Teacher Discussion Forums

[kru_pasa_angrit]

Hello!

I just recently started teaching English at an organization, and I was asked to help develop a curriculum for the preschool/kindergarten class (something that could be used by whoever is teaching the class). I have never done anything with curriculum development before, so I would be very grateful for any advice anyone has to offer! I'm not even sure where to start, although this week I have been thinking about the overall goals of the English program here and am going to use that as a basis for the curriculum. Beyond that, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to go about developing a curriculum? Our idea is to have a book/folder to guide the teachers in their day-to-day lessons.

Thank you so much!

[Sally Olsen]

Sounds like you are in Thailand, so might have access to an English book store. Curriculums have been done before so I wouldn't waste my time starting from scratch. The teacher's manuals usually have an outline. You can Google kindergarten curriculums too.

The only problems will be working with whatever materials that your school provides and making it relevant to the local area. A digital camera is good for that because you can take pictures similar to those in the materials but with local materials or adding local materials.

Local puppets and local children's stories translated to English help as well.

I like something like "Let's Go" myself because it has puppets, songs, chants, games and a workbook for the children.

Here are two sites I found in Google typing in ESL kindergarten curriculum
1. http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/Tinitial.htm
2. http://www.eslkid.com/

[J0anne]

Hi!

I am in the same boat as you and have spent the past month coming up with a curriculum for 4-5 year olds. I spent A LOT of time on Google and have changed my curriculum SO many times with each new post or web page of advice I have come across! There is so much out there it becomes overwhelming. I won't claim to be the expert, but I can tell you how I went about it ^_^

My program was already advertised as having three courses... Drama, Words and Science so I had to fit my curriculum around these three headings. What I did was to come up with a some very broad termly (3 month) themes. (eg Living things, the world around us) then some more specific themes by month (eg humans, plants and animals) then by week (my body, my family, farm animals, pets, vegetables). The point of the themes is not to have words that I drill to the kids, but just to have something to tie the three course together and have a starting point for me. Once I'd done that I looked at skills development lists for that age level and what they should be achieving, just to give me an idea. Then I started to search for activities and lessons ideas related to theme...for example one month we are doing Jack and the Beanstalk. In science we will grow beans, in words we will read the story and play games/activities related to it that focus on literacy and in drama we will do role plays and puppets.

Like I said I'm a novice in curriculum writing too, but I hope that helps a bit...here are some websites I liked...

http://www.learningtreasures.com/design_your_own_preschool_curric.htm
http://letteroftheweek.com/preschool_age_3.html
http://adaycare.com/themes.html
http://www.kidsparkz.com/themes.html
http://www.preschoolactivitybox.com/preschoolchecklist.htm
http://www.englishonline.org.cn/en/teachers/support/britlit/jack-beanstalk
http://edition.tefl.net/ideas/fillers-warmers/15-ways-of-starting-a-preschool-english-lesson/
http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2011/11/link-learn-23.html
http://www.youtube.com/pamelasunshinetv

[shelleyvernon]

Hi there,

Here is a ready-made curriculum that is really cheap compared to most, buy one copy and use it for life:

There are eight books (forty stories and songs CDs)
Here are links to the first two on Amazon America, they are available on Amazon UK and continental European Amazons. Also from Shelley directly on www.teachingenglishgames.com if you prefer PDF downloads to real books.

http://www.amazon.com/ESL-Stories-Preschool-Shelley-Vernon/dp/1482012081

http://www.amazon.com/ESL-Stories-Preschool-Shelley-Vernon/dp/1484052498