Author: Matt

The blog of Matt from Dream English with teaching tips and more

Favorite Animal Song- A New Original Song for your Classes Young Learners of English, ESL, EFL

In this song I had a lot of fun combing a few question phrases, wild animals, and a bit of action! See below for teaching tips and vocabulary used in the song:

Target Vocabulary:
Questions: Do you have a favorite animal? Can you see the lion? Where is the lion?
Vocabulary: zebra, lion, elephant, crocodile, monkey, and tiger.
Phrases: I like zebras. It’s a lion.

The idea of this song and video is to teach the animal names in a natural way. It is a bit different than drilling the same question and answer over and over. I hope that this type of song will help students be able to have a conversation in a natural way.

Teaching Tips:
Watch the video with the students. Depending on the students age or level, you do not have to pressure them to sing along. They can watch and learn. After watching the video, you can use flash cards to make sure they learned the animal names.

Next, try asking a few questions like in the video. For example, “Do you have a favorite animal?”

Animal Matching Game:
Use small game cards to play the animals matching game. Put the cards face down, and the students have to pick up the cards and find a match.
MES-English.com has great game cards for this. Kids love this kind of game. As the students turn over the card, make sure they see either the animal name, or a phrase like “It’s a lion.”

I hope you find these ideas helpful. Be creative, have fun and your students will too! Happy Teaching!

What Do You Want To Eat? Song for Children’s English Classes, ESL, EFL

” I want a banana! ” asking for things in English is so important. If you listen to young native speakers, they are often asking for things. In this fun video we are learning the basics of how to ask for something in English. Watch, and give it a try in your classes!

Target Phrases: What do you want to eat? I want a banana.
Target vocabulary: sandwich, salad, hot dog, hamburger, banana, taco, broccoli cake, onion ice cream

Give the song a try in your classes, and then practice with different food vocabulary. You can even make a shopping game. Happy teaching!

 

Back to Basics English for Young Learners #1: Numbers

With so many songs, videos, flashcards, games, where does one begin teaching English to young learners? It can be overwhelming! My answer: get back to basics. In this post, and more going forward, I will cover some basic and simple ideas for teaching English. Remember, teaching English is easy! Present the material in a fun and interesting way, and children will do the rest with their magnificent minds. More below the video:


Basic # 1: Teaching Numbers 

We might think that most young learners already know numbers. I meet a lot of new students who have a basic idea of how to say numbers in English, but maybe have never done so in front of people. Numbers are a fun and simple way to boost young learners confidence in the English classroom.

Practice, practice, practice

Numbers are not only great on their own, but they contain many sounds of the English language. I start many classes by simply counting 1 to 10 using flashcards. If the students are older we might count to 100, or 1,000 or higher! It depends on the level, and kids get a kick out of saying really high numbers. You can make flashcards, write numbers on a white board, or even count objects. Be creative!

Numbers Songs

I have recorded a few numbers songs over the years, but the still number one favorite is Let’s Count 1 to 10. Simple, and always fun with the actions.  Here is a list of the Numbers Songs I use most in my classes. Click on the link to go to the page or video with the song.

  1. Let’s Count 1 to 10
  2. Let’s Count to 20
  3. Counting to 100 by 1s

Vocabulary Use

You can do many things with numbers. Ask students, “how old are you?” and they answer, ” I am five”, etc. You can use numbers in a shopping game and use the vocabulary, “How much is it?” “It’s 25 dollars.”

Games

You can play a shopping game, restaurant game, or many other fun games with numbers. Below are links to my favorite number games to use in class:

  1. Easy Counting Game
  2. Put in Order Game
  3. What’s Missing Game
  4. Toss a ball to students and count. (not a game, but a fun activity)

Numbers Wrap up

As a teacher I like to keep things as simple as possible. To teach numbers, practice saying numbers with your students, sing a numbers song, then play a numbers game. Simple and effective. Keep it light and fun, and your students will be counting to a billion in no time! Happy Teaching!

New Hide and Seek Song and Video for Young English Students, ESL, EFL

I am always looking for new ways to make the young English learners (ESL, EFL) classes fun. Kids love to play Hide and Seek. It is such a fun and simple game. Children hide, and one friend tries to find them. You can play it anywhere, at home, in a park, or even in a classroom. Teaching tips below the video:

Target Vocabulary:

Where are you? 
Where is Bell? Where is Tunes? Where is Matt?
There she is. There he is.

Very useful vocabulary for the young learner. We often ask where someone is. We also often say, “There he/she is.”

Game idea:

After showing this video you can play the real hide and seek game if you have space in your classroom, or outdoors. You can also play using some flashcards, and paper cut outs of characters.

Materials: 3-5 flashcards of your choice. It could be park vocabulary (tree, slide, bush, etc.) or transportation (car, truck, airplane).
Paper cut out of a character, or even animal.

