Effective classroom management routines for very young learners

Jeanne Perrett
A teacher with young students sitting at a table looking at flashcards
Reading time: 4 minutes

For very young learners, children aged 3-6, being in a classroom might be a completely new experience. Most of them won’t know any English words at all and might have very little idea of what English is or why they are learning it. Some of them may not yet be completely fluent in their mother tongue.

At the beginning of the school year, some of them may find it distressing to be separated from their parents and they also have to learn to get along with their new classmates.

If we want to keep them comfortable and safe and provide a friendly and welcoming environment, we need to establish routines.

7 ways you can build routines into your classes

Here are some areas where you can easily incorporate classroom management routines into your English language class.

1. Think about your target language

Our target language for each lesson may be one or two short phrases or a few new words. We should always keep the presentation and practice of this simple and clear.

However, we can use English for all our greetings, praise, instructions and explanations. After a few days, the children will begin to expect it and they will gradually understand what you are saying.

2. Coming into the class

Take time to greet each child by name when they enter the classroom and encourage them to learn and use each other’s names too. This will change how they perceive themselves and each other and encourage friendly communication.

Notice the small things about each child. They might have a new T-shirt on or have done their hair specially. They may not tell you that they have made an effort to look nice for their lesson, but they will be pleased when you notice and will feel encouraged to continue.

3. Circle time

Make circle time the start of every lesson. It gets the children sitting down together and this helps them to get to know each other and feel part of a comfortable group.

It’s the time where you present the target language for the day. Use a puppet to help you do this. Make the puppet part of the routine by keeping it in a certain place and bringing it out from there every day. The children can call its name.

The puppet can greet the children by name and the children can answer back. First, use picture cards or objects to present the language to the puppet. Then, the puppet can show that it understands or ask for repetition.

Let the children call out responses as a group. As they build their confidence in English they will want to speak by themselves.

Always accept approximations of words and phrases. Rather than correcting the children, continue to model the words and gradually the students will self-correct. Pass this tip on to parents too.

4. Book time

Give students time to discover pages and images they like in the books they are using. Always leave time to help each child find the correct page and then help them to focus their attention on that page.

In Circle time you have introduced the language and presented it with flashcards or objects. In Book time, children can look at these images – the content will be familiar and they will start to feel ownership of what they are learning.

5. Songs, games and miming

Singing, playing games and miming are the main ways in which the students will start to freely use and show they understand the target language.

In My Disney Stars and Friends each stage of every game is detailed, along with the language you and the students can use. Students might become so involved in the action of the game that they forget to speak in English! That’s okay – continue using the language and eventually they will start to use it too.

When a game or a song involves physical activity, have drinks of water ready and let them rest and relax afterwards. Always have a ‘sitting down’ activity ready for them to move on to so that they do not become overexcited or tired.

6. Craft and stickers

For any craft work there are four stages: preparation, production, playing with the completed craft work and tidying up. If you're using My Disney Stars and Friends, there is a special Tidy Up song and all the craft projects are press-outs so there is no need for scissors.

Children of 3 or 4 years old will need to learn how to unpeel and then re-stick a sticker. Allow time for this and encourage them to learn from each other once some of them have mastered this fine motor skill.

7. Leaving the class

Time your lessons so that the students don’t have to leave in a rush. It takes them a while to collect up their things and find their bags and coats.

If you want the parents to know something, make sure that the children know where they have put the note. One notebook for such messages is a simple way of doing this, and you can tell parents to check it after every lesson.

Just as you greeted each child by name when they came in, say goodbye to them individually as they leave.

Incorporating effective classroom management routines makes young learners feel more comfortable as they know what to expect from their language classes. Familiarity is welcome for children, so exploit these times for more language learning opportunities.

Find more ideas on effective classroom management routines in Jeanne Perrett’s webinar, where she focuses on practical ideas and teaching tips for how we can organise and manage a class of young learners.

