Keeping a 4 year old engaged in a 1-1 Class

13 comments

1. Haven’t taught 1:1 but I do have experience of teaching full classes that age. Maybe some practical activities? Role-playing shops, making a plasticine ‘zoo’, even simple cooking like making a sandwich and talking about different fillings.

   The longest activity might be 20mins. You could bookend it with some vocab practise and a picture book (5-10 mins). Maybe a song or game…and tidying up of course!

   I found teaching that age quite tough due to a relatively short concentration span, but I did find that the kids enjoyed familiar stories and games so I could repeat some things each week.

2. You need more structure for that age group.
   Always start with a hello song. Use that to practice “how are you” and different emotions after.
   My usual 1-1 lesson is;
   Hello song
   How are you? I draw some options on a small white board, once they memorize them I have them tell me which one I should draw.
   Weather song
   I have little felt pieces with sunny, rainy, cloudy etc and I have them place it on a bigger blue felt piece, the sky. Can practice “how’s the weather today?”
   Next abc song; once they know that one phonics song.
   Use alphabet magnets or an alphabet puzzle to practice after.

   This is how I start every class and it works really well. You can slowly increase difficulty and phrases.

   Then I focus on a topic like animals, shapes, colors, numbers etc
   I use books, toys, games.
   Or do a related craft. You can repeat the topics many times before they finally now everything. Add more animals etc.

   Make sure the activity/game isn’t too long as their attention span is short.
   Include lots of physical movement. Actually dance the songs, not just sing them.

   Use attention grabbers or mini games like “touch your head, touch your shoulders” or clapping and always turn it into a little game/competition.

3. Does he like coloring? I have a 3 year old that loves it. It can get him to sit and concentrate for a while.

4. 1 to 1 it’s important to remember it’s okay to be silly sometimes. I occasionally take “active” breaks where we practice verbs. I tell him to jump he tells me to jump. I tell him faster he tells me faster. Making jokes goes a long way with that age. Point to a pizza and say “I want the dog please”. That age it’s absolutely not necessary to use any written Japanese in the lesson. They get the idea of listen and repeat because they are actively learning more Japanese everyday. Shopping games are a big hit (get money from the 100 yen shop). You can easily expand the phrases— This one, this one please, I want this one please and so on. Dot to dots are a big hit as well. They cover pen control, hand strength, numbers, and coloring in one go.

5. 4 year olds have an attention span of 8-12 minutes, so you need to make sure you’re changing activities at least that often. I would alternate between quiet and active activities, with transition activities in between. 1 hour is also pretty long for a 4 year old, so he’ll probably get distracted no matter what by the end of the lesson.

   As other people said, with that age group, it’s okay to be silly. Like if the topic is animals, mime being that animal, make the animal noises (preferably together with the kid). For practicing writing the alphabet, I have different sound effects I make for drawing a line down, drawing a line up, a curve etc that I make when showing how to write. The kids often start to make the noises while writing which helps them remember the shapes and stops them from rushing too much.

6. 1 hour is too long for a 4y.o., should be 40 minutes tops, and a 5 minute break should be allotted for snacks, or water. The attention span isn’t there yet, if anything he is going to bounce around because his cells are constantly multiplying at an exponential rate, and growing bored of the material.

7. A 4-year-old needs a new activity every 10-15 mins. I would do something like this: regular warm up (something you do every time to get him in the mood). It is probably a song, it could be the ABCs, but I recommend a funny cartoony video on YouTube you watch together. Search something like “Hello songs in English.” Watch it two or three times, and watch it at the start of every lesson.

   Then do something simple for that day, for example, let’s learn the colors Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple. Show him flash cards, have him repeat, make sure he understands the meaning (it is “red” and not “apple” or whatever else your card might show). I like to do “find and seek” game, and you can expand on this. Start by putting all the cards down and having him touch the color you say. Then move the cards around the room so he has to “run” to find them. Then if you can, have him close his eyes and “hide” the cards (but easily) and then repeat so he has to run to find the color you call. (Do this for at least three lessons in a row so he really gets it, increasing difficultly. Don’t add colors/items yet, just increase the games. You could get multiple cards of each color and hide those, or play a matching game, or one my students always loved was “touch something red” where they have to touch something red in the room/house that isn’t the card. Just make sure something of each color exists in the house for him to find lol. Once he has all those colors down you could add more colors, or more likely, switch to a new vocab for the next three weeks, but combine with the old, like red + apple, or red + circle, etc) I’d do 15-20 mins for the color activity.

