In this section, find out how 4-6 year-old children learn and develop.
Characteristics
Implications
Needs
Pre-school or just beginning school
Not used to classroom conventions
Training in class routines e.g. listening to teacher
Limited motor skills
Clumsy control of pen/scissors etc.
To develop motor control e.g. coloring, copying
Learning holistically
Whole child needs stimulation
Opportunities to move, sing, play, explore, touch, etc.
Cannot distinguish between different parts of language
Cannot analyze language
Exposure to chunks* of language e.g. chants, stories, classroom language
Limited reading/writing skills in L1
Introducing reading/writing in English
Lots of listening/speaking activities. Fun introduction to English letters and words
See no need to communicate in English
Students use L1 exclusively
Reasons to speak English e.g. games, chants
Like stories, fantasy
Bored with many topics
Stories, fantasy, fun
*chunks of language = words that naturally come together e.g. ‘thank you very much’, ‘glass of water’, ‘have a nice day’ – that are easily learnt, repeated and do not need analysis.
Chants Chants are great as children
learn to work together
pick up chunks
get to listen to lots of meaningful language
have a reason to use English
find them funny
move their body
enjoy repeating them
Chants are easy to make up. This is an example of a chant for 5-6 year olds. They had already begun learning animals. Teacher and children can chant it together and do actions for the different animals. (pretend to splash water etc)
My name’s Fred and I’m a frog – jump, jump, jump
My name’s Kate and I’m a cat – miaow, miaow, miaow
My name’s Fergie and I’m a fish – splash, splash, splash
My name’s Micky and I’m a mouse – squeak, squeak, squeak
My name’s Benny and I’m a bird – flap, flap, flap
This is a lovely chant with a rhythm that children enjoy. They can stretch their arms out to show ‘big’ and bring their hands close together to show ‘little’. It also helps to develop:
Motor skills - children will enjoy coloring in the pictures that come with the chant. Coloring demands concentration, eye/hand coordination and hand control – all important pre-writing skills
Word recognition - when beginning word recognition they can draw a line between the animal words – cat, mouse etc and the pictures.