How do we give first graders the most bang for their buck from their classes?

Although they don’t have the maturity to dive into conversational English, they are very much taken by their interests.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed appeals to the most basic interests of young kids.

They love animals.

Animals are easy to teach as they have actions and sounds to go with them. Students can make the sounds and act out the animals. It’s naturally interesting.

They easily learn numbers.

Although they already know numbers in their native language, they can easily pick up the numbers in English through repetition of various sorts. This is especially true of the numbers up to 10. Higher than that is just a “big number” anyway.

Teaching procedure

I always like to get the vocabulary done first.

Class 1

I will leave the actual procedure for the first class to your imagination. Suffice to say, you simply need to give them enough listening practice to get them familiar with all of the words. Mastery is not required.

Here are some classic ways to cover vocabulary:

• card matching (pairs of cards must be matched)
• hammer game (flashcards of vocabulary on the floor, kids hit the one teacher says)
• go touch it (put the flashcards on the walls, kids go touch the right card)
• teacher says a word, then students do action

The vocabulary is slightly more for this book because of an extended beginning section:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• monkey
• doctor
• brush teeth
• put on pyjamas
• go to bed

Class 2

This is the rundown of the class I did.

Step 1: Warmup

Quickly review the vocabulary words from the last time.

Do it as a whole class echo. Make this no more than five minutes.

Step 2: Video

Gather the students at the front of the class and play the YouTube video.

The video sets the context of the song. After watching it, they will have a solid understanding of what is happening in the story.

You could play it twice.

Step 3: Storybook

Next up, get the book out and look over it.

Here are some possible questions to ask on the first telling:

The first telling (with questions): 10 minutes.

• Cover page
  • “How many monkeys are there?” (count them together)
• First few pages
  • “How many monkeys are there?” (count together)
  • “What are they doing?” (brushing teeth, etc)
• Main pages
  • “How many monkeys are on the bed?” (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
  • “What are they doing?”
• Last page
  • “Who is on the bed?” (mommy)
  • “How many mommies are on the bed?”

Second telling: normal speed without questions and get the students to chime in where they can.

Third telling: Stop at the chorus parts and have them sing it.

Materials

All materials and lesson plans can be found here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1_kMzgBOCTgbGxjd0ZIemZ6aVk&usp=sharing