Inside children's development

Children: 4-6 year-olds

In this section, find out how 4-6 year-old children learn and develop.

Characteristics	Implications	Need
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. colouring, copying
Learning holistically	Whole child needs stimulation	opportunities to move, sing, play, explore, touch etc
Cannot distinguish between different parts of language	Cannot analyse 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
Love 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. 

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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. I made this one up for my 5-6 year olds. They had already begun learning animals. We chanted it together and did actions for the different animals. (pretended 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 colouring in the pictures that come with the chant. Colouring 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 and the pictures

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Songs

Classic songs like Old MacDonald had a farm (see related pages below)are very popular with young children. This is a version of the song that encourages students to produce long vowel sounds. It also practises the numbers one to four.  Farms are pretty universal. Young students enjoy making the animal noises and farm animals are a nice lexical set.

To create a nice wall display, get children to draw their favourite farm animal and the teacher (or a child who draws quickly and finishes their animal) can draw a big farm to paste the animals onto. More animals can be added later as well as a farmer etc. Once they begin writing, students can label the different animals.

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Stories

There are many story books based on animals. Children love listening to stories about animals especially If there are colourful, child-friendly visuals to help them follow the story. You can also use cuddly animal toys while story-telling to get and hold the children’s attention.  

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Games

Children all love games. 4 – 6 year olds have still to develop cooperative skills, so introducing games that involve turn-taking helps to develop these skills. Do not despair if they get impatient or want to take each other’s turns – they are still learning to be less egocentric and need lots of opportunities to allow these skills to develop (see related pages The animal game below).

The first version of the game is appropriate for 4 – 6 year olds as they simply have to count out the steps of the game according to what their dice lands on and then name the animal on the spot.  

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Cutting and colouring

See related pages How things work below. The students get to create a herd of elephants by cutting out an elephant and naming him/her. They can also colour it in. They can practise the ‘What’s your elephant called?’  & ‘He’s / She’s called….’

Children: 7-9 year-olds

In this section, find out how 7-9 year-old children learn and develop.

Characteristics	Implications	Need
Beginning to be logical and analytical	Can see patterns, aware of language	Opportunities to experiment e.g. making up own chants
Asking questions	Need answers	Freedom to express themselves and learn more than language
Reading and writing still minimal in L1	Still need support and help	Practice and success oriented activities
Still have problems sharing	Group activities not always successful	Teacher to guide them and chances to work alone
Developing confidence to express themselves	Students will have views on what they want to do / talk about	Chance to state opinions
Developing knowledge of the world around them	Know more than we often give them credit for	Chances to use what they know

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Chants

Children at this age group still love chants, but can add their own verses too. This stimulates their creative skills and gives them a sense of achievement when they can produce their own (see Five little speckled frogs song in related pages below).

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World knowledge
The quiz at the bottom of the page requires not just linguistic knowledge, but also knowledge about animals.

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Wall displays
By now many children are developing their writing skills and becoming proficient drawers. They also get a great sense of achievement from seeing what they have created.

A mini-project on animals is easy to set up. Each child chooses an animal they like. They draw a picture of the animal and write sentences based on a model* provided by the teacher. The pictures are neatly mounted on the classroom walls. Invite parents in too to see these lovely displays.

model:

• …………… is a big/small animal
• …………… lives in the jungle / on a farm / in my house
• ………….. eats leaves / other animals/ …………..
• ………….. can fly / run / swim etc etc

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Fun

Games are popular with all ages and it is a shame to push children into formal book-based learning early. They will become de-motivated and maybe even stressed. A really fun game can wake them up and bring laughter back into the classroom.

In this game My animal's got....(see related pages below) children create funny composite animals e.g. one with a tiger’s head, a bear’s tummy and an elephant’s legs.

This fun game works on many levels. Children can enjoy it purely visually and can also practise their English through it. It is very good for the possessive ‘ s. 

Children: 10-12 year-olds

In this section, find out how 10-12 year-old children learn and develop.

Characteristics	Implications	Need
Longer attention span	Greater range of activities possible in class	Opportunities to engage in tasks that require focus and commitment
Knowledge of the world growing	More topics can be addressed	Stimulation e.g. information from internet or cross-curricular
Taking learning more seriously	Can be given responsibility	Chances to be independent
Still children	Have need for security and pleasure	Teacher sensitive to their needs and moods
More cooperative with peers	Can do more group work	Variety of grouping in class i.e. work on own, in pairs, in group, as class
Intellectual, motor and social skills developing	Can be challenged more	Activities that challenge them
Developing own learning strategies	Children won’t all react in the same way to the same task/topic	Chance to personalise their learning experience

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Projects

By now it is clear that students have very different approaches to learning and have distinct preferences and interests. A project on animals can ensure all are satisfied.

• Students can choose to work independently or with a partner(s)
• Get students to choose an animal, or the creative ones can create a new one!
• Students choose whether to create a wall display, a book or a presentation on their animal
• Their work can include illustrations, their own or ones they find
• Their project can be a factual description about the animal including information found in books, the internet etc or it can be a story about the animal. It could also be a poster calling for conservation of a particular species
• Give a time limit – say 2 or 3 lessons for them to prepare their work and then it can either be displayed, shared or presented
• This is especially good in a mixed ability class. Students who are not so keen on writing can create something more visual and very enthusiastic students have more scope for their imagination and language skills

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