Lesson Plan for Very Young Learners

Zeineb Haider, Libya

Zeineb Haider comes from Libya. She is a graduate student from UTSA. She earned an MA in TESOL on Dec/2102. She is interested in the field of teaching English to young learners. E-mail: zhaider410@yahoo.co.uk

Level: preschool 3-4 years old
Class theme: Shapes & colors
Time allowed: 3 class periods
Goal: connecting colors with shapes to introduce adjectives
Objectives:
1- identifying the basic different shapes and colors ( circle, triangle, square …etc)
2- practicing writing the vocabulary of the shapes and colors

Materials:

Youtube videos of Barney ( colors all around)

• Color & shapes flash cards
• A Big packet of Gummy bears
• Play dough and cookie cutters
• Coloring pages
• Tracing worksheets
• Paints & crayons
• Scissors & glue

Procedure:

First class period
Warm up ( barney) sing along (red, blue and circles too)
Stick the flash cards of the different shapes on board then show the different shapes.
Bring in play dough and different shapes cookie cutters ( hearts, stars, triangles ..etc then start
cutting out the shapes from the play dough.
Activity:
1- Trace the shapes ( see Appendix 1)
2- Color the fish

Second class period
Warm up : barney sing along (red, blue and circles too)
Stick the flashcards of the different colors .
Show the different colors of gummy bears
Activity:
1-color mixing ( see Appendix 2)
2- Tracing the colors

Third class period
Warm up : Barney sing along (red, blue and circles too)
Stick flashcard of the different shapes ( from class 1) and add to them the different colors ( from class 2)

Class activity: matching colors (see Appendix 3)
Cut and glue activity: cut out different shapes and glue them on the hot air ballon

Art activity: making pictures with different colors and shapes made from sponges make circles, triangles and squares, hearts, stars, rectangles, ovals (ask the children to be creative with paint and shapes) for example they can make a rainbow with the different shapes and colors of paint.

A. Context:
This lesson plan is designed to be taught over 3 class periods for for preschoolers (aged 3-4 years old learning English in Libya. These young learners are highly motivated to learn a new language ( English) will be learnt in an EFL setting. Their mother tongue is Arabic. English will only be used in class.
This lesson plan is designed to be taught on the forth week of pre -school after they have learned the Alphabet and numbers. The new concepts of shapes then colors will be introduced through hands on activities and songs.

The following table shows the different themes and objectives of each class:

B. Rationale:

The lesson is divided into three different class periods. Each class has its own objectives and activities. All the different activities designed for the lesson had one objective in common (communication). Before planning the lesson and designing the activities the teacher had done a needs analysis and played the role of the analyst where she identified what these young learners need to learn (Richards & Rodgers, 2001. P. 167)

The teacher needs to facilitate the communication process between all the learners in the classroom ( Richards & Rodgers, 2001. p. 167). That means the teacher helps the young learners to communicate by giving clear instructions and encourage’s the children to participate and interact with each other.

Most of the activities were hands on activities ( coloring, cutting, painting, tracing ) which young learners enjoy. The three classes of the lesson plan start out with the controlled technique (Brown, 2007. P. 186) a warm- up song by barney colors all around to motivate young learners and get them in the mood for learning. They will sing along with Barney and dance to the song As they are singing the are repeating the vocabulary for shapes and colors.

The activities were planned in order to integrate the four language language skills ( Listening, speaking, reading and writing ). For listening the young learners will listen to barney singing and sing along with him this means two skills were covered her ( listening and speaking).

For reading the young learners will repeat after the teacher the different shapes and colors as she points to them on the blackboard Repetition is a drill used with young learners in order to enhance their comprehension and fluency skills to pronounce the new vocabulary.

For writing the young learners will have tracing worksheets where they can practice tracing the vocabulary for colors and shapes.

The activities were organized to fit the young learners ZPD level (zone of proximal development) where students depend on themselves to completes a task /activity. The term, “Zone of Proximal Development” was coined by Russian psychologist and developmental theorist, Lev Vygotsky. He posited that a child’s true intelligence should be measured not by what he could do independently (as in standardized testing) but by what he could do with help from a teacher or peer. The “Zone” refers to the area of growth between what the child can do on his own and what he can do with help (Mitchell, & Myles, 2004)

Realia were used in the lessonin two classes. The teacher used cookie cutters to cut different shapes from play dough . This will make the young learners motivated and interested by watching the different shapes that can be cut out and they will imitate their teacher and try to make the different shapes . The other realia that were used was a bag of gummy bears to identify the different colors.

The main goal of this lesson plan is connecting colors with shapes to introduce the concept of adjectives for example: a red square, a blue triangle in the next lesson.

References

Brown, H.D. (2007).Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, 3rd Ed. White Plains, NY: Pearson/Longman.

Mitchell,R. & Myles,F.(2004)Second language learning theories. 2nd edition. London: Edward Arnold

Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, 2nd Ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Appendix

http://youtu.be/1XbuGQwpvjo
www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolshapes.htm
www.havefunteaching.com
www.first-school.ws › Themes
www.first-school.ws › Printable Activities

Please check the Methodology and Language for Kindergarten Teachers course at Pilgrims website.