Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

It's been a while since I've asked for help, and I really need it now.
I'm teaching at a kindergarten and they just announced that we are supposed to teach our kids a new vocab group and sentence pattern every week. I'm frantic, I don't know what to teach next, I"m running out of ideas.

I've taught
foods
jobs
colors
weather
clothes
animals
things in the classroom
things at home

Anyone have any other voca groups for 4 year old children? Or good websites? I've searched on yahoo, but can't find anything good
Thanks a bunch!

[Roger]

Naturegirl,
my idea is to prepare preschoolers for life at school, not to teach them as you would at a primary school. These poor kids who can't read or wirte cannot learn efficiently. Stuffing vocables into their memories is bad and demotivating. Make your classes lively, active, interactive, do things and have kids do things.
And do take your question to the Elementary Education forum - you will get more posts there!

[leeroy]

I've never taught classes of 4-year old Chinese kids, but some other "topics" that I can think of are..

Travel/Transportation
Shopping
The Body
Countries
History
Feelings
Nature
Music
The emerging economic patterns of interdependence due to globalisation
Senses
Families
Sports
TV
Space

Good luck

[sidjameson]

Feminists of the 20th century
Ways men oppress women
Different uses for the male member once it's been forcibly removed from the potential rapist.

[sidjameson]

emotians
activites (reading etc)
family members
types of music as well as instruments
Best thing I ever did when i taught such young kids was write 1 to 20 on a piece of paper and on the reverse give a point eg some1's, 2's, 3's, a jackpot of say 5 and a booby(sorry) prize of 0.
say "food" first student who says a type can choose a number and the excitement of howmany points he or she can get is real. They love it when they get the jackpot, the others love it if they get a 0.
After all the numbers have been chosen the student or team if many kids with the highest points is thre winner. Always worked and good for review. Hope it helps.

[Capergirl]

Everything Sid and Lee said, plus:
days of the week
months of the year
chores (make your bed, sweep the floor)

When I was teaching young kids, I had songs and pictures prepared to go along with most of the activities (stole a few Barney songs...lol). It always amazed me how quickly the students learned things like the 12 months in such a short time period. Don't underestimate them!

[sidjameson]

A great game to teach the months. Pack of cards, Ace is Jan, 2 is Feb, 3 is March etc. Take away the King of course. Divy up the cards. If small group give each kid a suit. Kids put cards down and if there are 2 3's etc first student to say March gets the cards. Kids love this game and of course for young children anything that can break up the class is worthwhile.
Can't remember, I might seperate the cards 1 to 6 and 7 to Queen to make sure that matches come up often. Luckily it's been a while since i had to teach the little darlings.

[Sara Avalon]

*Sarcasm*

How to objectify women in 5 syllables or less.
15 Idiomatic expressions to defend yourself when the charm boat is sinking.
And finally, how to properly use the past continuous tense when periodically referring to ancient history.

[Sara Avalon]

*Seriously*

Holidays - you can break this up for different lessons, like Halloween (candy, ghosts, pumpkins etc..), Valentine's day (hearts, chocolate, cupid, roses), Christmas (Snowman, coal, presents etc..), Easter etc..
Places - Hospital, School, Restaurant etc...
Sports Equipment
Utensils or setting the table - fork, knife, spoon etc..
Telling Time (If they know their numbers well enough for this)
Seasons
Basic Action verbs - run, jump, walk

Once they have enough vocabulary, you could introduce prepositions. (in, out, on..)
Picnic - to reinforce the food and utensils and introduce things like: basket, pitcher (of juice), etc..

Hope these help!

[saudade]

[naturegirl321]

Thanks a bunch for all the ideas.

Roger, I work in an English kindergarten, not a kindergarten with English. For the past seven or so weeks, we've been doing a new vocab group with about 15 vocab words and a sentence pattern. So far , so good, the kids can remember them.

Another point, at English kindergartens kids leanr English much, much faster than at kindergartens that teach English.

[naturegirl321]

After brainstorming and help from people from Dave's, here's what I've got
verbs
weather
colors
transport
stores
things in the home
jobs
animals
adjectives
body
sports
toys
things outside
things in the classroom
emotions
daily activities
months
food
requests
chores
clothes

only 19 more categories to go . . .