How to play: Place the flashcards on the floor and say, “Let’s play hide and seek.” Identify the flashcards, teaching the students the vocabulary on the card. For example, “tree, bush, slide.” Show the paper cut out and say, “Now Tune is going to hide.” Ask the students to close their eyes and count to 5, 10, or how long you need. Place the character under one of the cards, and ask the students to open their eyes. Next say, “Where is Tunes?” Depending on the level of the students they can just say the flashcard vocabulary like “Tree” or they could say “under the tree,” or even “behind the tree.” It is up to you to decide what vocabulary suits your students level best.

I hope this give you some ideas. Be creative, have fun, and your students will learn a lot!

 

Dream English Teaching Tips Podcast : 5 Episodes For Great Classes!

Hi, Friends! A few months ago I began the Dream English Teaching Tips Podcast. I’m hoping this podcast will help teachers to have even better classes. Maybe you missed some of the podcasts over the summer, so here is a quick summary of the episodes. The podcast is also available on iTunes. All free, so please have a listen! Click on the link to go to the podcast on the PodBean.com site.

Warm-Ups! Starting Your Young Learner English Class

In this episode I talk about using warm ups, songs, games, and simple questions to start your English class with young learners.  Very useful!

Teaching Children English With Songs

In this episode I talk about a favorite subject of mine, teaching English with songs! I talk about how I teach songs in the classes to young learners. I also talk about different kinds of songs like action songs, finger play songs, and more!

Top 5 Classroom Games For Young Learners

In this episode I talk about my Top 5 Classroom Games for teaching English to young learners. You only need a few good games that you can use over and over again with differnet vocabulary. Have a listen for some of my students favorites.

Lesson Plans # 1 Colors For Young Learners of English

I hope to do a bunch of Lesson Plans Podcasts to help everyone with planning their lessons. The first episode in this series is Colors! Colors are a basic part of English for your young learners class, and can be lots of fun. In this episode I talk about introducing colors, color songs, and color games.

Teaching 2-3 Year Olds English: The Basics for the Classroom

Today on the podcast we will listen to a conversation I had with Mark from MES English about our basic philosophy in teaching very young learners English. We talk about how to relax in class, what to expect from the students, and how watching Sesame Street can help you with class ideas.

I hope you get some useful ideas from these podcast episodes. Happy Teaching! – Matt

New Podcast: Basic Ideas in Teaching Toddlers English (2-3 Year Olds)

Today on the podcast we will listen to a conversation I had with Mark from MES English about our basic philosophy in teaching very young learners English. We talk about how to relax in class, what to expect from the students, and how watching Sesame Street can help you with class ideas. You can listen to the whole conversation at ESLTeacherTalk.com.

Click here to listen on PodBean. Also available on iTunes!

Teaching Tips Podcast
Teaching Tips Podcast

 

Animal Guessing Game for Young English Learners Class

Hi, Friends! I want to share a fun and simple game with you that I use often in my classes. If you follow the Dream English Kids YouTube channel, you may have noticed that I am making videos on the theme of Zoo animals. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope useful in your classes.

whatanimalisit

The Animal Guessing Game uses animal vocabulary, animal sounds, and a bit of fun acting. This is how you play: Introduce some animals using flashcards. For example, a lion, tiger, elephant, and zebra. After introducing the vocabulary, show each card and act like the animal with sounds and actions. Asks the students to follow along.

Next, ask the students to guess which animal you are imitating. After you have done this a few times, let the students take turns. When one student is acting like an animal, ask the other students to guess the animal. Make sure every students gets a chance to act like an animal!

I hope you find this fun and useful. Happy Teaching!

The Tower Game: A Fun Simple Game for Young Learners

Games are a great way to use vocabulary with students in a fun way. Children naturally love playing games, and it can be fun for the teacher, too! I used to think you need to have new games all of the time. Now I realize that a few great games can be played over and over in class. Simply switch out the vocabulary when you are teaching a new topic.

towergame-exapmple

The Tower Game is one of my favorite games to use in small and big classes. I recommend this one from ages four and up. Here is how to play:

This is a really simple game that you can use with any flash card set. You do need a set of paper cups to play this. After teaching a set of flash card vocabulary, simply use the flash cards and cups to build a tower with the students.

You will need to use laminated flash cards for this to work. Place a cup on the table and ask the student’s a question, “What’s this?” When they answer correctly, they can place the flash card on the cup. Put another cup on top of that flash card, and repeat with the next student until you run out of flash cards, or the tower falls over.

You can use a lot of good phrases here like, “be careful” and “Oh, no!”.

What’s your favorite game to play with students? Check out my Dream English Tips Podcast to learn about some more games!

New Podcast: Top 5 Classroom Games for Young Learners

Hi! In this episode I talk about my Top 5 Classroom Games for teaching English to young learners. You only need a few good games that you can use over and over again with differnet vocabulary. Have a listen for some of my students favorites. Visit the Kids Games Page for more fun game ideas!

Click to Listen on PodBean.

Click to Listen on iTunes.