Kindergarten Course 09

You should find lots of material here from which to make lesson plans

Overview

Weather and Transport

As a BBC radio drama director I had to be two different beings, first a listener and then a thinker of what to say to the actors to help make their performances even better. As a teacher of small children you need to combine three different beings: an observer, a participator as a child yourself, and a director, discipliner and encourager of the whole show. You can do it and you can enjoy it!

Encourage your children to use musical instruments and to combine language, sound effects and music.

Perhaps your hand puppet, or an assistant, or an older child can help you. It will improve an older child’s English if they are helping you to teach.
Description:
In this course help your students to have more confidence.  Especially observe and foster any skills you observe among the shyer children.

Course Objectives:
At the end of the session the student will be able to:
  1. Describe the weather.
  2. Pluck words out of the air.
  3. Remember the days of the week.
  4. Learn from savouring the sounds of the words
  5. Identify words with /Q//q/ /R//r/ /S//s/ /T//t/ and /U//u/ sounds.
  6. Pronounce words with /Q//q/ /R//r/ /S//s/ /T//t/ and /U//u/ sounds
  7. Write letters /Q//q/ /R//r/ /S//s/ /T//t/ and /U//u/
  8. Form Questions
  9. Relate Movement and Music
  10. Find words for Transport

Materials:
MP3 player, glove puppets, a ball for the hot potato game, if possible have model bikes, cars, boats, helicopters and other modes of transport for children to play with. Musical instruments: drum, tambourine, triangle, shaker, xylophone, recorder, bell, or whatever you have or can find.

Flashcards:
sunny, rainy, cloudy, snowy, hot, cold, windy and foggy; days of week; bicycle, two different cars, three different boats, four different helicopters, five different airplanes; queen, quick, quicksand, quiver, quiz, quiet, quilt, question, queen bee, round, ring, rabbit, radio, road, radish, red, raincoat, reindeer, rectangle, river, seashore, small, snake, square, starfish, stop, shadow, sheep, shiny, shop, telephone, travel, tall, taxi, toe, tiger, tennis, train, teacher, tent, tomato, toothpaste, umbrella, up, uncle, under, understand, us, unhappy, use, uniform, unicorn, utensils.

Units:
  1. Weather Song
  2. Hot Potato Game
  3. Days of the Week
  4. Transport
  5. More Onomatopoiea
  6. Letters Q, R, S, T and U
  7. Game: Who Am I?
  8. Movement and Music
  9. Kinds of Transport
Meditation
A million Thai children meditate

The Weather Report

Before meditation do The Weather Report exercise by Eline Snel. Ask your children: “What weather best describes what feelings are inside you at the moment? Is it sunny? Is it cloudy? Is it foggy? Is it windy? Is it freezing? Is it calm and snowing? How do you feel? Once you know how you are right now, just let it be . . . just as it is . . . ; there is no need to feel or do anything differently. You cannot change the weather outside either, can you? Stay close to your feeling for a while. Direct your friendly and curious attention to the clouds, the clear sky, or the storm that is brewing . . . this is how it is right now . . . ; like the weather, you simply cannot change a mood. Later today the weather will be completely different again . . . , but right now this is how things are. And that is absolutely fine. Moods change. They blow over. There is no need to take any action. What a relief.”

Most children enjoy this weather exercise. It makes them aware of the rain, the sun, and the storm inside them and teaches them to identify less with their moods: I am not the downpour, but I notice that it is raining; I am not a scaredy-cat, but I realize that sometimes I have this big scared feeling somewhere near my throat. What is most important is that they allow themselves to feel the way they feel. Now let them meditate for five minutes.