   Then I’d do some sort of break time, maybe he can have a snack? And you can teach “please” and “thank you” and maybe “may I eat?” “yes/no” etc. Give him like a senbei cracker and a sip of juice.

   Then I like to do a worksheet like activity, if you did colors, then maybe a coloring activity would be good. Especially great if you can combine with previous activities (like if he has some fruit vocab). You could say “color the apple red” or “color the circle red” etc. (Kids especially love when you get weird with this shit. Color the apple red. Color the banana yellow. They are nodding, they get it, all is good. Color the grapes pink. WHAT?? they laugh. Color the orange purple. Giggles! What wackiness will sensei say next??? Color the tomato BLUE! They are engaged.)

   Then I’ll usually do a “Good bye” style activity that is similar to the “hello” activity. Teach your “good bye” and maybe find a “Goodbye” song in English on YouTube to watch. Kids especially like when you dance (or do hand gestures) and sing. Sing it two or three times. You could also do some sort of reward (like a sticker for good behavior). Give them their coloring book sheet, etc.

   Mix it up every 15 or so minutes. Go where he is going. He has energy. If you can take him outside! Let him play, just play with English. Teach tree, car, bicycle, sun, cloud, sky. Have him run to touch things in the park or house. If he gets bored/doesn’t want to do an activity, switch it up until you find ones he likes. If he hates coloring and loves singing, do more singing and song/dance activities. If he hates those but loves running, do more “run and touch” activities. I always feel when they are that little the goal is to make English fun and silly and not dreadful and boring. They are kids and want to play.

   One of my best games once happened accidentally. We created little creatures out of playdough (mostly just blobs as we practiced colors and shapes), but kids are funny and they made their blobs come alive, and we had a lot of fun having the kids be the “teacher” to the blobs (where the kids spoke for both). So the “blob” creature would say “juice please!” and the student-as-the-teacher would say “here you are” while giving the playdough creature a blob of playdough “juice” and then the student-as-blob would say “thank you” and the student-as-teacher would say “you’re welcome” etc. I think it was less scary that way and it was fun. Obviously not every kid will respond that way, but it worked. It wasn’t on my lesson plan, but it was BETTER than my lesson plan. They were naturally playing with English. Which is one reason I think it is so good to teach phrases and not just vocab. “Apple” is good to know, but “Apple, please?” and “here you are” and “thank you” are really useful, and they kids will learn to combine them. “Toilet, please” was one one of my kids once did that was like Wow! He has to pee and figured out how to ask without knowing much.

   Anyway, have fun! Let them be silly. And YOU be silly, too.

   EDIT: I second having little farm animals and stuff, too. All kinds of toys and tactile things help so much. Flash cards are okay, but get boring. Little animals are fun. I used to have like forty identical cats (very small) with 10 red, 10 yellow, 10 blue, 10 green. We’d practice all kinds of things with those cats. “Three blue cats, please” or just counting to ten. Or I’d mix them up, grab a handful and give them it like a crane-game, then they’d have to count how many they got, or (later) how many blue, how many red, how many yellow, etc. They’d also “play” with the cats and so long as the cats spoke English that was fun, too. Get ring toss game and put the flash cards on the floor and “toss” the rings to land on the card, then they have to say the name of the card and keep it as a point. All kinds of fun stuff, you can definitely google all kinds of games for kids.

   You can also potentially ask the parent to provide the supplies.

8. He is 4 years old. 1 hour is far too long. Make it 30 minutes max, probably with a little break in the middle.

9. Has anyone suggested stickers? Small rewards for completing tasks at this age can make a big difference

10. You could add a practical warmup, too. I do the ABC exercises, sing the days of the week, the months of the year, run through “Today is Monday, Yesterday was Sunday. Tomorrow will be Tuesday.” I mean, he is only four, and you’re dong this three times a month. Peppy Kids surely might be better for him, true enough, for the socializing reason. There are, though, ways.

11. Forget English lessons; engage in play while using the English language.

12. I love teaching this age group. It’s been my designated level for a couple of years now and I enjoy seeing students make a lot of progress in this stage. Usually I have classes of 20 students.

