Storytelling in the ESL class

Fostering a love for reading is an important part of kindergarten teaching. Reading books aloud to your class makes the story accessible to every level of reader and encourages well-written, fluent writing. However, not all story times are created equal. In their 2007 article Repeated Interactive Read-Alouds in Preschool and Kindergarten, published in the journal "The Reading Teacher," Doctors Lea McGee and Judith Schickedanz explained that the type of story, and how you read it, determines the level of enrichment. Several techniques will transform standard kindergarten story time into a stimulating educational experience.

Read more: Tips on Reading to a Kindergarten Class | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_12206386_tips-reading-kindergarten-class.html#ixzz1vkdhrpVl

Years ago I prepared this workshop for a school, I named it Storytelling. Here are the pictures:

1. Three little pigs: The series Sprinkles from richmond Publishing come with this great BIG BOOK, I love it. For this story I made a flannel board with felt and glued velcro to the cut outs. The title is a download from www.sparklebox.com and the cutouts I don´t remember right now. As I used the Cd which read the story I placed the cutouts and followed along. Then I made some stations around the class as House 1, 2, 3. I designated some students to be pig 1,2,3 and made some tags. All this I found at www.makinglearningfun.com.

Teachers should read aloud to young children. Time spent reading aloud is valuable to students. Reading aloud to children helps them develop and improve literacy skills -- reading, writing, speaking, and listening.


2. I tried different things to make each story a special experience for the students, allowing  them to live the story and to become  involved and be a part of it. For this one I made some tags using the cutouts that come with the book. I also made some medals that they won for reacting the story and took home to show their parents.The illustrations that come in the big book often help to explain the new vocabulary.



3.The other story was the Gingerbread Man. I have a blog entry here, if you want to check out more activities. I used once again the cutouts from the book and made some more, but this time I created stick puppets by placing a stick puppet wuth masking tape to each cut out. 

I also gave a gingerbread man as name tags to each student.



Among the many benefits of read aloud, Rog (2001) lists the following:

• building vocabulary
• developing understandings of story structures
• supporting developing connections between print elements
• encouraging high levels of understanding
• teaching the reading process in a meaningful context
• modeling fluency
• motivating students to read

.

4. As EFL teachers we always worry about  the speaking vocabulary of the class. The stories that we use should engage students at the edge of their speaking vocabulary, usually a grade or two above their grade-level. The Big Book that comes along is based on this. The other story  was Goldilocks and the 3 bears. This time I used more stick puppets but with 3 sizes of the objects and played some games like getting into groups by objects and by size.

 5.  For the rhyme Humpty Dumpty, I introduced preliminary vocabulary, such All the king´s horses, but  I didn’t spend too much time on this, I used the pictures on the book, so they could follow. I made some finger puppets so they could react the story. I also made some puzzles that could put together. Got the printables at www.makinglearningfun.com. I also made a crown for me to wear while reading the story!!
Try  not allow too much time to lapse between days when you read, maybe after each unit plan a reading session.

6. Read aloud to students is no easy task. I use the CD most of the time because it has special effects and voices, but if you don´t Cds to go along with the book,work on reading expressively and ask for feedback or listen to yourself on tape. This other story came with this prop as a printable to make to go along with the story ,as the CD read the story the students moved the strip of paper.

Teachers, Please join me at my Facebook Group: ESL/EFL Preschool Teachers, place your pictures there. You are all invited to be guest bloggers here, just let me know. If you need any resources related to this, please write, this is my email: ei98srl@gmail.com

Trees

Tree book: use a picture book for every theme you teach. Students can recognize language patterns in my book.

 I included an extra page for extending the story and creating another class book, as children look outside, drawing and creating their own tree. Collect all the drawing, bind them and make a class book.

.

Here´s the link to all the resources: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tree-Theme-Packet-for-English-Language-Learners-867260

Lacing: another lacing item made out of fun foam, using the same pattern. It can help  build  small motor skills.

Patterns: patterns should be encourage in the English class. Provide moments  to practice them that  will  also enhance language. This is from a series book that I was using. If you want the file, please write to me ( ei98srl@gmail.com)

This is a big tree, small tree pattern.

I made these out of fun foam.

