Job Discussion Forums

[anh]

i'm going to interview for an eikaiwa that teaches young children. i was asked to prepare a thirty minute demo lesson for four students aged five to eight... i've taught first year elementary school kids before, but never kids as young as five. would anyone happen to have any tips? what things work best with 5 year olds? i'm concerned about being able to... "control them" i guess. i know when teaching 1nensei the kids can get pretty rowdy, although they do seem to genuinely enjoy themselves.

i'm also afraid these kids might just be shy and quiet the whole time.

anyone experienced with really young kids have any advice? or any advice on teaching such a small group of kids?

thanks in advance!

[Kootvela]

Have flashcards for new vocabulary. Get colouring or matching or wordsearches with fruit, clothes, family members, etc. Do some singing, I mean, use a CD with children songs, for example, about numbers. My two cents.

[mimimimi]

After going over the flashcards, do a short worksheet, then do a karuta-type game. The trick with young kids is to keep their interest level up by changing activities. If you know a song that goes with the vocabulary, even better. Try colours, fruits, zoo animals, numbers or letters. Good luck!

[johanne]

If you are doing a 30 minute demo you should have 5-6 related activities prepared. Also the kids should have a chance to move around and do something. You will get behaviour issues if they are asked to sit and listen for the whole time. If you do flashcards, they can add a quick action, although you should have a clear signal for stopping the action. If you do a song, add a simple dance. Have them act like adults and greet each other with a handshake.

5 years olds will start fidgeting after 3-4 minutes of sitting down. Good luck. It's a fun age to teach.

[markle]

I'm a little confused... you said 5 to 8 then you want suggestions for 5yr olds. If I was told that I had kids 5 to 8 I'd say no f'in way. 8yr olds would turn up their noses at stuff aimed a 5 yr olds and the stuff 8yr olds can do would be over the heads of 5 yr olds. Also I'd be wary of a school that was aiming to give you classes like this.

[anh]

thanks for all the replies so far! i'll try to prepare a lot of easy active activities. hopefully i'll be able to communicate with them.

also, to answer markle's question, i guess i specifically focused on the 5 year olds because i'm most unsure about how to teach them. i've had 1nensei classes a lot (so i've had 7-8 year olds), so i sort of know what works with them, but i wasn't sure if the same thing would work out for 5 year olds too.

what songs in particular have you guys found works for you? i like to use hokey pokey in older grades, but i don't know if hokey pokey works for such young kids in a small group.

[mimimimi]

I like HSKT (Head Shoulders Knees and Toes) because the movements are repeated over and over so it'll be easy for the 5-year-olds to get right away. Start out slow, but then speed up to make it fun. Slow down or pause suddenly in the middle of the song so the kids have to watch you and not skip ahead.

[anne_o]

Songs...head, shoulders, knees, and toes for sure. Touching body parts. Run to the ??? whatever vocab you are doing. For the younger kids You have to do a lot of moving around and change activites often. Plan 4-5 for a 30 min. demo. You could even end with reading a short book; being very expressive of course!
And in regards to Markle's never-ending negative posts....I often have mixed level classes and my company is completely reputable.

[markle]

OK the confusion stems from not being sure if the 5 and 8 yr olds a in the same class of if you are preparing separate classes of 5 and 8 yr olds. Doing combined classes is possible from time to time even as a demo but how do you set a course of study with kids that have such different competency targets, anne omg?

Gotta run now I'll post my top five hits for kids later.