Teach ESL to Kids

Animals are so popular with young ESL learners, so ESL lessons on animals almost always go over well.

Here’s one of the standard lessons that I use when I want to teach or review animals:

1. Warm-up with short conversation questions that aren’t animal related.

2. Use flash cards to introduce the animals. With younger/newer students, you should say the word first yourself. Older students may want to show that they know it without prompting.

3. Use the word in a sentence. “It’s a ______” or “I like ______s”* are both good sentences to use.

4. Let each student have individual practice for saying the sentence. Go easy on them. Prompt if necessary.

5. Play a game that allows you to reinforce the concept. For animals, I particularly like The Circle Game and Big Karuta.

6. If you have time, play another game or work on another concept. If you’re at a loss, remember some of these easy activities for ESL students.

Love,
Shannon Sensei

*Note that in English, when you leave off the “s” when saying you like an animal, it has a connotation that you like to eat the animal. “I like rabbit.” means something different than “I like rabbits.”. When I’d practice this sentence with my two-year-old classes, I’d let them get away with it. However, with older students, I’d try to explain the nuances.