Teenagers

How to Use this Book

Reading is fundamental to learning a language. If your students don't know how to do this, I recommend starting with the letters of the English alphabet and the sound each one makes. From there, progress to reading simple words and then sentences. There are lots of excellent phonics books for young learners and the school you teach at may even have some of them in your resource library. After that, consider using these games and activities to add some variety to classes!

The book is divided up into various sections: multi-skill activities, speaking, listening, reading and writing. Of course, there is a good degree of overlap because speaking activities usually involve some element of listening, for example. These activities are a nice supplement to a textbook, or combining a few of them might work well if you don't have a textbook. Whatever the case, I wish you well on your journey towards better English classes for pre-school and kindergarten students.

Here's my best tip for teaching very young learners: Keep things moving along! Pre-school and kindergarten children have very short attention spans so use a variety of games and activities to keep their interest. Think 5-10 minute chunks of time when planning lessons.

First Things First: Teach Students How to Read

Preschool and kindergarten students are old enough to learn the English alphabet, what sound each letter makes, simple words and even basic sentences. Young, proficient readers are often the ones who will excel at English later on in their school years. Although some might disagree with me, I would argue that reading is one of the most important things in second language development and forms the basis for other language skills that follow.

Keeping this in mind, some of my first lessons for very young learners focus on the alphabet and teaching students what sound each letter makes. Then, I start teaching students how to combine these sounds into very simple words.

Here are some tips for teaching very young learners this important skill. For pre-kindergarten students, the focus will need to be on learning how to make consonant and vowel sounds, as well as basic listening skills.

−  Teach the ABC song, but also focus on what sound each letter makes. Phonics is the basis by which people learn to read in English. I will rarely just