Unit 1: Weather Song
Show and say weather flashcards with words and pictures. Get the children to repeat and then sing together.
How’s the weather?
How’s the weather?
How’s the weather today?
Is it sunny?
Is it rainy?
Is it cloudy?
Is it snowy?
How’s the weather today?
Let’s look outside.
How’s the weather?
Is it sunny today?
Let’s look outside.
How’s the weather?
Is it rainy today?
Let’s look outside.
How’s the weather?
Is it cloudy today?
Let’s look outside.
How’s the weather?
Is it snowy today?
How’s the weather?
How’s the weather?
How’s the weather today?
Is it sunny?
Is it rainy?
Is it cloudy?
Is it snowy?
How’s the weather today ?
Unit 2: Hot Potato Game
Arrange the students in a circle. Choose a category, for example, ‘things you would find in a bedroom’. A ball is needed. The person starting with the ball must say aloud an object from the chosen category and then immediately throw the ball to another player around the circle. That player must then do the same but cannot repeat the same word. If a player cannot think of a word, or repeats a word that has already been said; they are out and must sit down!

Variations and extensions: each individual player can come up with their category and pass it onto the next player. For example, the category to start with could be ‘something green’. The first person with the ball could say ‘grass’ then choose another category and pass the ball onto the next person.
Unit 3: Sing Days of the Week
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Unit 4: Transport

Give the Children Transport Toys to Play With

When playing with transport toys, children are experimenting with friction and motion. As they play introduce these words to describe what they are doing: up and down, forwards and backwards, fast and slow, bumpy and smooth.

Sing the Transport Song

I can clap. I can sing. I can do anything.
I can clap. I can sing.
I can do anything.
Here we go. Let’s count.
One bicycle.
One bicycle.
One clap. One.
Two cars.
Two cars.
Two claps. One. Two.
Three boats.
Three boats.
Three claps. One. Two. Three.
I can clap. I can sing.
I can do anything.
I can clap. I can sing.
I can do anything.
Let’s count some more.
Four helicopters.
Four helicopters.
Four claps. One. Two. Three. Four.
Five airplanes.
Five airplanes.
Five claps. One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
We did it.
I can clap. I can sing.
I can do anything.
I can clap. I can sing.
I can do anything.

Unit 5: Onomatopoeia in Action

Get the children to repeat transport noises: “Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong,whooh, whooh. The little train rumbled over the tracks.” You can shake up and down as you say rumbled.

Unit 6: Letters Q, R, S, T and U

Phonics Reading by Oxford University Graduate

Play and pause so that the children can listen and repeat word by word: queen, quick, question, quiet, quilt, radio, rabbit, rain, road, river, seashore, snake, sheep, star, tiger, tent, teacher, table, tree, uniform, unicorn, uniform, up, under.

Preparations for the Songs

Show the flashcards and get the children to repeat the words.

Sing Letters Q, R, S, T and U Songs

Show actions, emotions, gestures and facial expressions with the children and show flashcards:
Q is for queen, q, q, Queen.
Q is for q, q, quick, Quick.
Q is for quiet, q, q, Quiet.
Q is for quilt, q, q, Quilt.
Q is for question, q, q, Question.
Q is for quiz, q, q, Quiz.
Q is for quiver, q, q, Quiver.
Q is for quiet, q, q, Quiet.
Q is for quicksand, q, q, Quicksand.
Q is for quick, q, q, Quick.
Q is for question, q, q, Question?
Q is for queen bee, q, q, Queen Bee.

R is for rabbit, r, r, Rabbit.
R is for rain, r, r, Rain.
R is for round, r, r, Round.
R is for ring, r, r, Ring.
R is for radio, r, r, Radio.
R is for road, r, r, Road.
R is for radish, r, r, Radish.
R is for red, r, r, Red.
R is for raincoat, r, r, Raincoat.
R is for reindeer, r, r, Reindeer.
R is for rectangle, r, r, Rectangle.
R is for river, r, r, River.

S is for seashore, s, s, seashore.
S is for small, s, s, small.
S is for snake, s, s, snake.
S is for snow, s, s, snow.
S is for sunshine, s, s, sunshine.
S is for square, s, s, square.
S is for starfish, s, s, starfish.
S is for stop, s, s, stop.
S is for shadow, s, s, shadow.
S is for sheep, s, s, sheep.
S is for shiny, s, s, shiny.
S is for shop, s, s, shop.

