It can be quite daunting the first time you are asked to write a lesson plan for a real class. If you are new to the job, you may not be quite sure where to start. Don’t panic though. I’m going to give you a few ways to show you the different steps to write an EFL ESL Kids lesson plan that is easy to do and fun to teach.
With a few ideas and some very simple props or equipment, you’ll quickly be able to plan a fun lesson that covers everything you need to teach. The more often you do it, the easier it will be, the faster it will be and the more ideas you will have. This is the way I normally do it but you can adapt this however you want. If you’re really stuck for ideas, have a look at some of my lesson plans for kids and see if there’s anything there you can use. Otherwise, get out a pen and let’s start looking step by step at lesson planning.
What kind of lesson plan do you need to write?
If you want to know how to start to write your EFL ESL kids lesson plan, you need to start by looking at your class. How old are the children in your class? How many of them are there? And how long should your class last? I normally work out a lesson plan on the basis of about an hour. You can add things to it or take things out if you have more or less time. If you’ve got very young children, you’ll be doing lots of singing and very simple games. If the kids in your class are older however, you might need to add an activity to practice reading or writing.
What do you need to teach with your lesson plan?
What is the aim of your lesson? Do you need to teach specific vocabulary or work on a particular theme. If you haven’t been given a subject, choose something quite specific. I find it much harder to work on something very general. So even if your lesson needs to be on, for example, the weather, choose something specific about this to work on. You could decide to work on the weather in winter, how it makes us feel and what activities you can do in the snow. Or talk about weather forecasting. Learn the names of different places and what the weather is like there and act out a weather report. Keep it simple and keep it concentrated on your theme.
Find material for your lesson plan
Once you know what you’re going to be talking about in your lesson, you can start looking for material to help you teach. If you’re teaching little kids, you will need songs. So go on YouTube and find 3 or 4 songs that are on theme and that you think look fun to sing. Nothing too complicated. You need something catchy and relevant that you can all sing together, with or without the music. If I was teaching a lesson about snow, I would probably start the lesson with this How’s the Weather song. Then during the lesson I would sing Little Snowflake and Winter Song.
If you’re teaching bigger kids, you might want to find a short video that you can watch together to learn vocabulary and discuss. A good one for weather forecasting is this by Maple Leaf Learning. I’d use this to talk about different weather conditions and different countries.
How will you start your lesson?
It’s a good idea to start with a song or a warm up to get the kids in the mood and ready to start speaking English. You can use some of my favorites that I use in class or you can find your own to adapt to the lesson you’re going to be teaching.
How are you going to teach the vocabulary?
Before singing any songs or watching videos together, you’ll need to introduce and teach the vocabulary needed. To do this you might want to use flashcards which you can probably make or print out. Otherwise, you could draw pictures on the board or use puppets or toys. As you teach the vocabulary, make sure you use lots of TPR to help the kids remember the words.
Next, play a game
A game is a great way to use the new vocabulary and help the children remember it. You want them to be speaking as much English as possible rather than just listening to you. Find a game where they have to speak to each other, with a partner or in small groups. Make them change round a few times so they speak to as many different people as possible. Use the new words a lot. If you can’t think of any games, have a look at this collection from Games4ESL and see if there’s something you can adapt to your lesson.
Now you need to practice what you’ve learned
Once the children have learned the vocabulary and you’ve sung a song or played a couple of games, you need to get them to use that in a practical way. This will make sure that they are confident using it. For older kids, you could do a role play. So, still using the example of our weather lesson, you could re-enact the weather report. One child could be the studio weather reporter and the others can give their reports from different countries. With younger children, you could all sing the song together again, using the actions you’ve learned for different activities in the snow. If you want more ideas to encourage children to use the English they’ve learned in class, I wrote about it here.
Are you going to do a practical activity?
Depending on how much time you have, you might want to read a story together or do a practical activity. This could involve drawing or art or, for older children, some writing exercises. Whatever you decide to do, make sure it is relevant to your topic, If the kids are taking it home, make sure that it shows what you’ve been learning. If the little kids draw a picture, get them to repeat the vocabulary as you label it for them. This will mean their parents can see what it is and what they’ve learned. Make sure that you correct any mistakes in older children’s written work so they know how to write the vocabulary correctly.
Make sure you finish your lesson properly
Don’t just let the kids run off as they finish their practical activity. Get everyone back together and end the lesson with a song or a routine to go back over what they’ve been learning. If you’re stuck for ideas, these are my favorite ways to end a lesson but you can find lots of other ideas on YouTube. And there, it’s over. Hopefully you’ve all had fun and the kids will go and tell their parents all about what they’ve been learning.
This is a very basic example of how to write an EFL ESL Kids lesson plan. You can use this and make it as elaborate as you want. You can add or substitute activities or change them to adapt it to your time scale and the size of your class. I hope this is useful to you if you’re new to writing lesson plans or if you’re stuck for ideas about what to do in your classes. If you want to see more examples of my EFL Kids lesson plans, you can see them here. To stay up to date with posts and teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. Alternatively, sign up for email updates below.