Here come the 4 year olds

[quietcontrary]

Tomorrow I'm starting my job as an English teacher to 4 year old Chinese kids who don't know a word of English! Woohoo! :)

(I may have lied in the interview when I told them that I loved kids. Hee.)

So, anyway. There's me and 9 four year olds and one three year old and when I met with one of the teachers last night she just laughed nervously and said, "Oh, the children are very naughty and impossible to control." O.o Ahaha. It will be my first EVER class and the first time I've talked to a four year old for about three years.

My lesson is centred on "What's your name?" The text goes:

Look!
Hi, I'm Chevady. (Excuse me, but does ANYONE know someone called Chevady? Why would you name your mascot character Chevady?)
I'm Kelsy.
What's your name?
I'm Paula.
Let's play!
Ok.

And I have to stretch that into 1.5 hours. Hee. And I have to think of games to play with them. I thought about getting a ball and having the kids throw/roll the ball to each other, and the kid with the ball has to introduce themselves by saying, "Hi, I'm Geraldine!" or something. But all together that might take up 5 minutes out of the hour and a half. I know some of you are or have been teachers. Do you have any ideas? ANYTHING would be marvellously helpful! :)

Comments

[wee-mango.livejournal.com]

Aaaaw good luck with that! Kids can be a handful but you'll do great! :D

♥

[grace-poppy.livejournal.com]

You could have little animal puppets? "Hi, I'm a mouse! Hi, I'm a horse!" etc? Maybe the kids could make paper bag puppets of their favorite animals? Oh wait, but that would be learning animal names too, and that might be more than you want to teach them.

It will be fine. Even if they don't learn much, as long as they're having fun then it will be a success. With kids that young, I think getting them to have fun while learning is half the battle.

[pamdram.livejournal.com]

You could get them to make a big colourful poster of themselves (kind of like a wanted poster) and put their name underneath it. They could also put down something they really like to do, if you're trying to get to know them! A handprint may be fun too, if you're feeling adventurous. Then they can play a matching game where you all make labels with your names on, and when they are finished you mix up the labels and the kids have to give the right person the right name label.

Hope there's something useful there. I teach 11+ myself, but I guess it's a starting point. Good luck with the lesson. Teaching is a great thing, especially when you see it pay off! :)

[phantomsangel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we used to play the ball game in my German class. We would throw it to a person and ask them a question. They answered and then threw the ball off to someone else, etc.

You could also have them make mini-skits. Since they are so young, you might write them out for them and have them 'act' them in front of the group. You might also play some sort of charades game. You, or other children, act out a word and they have to guess what it is.