T is for tiger, t, t, tiger.
T is for tennis, t, t, tennis.
T is for telephone, t, t, telephone.
T is for tall, t, t, tall.
T is for travel, t, t, travel
T is for train, t, t, train.
T is for taxi, t, t, taxi.
T is for toe, t, t, toe.
T is for teacher, t, t, teacher.
T is for tent, t, t, tent.
T is for tomato, t, t, tomato.
T is for toothpaste, t, t, toothpaste.

U is for umbrella, u, u, umbrella.
U is for up, u, u, up.
U is for under, u, u, under.
U is for uncle, u, u, uncle.
U is for understand,
U, u, understand.
U is for us, u, u, us.
U is for unhappy, u, u, unhappy.
U is for up, u, u, up.
U is for uniform, u, u, uniform.
U is for use, u, u, use.
U is for unicorn, u, u, unicorn.
U is for utensils, u, u, utensils.

Uncle

Writing Sheets

Colouring Sheets

Unit 7: Game for Question Formation

Who Am I?

Great for practicing question formation!

  1. Stick a Post-It to each learner’s forehead and explain that they have amnesia and don’t remember who they are!
  2. Split the class into pairs so they can guess what is their name or perhaps their occupation or whether they might be an animal or a kind of food or whatever.
  3. Then they can ask the questions: Am I…? Can I…? Do I…? Have I got…? etc…
  4. When they guess their partner’s name, they have to put another name or whatever on the Post-It and stick it to their partner’s head again.

It’s great because it’s open-ended, so fast finishers can just repeat.the lesson.

Unit 8: Movement and Music
Use language related to actions, position and parts of the body. Tell your children to do the following: “put your hands up in the air, draw circles in the air, touch your nose, wriggle your fingers, jump, hop, lie face down on the floor, lie on your back, move over there, come closer, curl up into a ball, stretch your arms out as wide as you can, take a nap.” Then let them do the same to each other in pairs.

Name and show any musical instrument if you have them, for example: shaker, drum, recorder, xylophone, block, triangle, bell, tambourine. Use language to describe sounds: loud, quiet, soft, high, low, long, short, fast, slow, tap, shake, scrape, knock, tick, hum, howl. When playing with musical instruments children are developing sound recognition (the sounds that different instruments make and an understanding of how sounds can change (e.g. high, low, soft, loud, fast slow) and an appreciation of music. These valuable listening skills are transferable to the area of language and communication.
Unit 9: Drama Game

Kinds of Transport

The teacher gives a flashcard to the first child, without the others seeing it. She/He then says to the student:

  • Make the action.
  • Make the noise.
  • Say the words (without naming the transport).

The other students have to guess. Let each student take it in turn to use: speech (in English of course), movement, gesture and sound to act out being a passenger or a rider. 

Transport Ideas for Sounds to Make and What to Say and Actions.
 Car Noise of car. “Drive straight”. “Turn left”. “Park here.”
Helicopter Noise of helicopter. “Take off now. “ “Hover over the city.”
Airplane Noise of plane taking off. “We are taking off.” “Fasten your seat belts.”
Parachute “Jump!” Noise of Whooshing. “Get ready to land.” “Roll over onto ground.”
Fire Engine  Fire alarm noise. “Put on your helmets.” “Get the water hose.”
Steam train Noise of steam train. “Which platform?” Whistle. “Close the doors please.”
 Rowing boat “Get your oars ready.” Action of rowing. “Don’t fall in.”
Bicycle Action of cycling. “Let’s race.” “I’ve got a puncture.” Bicycle bell sound.
Skateboard  “Can you ride on two wheels?” “I can spin.” Imitate actions of skate-boarding.

Remind the students making the demo not to say the name of the transport. This is what they have to guess

Rewards and Homework

The teacher gives each of the student a sticker or an English through Drama certificate or something of your choice for doing so well in the competitions. Remind them to fill in their colouring sheets by the next lesson or draw or paint any pictures with words beginning with the letters in the lesson.