These are made out of toilet paper roll and a kitchen paper rolls to amke them big and small. I cut a small slit on the paper roll to insert the tree top.

Tree class decoration: this time I created bigger tree as classroom decoration for the walls or the door. Students can decorate their own tree and display their art work. Get the file for free.

Tree counting : this game is for  giving the English Language learner the opportunity to use math vocabulary because math reasoning is linked to language production. The file has different kind of trees, I made mine out of fun foam and used flower punch out, bottle taps, fun foam pieces and mini erasers to simulate flowers for the trees.

I love www.childcareland.com.  I got this book from them.

Feelings/ Emotions Theme

This resource is available by request: ei98srlgmail.com

For children, happy and sad are easier to draw on a face than any other emotion. So teach them on the board how to draw a surprised or scared face using the mouth region. Use bright colors for the mouth, such as red or orange.  Have students recognize emotions on pictures or cartoons.

Emotions or Fellings Flashcards: The right hemisphere of the brain is the image brain. Flashcards stimulate the image brain activating the photographic memory. Flashcards with pictures make visualization easier. It will increase children´s reading ability in the future. 

Ask: How are you?

Students can point to a flashcard and say: I am happy!

Feelings camera: This printable camera can be used for this lesson or at any time when emotions are an issue in class. Have some students pose an emotion or use it yourself.

I also added some polaroid  blank photo templates for the students to draw their emotional face.

Bean Bag Game: Draw 2 circles with sidewalk chalk o more if you want to review other emotions. Draw a happy face and a sad face on each one. For the circle I helped myself with a Hula Hoop. 

Have students throw beanbags onto a face and name the feeling: happy or sad.

Ask individual students if they are happy or sad ,  have him or her make the corresponding expression and throw the beanbag.

The idea of the worksheets is to think out of the box, to take the students a little further than just filling out a sheet of paper. It can serve the purpose to review basic concepts and to continue to a more creative purpose. Motivate the little ones with craft-like activities, giving them lots of  exposure to English. Each child can use his/her own creative way. 

 Puppets: I made these puppets out of fun foam and added wiggly eyes.

Paper Plate Puppets:Go to www.dltk-kids.com and get the templates. I used white paper plates, painted the face in pale pink. Then, I colored and glued the pieces.

Feelings patterns: using the same faces, I made these out of cardboard. Have children make patterns on the board. Start the pattern with a hapy or sad cutout. Distribute the remaing cutouts to individual students. Elicit the pattern from the class and have the individual students place the cutouts and continue the pattern.
T: sad, happy... What comes next ?
Ss: happy.
Do as many times as you want changing the pattern.

 Follow my board on Pinterest.

 https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl/eslefl-emotions-feelings/

                                                   

Alphabet Theme

Learning the letters of the alphabet is the first phase of reading and writing instruction.Teach the alphabet to kindergarten students at their last year before going to 1^st grade, so they have already learned their first language letters. If teaching lowercase or Capital letters, follow the school´s insight about this. Teach the letter names and then later during the school year go on with the letter sound. Learning letter names first helps a child learn letter sounds latter. Teach in alphabetical order. Teaching the alphabet can be a lot of fun if you get creative every kid loves some form of a game, song or activity.

Start with the ABC song. Sing it as often as possible,  whenever you have a free moment.Post  the alphabet  somewhere in your classroom. This is a must-have when teaching ABCs. Point to each letter when you sing the song.

Flaschcards:  make your own cards.Hang them up in a special part of the room. Use them properly. Here are links for printing flashcard letters:

http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/flashcards.htm

http://www.esl-kids.com/flashcards/alphabet.html

http://www.eslkidslab.com/flashcards/set1/alphabet/index.html

Clothespin Activity:

Here´s another clothespin game.The template is from www.growingkinders.blogspot.com. If you can´t find it, write to me: ei98srl@gmail.com

Pompom letters: the template  is from www.childcareland.com. Hope it´s still available in her site, if you can´t find it, please write  and I´ll send it to you (ei98srl@gmail.com). It´s a nice way to use colorful pompom which come in a variety of colors and sizes.
Each child grabs a supply of pompoms and place them in the space provided in each letter. I printed the letters onto construction paper , cut them and paste onto another construction paper. Here´s the complete set.