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What activities can we use in the lesson planning for young learners? Lesson planning is the heart of being an effective teacher. To be able to walk the students throughout 40-60 minutes session, teachers should know their teaching objectives, the types of activities will meet in the objectives, the sequences of those activities, the materials needed and how long for each activity might take. More importantly, lesson planning allows teachers to evaluate their own knowledge regarding the content to be taught (Reed & Michaud, 2010). I had a chance to take the percussion instrument workshop in Turkey years ago. I thought it would be an excellent idea to combine percussion instruments, rhythm and steady beats in ESL lessons for preschool and kindergarteners. One of the effective and successful lesson plans I designed was about “Summer” theme. My teaching objectives were students should be able to relate their experiences at the beach including the activities they had with their family at the beach, and some sea creatures they saw. “Summer holiday at the beach” Theme ( 40 minutes ) Vocabularies: beach, sand, beach ball, beach towel, shovel, pail, crab, octopus, fish Materials •Audio player •1 tambourine •Pails and Shovels ( Same amount as the number of students) •1 beach ball •Beach towels or scarves for pretend playing as beach towels •Sand blocks ( percussion instruments – 2 per person ) •Octopus, crab, fish flashcards •Bingo cards ( 5” * 2” with 3 squared-grids for each bingo card, 1 per person ) •Printed small photos of octopus, crab, fish ( 3 sea creatures per person ) 1.Greeting Time Teacher sings a greeting rhyme using a tambourine for a steady beat. Children will wave, clap and tap along with the rhyme. Example of hello rhyme: “Hello, my friends! How are you? Say your name and we’ll clap for you!” ( Each student will take turn answering their name ) 2. We’re going to the beach activity Material: Pails and Shovels (1 per person), beach towels or scarves (1 per person), 1 beach ball, audio player The teacher asks all the students to stand up and get ready to walk to the beach. Teachers place all pails and shovels at the corner of the room and scarves or beach towels at the other corner of the room. Students start to walk around the room (pretending to walk to the beach) while the teacher sing and tap the tambourine with the rhythm: “We’re going to the beach, we’re going to the beach for some fun in the sun.” Students walk to pails and shovels and pretend to shovel the sand at the beach. Teacher sings: “We’re shoveling the sand, we’re shoveling the sand for some fun in the sun.” Students walk to scarves or beach towels and roll the scarves or beach towels as they sing: “We’re Rolling our beach towel, we’re Rolling our beach towel for some fun in the sun.” 3. Rolling a beach ball Materials: Beach ball Students sit in a circle, straighten their legs and get ready to roll and catch the ball. The teacher turns on any songs related to balls such as “Beach ball” song from THE SUPREMES (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CgK9yO2-eQ). Students take a turn to roll the ball to the teacher with music. After the music stops, the teacher will put away the beach ball. 4. Octopus ( Instrument play-along ) Materials: sand blocks ( 2 per person ), audio player Teacher shows students how to play sand blocks. Students hold sand blocks one for each hand. They can swish the sand blocks back and forth or tapping them together. Students play sand blocks to music such as “Octopus Garden” from The Beatles – Instrumental cover( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFfyPWJqO_8). After the music stops, the teacher puts away the sand blocks. 5. Bingo game Materials: bingo cards, 3 photos of sea-creatures (fish, octopus, crab), Octopus, crab and fish flashcards Students sit in a circle. Teacher gives each student a bingo card and 3 different sea-creatures. The teacher asks the student to place a bingo card and sea-creature cards in front of them. Teacher shows the flashcard of an octopus and asks students to place their octopus cards on one of the grid. Teacher shows a fish flashcard and asks students to place their fish cards on one of an empty grid. Teacher shows a crab flashcard and asks students to place their crab cards on the last empty grid. Whoever place all the sea-creatures on all of the grids first should shout out “Bingo!”. On the next round, the teacher can say it faster in order to have the students feel more excited. 6. The Crab ( finger play) Materials: Crab flashcard, audio player Students look at the picture of a crab, counting their fingers and craw their fingers like a crab. They wiggle and craw their fingers to the music, such as “Clackety Clack ( the crab song ) from Good Child TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcxbsgcH7Nk. The teacher puts away a crab flashcard after the song stops. 7. Goodbye Time The teacher sings goodbye rhyme using a tambourine for a steady beat. Children will wave, clap and tap along with the rhyme. Example of goodbye rhyme: “Time to say goodbye my friends, Bye, my friends, Bye, my friends, Time to say goodbye my friends, See you next time!” In this lesson plan, teachers can see that I switch so many activities in one lesson. The reason I do that because I know that young learners have very short attention spans. I also add some movement activities, such as walking around the classroom or playing some instruments to make sure that students can have fun while learning.
