Greetings and Introductions for Kindergarten ESL – Complete First Lesson Plan

 This Greetings and Introductions resource helps you start your ESL course with a clear, structured, and engaging first lesson. Instead of planning multiple activities, you get a complete lesson system ready to use. 🔗 Get the full resource here:    https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greetings-Unit-for-Kindergarten-Holistic-English-Series-1-5929133

This Greetings and Introductions resource is a complete first lesson plan for Kindergarten English Language Learners, designed to help students begin communicating in English from their very first class. In early ESL lessons, students need simple, meaningful language they can use immediately.  Through interactive and visual activities, students learn to greet others, introduce themselves, and respond to simple questions with confidence.

 This unit could go into the Social Studies Subject. It revolves into the social and civic competence.This is the foundation of all future communication in your ESL classroom.

Flashcards for First Language Exposure

Start the lesson with the flashcards for Greetings or saying Hello. The goal is to greet someone and say Hello and then good-bye.

Gestures and Real Interaction

There are flashcards for saying farewell. 

There are also flashcards to introduce the basic vocabulary such as boy and girl.

Students can identify people in the classroom and oneself as a boy or a girl.Place the flashcard on the board and hvae them stand under the corresponding one.

Students should be able to recognize the differences in people at school. Show the teacher flashcard and say. She's a teacher.

Boy / Girl Concept (LANGUAGE + IDENTIFICATION)

Introduce the boy and girl flashcards.

Teacher: This is Gina. This is Ben .
Use the Gina and Ben flashcard to model sentences.
Teacher: Gina is a girl. Ben is a boy.

Or

Teacher: Hello! I'm Gina.

This will be the first time that you introduce the verb to be. Students will be able to identify oneself. Ask questions.

Teacher: Are you a girl?
Student: Yes, I am. 

Ask Or questions.

Teacher: Are you a boy or a girl?
Student: I am a boy. 

Use the flashcards for starting the functional language: wave, hug, hand shake, elbow bump for saying hello. There is a flashcard for each one to teach students how to greet each other.

Teacher: Hand shake!
Students hand shake and say Hello!
Continue with the other ways to greet.

 Greetings Small cards pdf

I am adding the same ones in 4 in one page cards for printing purpose and for online teaching. 

Use the small cards to ask questions.What's his name?

Students: Ben!

Students should be able to say their name.

Teacher: What's your name?

Commands Flashcards

There are simple,basic commands flashcards for the students to understand. Students will learn to follow simple instructions. Say: Listen! Students will cup their hands around their ears in a listening position.

You can place them around the classroom when you are back to school. The basic Listen! and Look! Flashcards are the first to teach. They can be used on all the other units.

Take a look on a video I made on how to get the most from the commands flashcards: 

Greetings Cutouts for kids 

Make a crown out of any material that you have handy. I made mine out of corrugated cardboard. I added a pocket for the cutouts.  Take a look!

Students can also have a crown.

Use the crown to assign how to greet. It can be used online as well.

Teacher: fist bump! Point to the cutout on the crown and have the students greet as pointed out.

Student: fist bump! Hi!

 Create a poster to place on the door or on the wall.

Just cut the templates and glue them onto cardboard. I used some Dollar Tree letters that I had for the title. I would love to see your Greetings poster or chart!

Just listening to Dan St. Romain who is a national independent educational consultant. He is talking about a designated class greeter to give more social interaction to the students that is very much needed after the pandemic. I thought about this crown and the cutouts.

Place the cutouts  where students can see as guide to greet each other or use the crown. Here is his website: https://danstromain.com/

Practice is done with greetings worksheets for kindergarten and preschoolers.

Some examples for greetings activities:Students can make the Hello hand and the good-bye one.

                  This is an example on how you can use the Hello hands for greeting. The red hands can be used for farewells.

Here is the boy and girl Hello set of Greetings worksheets for coloring. These are perfect for asking: Is he a boy or a girl?

Have the students color the glasses in blue for the boy and pink for the girl. Also have the stduents trace the words if they are ready for that. 

After the boy and girl are colored, students can cut the images and make stick puppets to greet.

A video with another worksheet after the students are done with it.

Identifying oneself.

Introduce the expression My name is___.  Use the name badge or tag.
Have students come to front. Ask questions: 

Teacher: Who's this?

Students: Michelle!

Ask questions. Teacher: What's your name? or What's his/her name?

Greetings Awards ESL

There is an award that you can make to end the theme. You can print the medal onto colored paper and add lace behind it. Give it to your student as a reward for completing the lesson plan.

A video on how I assembled it.

Christmas and the Greetings activities for kids.

A set of Christmas characters to greet. Use the Hello hand and say good bye using the other hand that you might have done with the worksheets.

Teacher: Hello, Santa Claus!

Students: Hello, Elf!

And The Christmas Greetings Worksheets that go along the flashcards.

Find flashcards to use to introduce the Halloween characters. Teacher: Hello, Dracula!

Students: Hello, Dracula.

Remember to use the Hello hand included in this resource. Print the hands on cardboard or trace them and make them out of fun foam and use for Halloween and any other unit that you might need it.

A few Halloween Worksheets with the words, Hello, hi.

Again, use the Hello hand to greet the Halloween characters on their worksheets.

Adding the spinner to this Halloween Holiday in the resource.Print the templates. Cut and glue the pumpkin spinner onto a recycled CD for sturdiness. Cut and glue the Halloween characters onto clothespin. Students will greet each character and pin on the word.

Hello,Witch!

Just like this!

The characters can be used as puppets by gluing a strip of cardboard behind each one.

Take a look!

This resource is part of the BUNDLE:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindergarten-English-Language-Teaching-Units-BUNDLE-7390586

Are you also teaching older students? Here is a link to check the other resources suitable for starters or Elementary English Language Students. https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2023/06/greetings-and-farewwells-resource-this.html