Teach ESL to Kids

Using puppets is a great way to teach ESL conversation to kids. Young kids may find a big grown up foreigner quite scary, but when you use a puppet, this breaks down the barrier and helps to get them talking. It's much easier to talk to a puppet than it is to talk to a grown up.

I started using a puppet early on in the class and I've been surprised at how the kids never tire of this. All of my other ideas have bored them after a few months, but the puppet is still going strong.

Give your puppet a name and a personality. My puppet is "Yippie Skippy the Bouncy Bunny". It's a pink rabbit who gets very excited whenever the kids speak to answer his questions. He asks the questions in part 2 of the daily lesson plan.

But it's very important to choose a character that fits well with the type of person that you are. My personality fits well with a pink bunny who has a high pitched voice. This is a very easy character for me to pull off.

However, one of my teacher friends liked the idea and tried to implement it in her classroom. It just wasn't working. Why? Because she was also using a pink bunny. And she is just not a pink bunny person. She has a much lower voice than me, and using the high-pitched voice of the bunny on a daily basis was hurting her throat.

Well, one day I walked into her classrom and I noticed a very cool looking stuffed dinosaur. I picked it up, looked at it, then exclaimed "Whoa! This is a puppet!"

Her eyes widened and she said "That's it! That's my puppet!"

So make sure that you pick a puppet that goes along with your personality and voice. But please, do pick a puppet. The puppets are a really great way to get young kids started in ESL conversation.

Love,
Shannon Sensei