    1 to 1 will depend on the student you have; are they introvert or extrovert? If they are quiet, you have to adjust so not to frighten them. If they get excited quickly then use more movement in your lesson.

    A one hour lesson is a piece of cake. First set the foundation and your expectations. Let your student know what they need to do to get praise from you. Some rules I share are that we take turns talking and listening. This becomes the foundation for listen and repeat exercises.

    Card games work at this stage. After showing a set of cards (letters, numbers, anything), ask the student to listen to a card and if they can find it.

    They can also organize cards in a simple sequence such as 1 to 10 or days of the week.

    Try to add a couple of fun songs and dances that they might know such as ABC, Twinkle Twinkle, Baby Shark.

    Being silly work. A funny face and voice is usually enough to make kids laugh at this age.

    Earn your student’s trust and let them know they can count on you. Praise them when they do well. Let them know mistakes are ok and we can learn from them.

    If they want to talk about something else, follow their curiosity. Dont force a lesson on them. They will learn English better by studying about things that are interesting to them.

    Even if its an hour, they are your charge during that time. Treat them like you would treat your own child. Treat the student the same way you would want someone to take care of you.

    Sorry for the long message. You just caught someone who does this for a career who is munching on dinner and is chilling out sharing some experience.

    Good luck! Have fun! Children are very good at catching feelings. If youre having fun the students gonna catch it. If you cant wait for the lesson to be over your students certain to catch that too 😀

13. I’ve taught any age group you could imagine, for 6 years. Not in Japan, but my experience in China anyway, will hopefully be of some help.

    What would you be like at 4 years old? Obviously we are all different, but generally speaking most 4 year olds aren’t sitting down focusing on stuff unless its something they truly love. Even then, they will be running about. Can you picture 4 year old you watching your favorite movie? You probably jumped with joy and were active at the most exciting moments of the film.

    You need to go in with the mindset of ”This is not teaching through activity, this is learning through activities.”. Does that sound the same, yes, but there is a subtle difference. In my opinion, instead of trying to teach the child through various exercises or activities, shift your role ever so slightly. Be more of a mentor, a big brother/sister if you will, who stands by their side going through the activities. Active engagement through their own interests, with a bit of mystery and excitement at the end of the tunnel goes a long way. A childs imagination knows no bounds, and while no two will ever be the same, they all share the perspective of pure curiosity and genuine hunger to know more. This isn’t some bs spiel to say all kids can be great students. I was a horrible student. Yet, my interests led me to doing far more research and effort into those topics than I ever did with any of my school based subjects. Take advantage of that. That is the best weapon in our arsenal, using a students interests to get them to understand or comprehend something, even better if they find an interest or an appreciation for it themselves.

    While a routine is necessary to establish for kids, sometimes the way its presented can really backfire on you. What is the childs threshold for staying focused? 15 minutes? Ha. At 4? I’ve seen it, but its not so common. You’re realistically looking at 5-10 minutes of focusing on boring, and to them, non-sensical bullshit. You said how you do one thing, then the next, then the next. Children are smarter than we give them credit for, they may not understand the concept of time all that well, but they certainly know what the next thing they dont like is going to come next. Switch up your routine. Don’t keep it the same unless you found something that works, and always keep a spare plan or two in your back pocket for when the child inevitably has a bad day. Because they will have them. Dont just go in like ”yup, we are going to do flashcards first, then aa, then bb, then cc, and bye bye we’re done here. ” switch it, as well as the content. Now, to be clear, some children will hate change and not adjust to it, some will even regress, or worse yet, be emotionally and mentally uncomfortable. Please communicate with the parents and learn about the childs needs.

    Switch up your routine, make learning more intuitive. Play games that require the child to speak. You mentioned flash cards? Try playing the matching game where all the cards are flipped over, and you have to get two of them together to take them out of the pile. The cards can only be flipped over if they say what they think is under it. If the child just points at the card, or flips it over himself, thats not good enough. Do it with him. Make it require interaction. That is but one of thousands of examples that are available to find simply by searching.

    Tl;dr. You’re looking at it the wrong way. Don’t just try to teach shit to a 4 year old. You want them to want to enjoy what they are doing. Switch up your routine and look up different games, tweak them to be more where you are doing it with them instead of you teaching through games. Kids pick up on that stuff too easily.