Teacher Discussion Forums

Against my better judgement, I have agreed to give classes to my neighbour's 5 year old son. Now, I've given classes to kids before but never this young and never alone so I can't rely on group activities or games for groups. Also, a 5 year-old's knowledge of the world is limited (so is an 8 year-old's) so I can't rely on things like capitals, famous people or the teletubbies. I'm going to need ideas for role plays and other kinds of nonsense. I already have a few ideas and flashcardy based guessing games (spelling games are out for kiddies this age) but nowhere near enough to keep the attention span of a 5 year-old fixed on me. This kid is an absolute beginner and I don't want him giving up on life half-way through the class and bawling his eyes out because I've bored him to death. However, I need the dosh.
Help!
Dale

Sorry I am not the Yoda you were looking for. But for a five year old you might want to try fish or memory for starters. I recommend beginning with the monkey cards: MONKEY CARDS.

Nice one, Yoda. Every little helps. Oh, and the other Yoda has turned up again taunting me and telling me you are not the one. Quite a mystery.

If you don't want to do anything "formal" like alphabet cards or numbers, you can do a lot of TPR. I'm sure a five-year-old would like the "stand up" "sit down" type thing, or even "cook dinner" "shave" pretend type stuff. You can play Simon Says and teach body parts and actions too. Even my adults have fun when I try something like, "Put your right hand on your head." "Put your left hand on your head and your right hand on your right shoulder." "Put your left hand on your left elbow." (Ha ha ha etc.)

I think if I tried that with the adults I'd have to seperate them with a bucket of cold water.
However, as for nippers it's a great idea! Thanks a lot.

A good way to find out what to do with him is to ask his parents what spends his time doing. Then translate this into English and he can do his homework alone.

Alternatively, observe other 5 year olds playing, be carefull not to look suspicious.

Colours games can be loads of fun for that age. Draw basic figures like cars, houses and so on. He has to learn the names of the objects if he wants to colour them in and the names of the colours to use them.

good luck

I've always been a bit on the reluctant side when it comes to colouring in. However, so many people have suggested it that I'm thinking of various ways to make it into an exercise. At the end of the day, 5 year-olds are very limited in what they can do in their own language. Well, cheers all. I'm off to have a long, hard think.

Here's an idea - how about songs / nursery rhymes?

Some would adapt well to teaching more formal stuff, like '10 green bottles' and other counting songs. Little kids love to make noises - do you know 'Old MacDonald had a farm'?

Don't underestimate the value of even a little English learning at this stage. I once had a student who was a beginner, he was the product manager in an optics company. He knew virtually no English but his pronunciation of 'th' was spot on. After a discussion, he remembered that he used to sing songs with some English speaking kids next door when he was very young. The vocab got forgotten but his capacity to pronounce 'th' remained...

Dale,
I teach a room full of 17 kindergarteners, and we do a lot of TPR and songs. I could also see this as being successful with one 5-year-old. Also, for writing, practice his/her name by dotting the paper with the letters in his/her name and have the child trace it. The same idea works for letters. I would also include a lot of phonemic awareness activities, such as using sticks to separate /h/ /o/ /p/. I hope this helps!

A.L.

Hi!

Poor little child. He would be far better off learning with other kids.

Best wishes
Siân