Routines and classroom management for very young learners I app English Disney Day
Reproducir
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree app can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

Want to learn more about teaching young learners? Read our post 'Young learners of English deserve more'.

Explore our courses and tests

More blogs from app

  • children sat at a desk working together

    How to help students deal with conflict in group work

    Por Rachael Roberts

    Is avoiding conflict always a good thing?

    Why is it that some groups work smoothly together, whereas for others it always seems to end in arguments? It may seem logical to avoid group work with classes where it often leads to disagreement, but is there such a thing as ‘healthy disagreement’?

    Perhaps the groups that appear to be working well together are actually just letting one or two people do everything? This would certainly avoid conflict, but they might also be avoiding learning very much.

    Sometimes conflict is a necessary step that teachers (of all subjects, not just language teachers) have to acknowledge as an important part of a learner's development.

  • a woman with headphones around her neck writing notes at a table

    How to reduce anxiety using to-do lists

    Por Rachael Roberts

    Help reduce anxiety using to-do lists

    Many teachers have a to-do list a mile long or even several to-do lists in different places.

    Theoretically, a to-do list is a good idea. When we write something down, the brain can stop holding onto it quite as tightly, which can reduce anxiety and any feeling of overwhelm.

    This tendency to obsess about unfinished tasks is called the Ziergarnik effect, after the Russian psychologist Bluma Ziergarnik, who noticed that waiters only remembered orders before they were served. As soon as the meals were delivered, the memory vanished.

    So, if your brain is constantly nagging you about tasks that remain undone, write them down or make a rough plan and the anxiety will often disappear.

    The downside of ‘to-do’ lists

    I once had a list of jobs that needed doing about the house which had some items dating back several years. Simply writing down a task doesn’t guarantee that it will get done. A lengthy to-do list can enable you to procrastinate and avoid doing important tasks as they are hidden amongst any number of others.

    Long lists can also be overwhelming and off-putting in themselves, and as you cross items off the list becomes cluttered and disorganized.

    Making better use of your to-do list(s)

    1. Learn to prioritize

    It is vital to distinguish between tasks as this will help you decide how to prioritize, delegate and ignore. Categorize your tasks in the following way:

    • Important and urgent (prioritize these).
    • Important but not urgent (book in a time to do these, and stick to it).
    • Urgent but not important (see if you can delegate these, or consider if you need to do them at all).
    • Not urgent and not important (you could almost certainly take these off your list altogether).

    2. Keep separate lists for separate areas of your life

    It’s much easier to see what needs to be done and to prioritize things if you keep separate lists. If you are comfortable with tech, there are plenty of apps to help you with this. You can flag things as important and set reminders and deadline alerts while keeping separate lists. and are just a couple of the options available. If you’re more old school, you can have separate pages in a notebook.

    3. Break tasks down

    Understandably, you might avoid getting started on a big task that will take a long time. There never seems to be a suitable time slot to get it done. Instead, break it down into smaller tasks and tackle them one at a time. For example, break down marking 30 books into three slots of marking ten books.

    4. Know your next actions

    Before you finish work on part of a bigger task, make sure you know your next step, so that when you come back to it, you can get started straight away. This also works well when you decide at the end of a working day what the first task you’ll do tomorrow is.

    5. Review weekly

    A regular review is essential. Look through what you’ve achieved and feel good about it - and remove it from your lists. Analyse where you tried to do too much (try to stick to 3-5 tasks a day) and consider this when setting yourself tasks for the following week. Take note of any tasks you should have done but didn’t get around to and, assuming a certain task is a priority, decide exactly when you will do it next week.

    Good luck!

    Teaching requires you to juggle 101 different things, and that’s before you take your home life into account as well. Get on top of your to-do list, and not only will you feel less overwhelmed, but you may also even find yourself a bit more free time.

  • People of various backgrounds and ages standing together holding paper speech bubbles

    4 poor communication skills (and what to do about them)

    Por Rachael Roberts

    How to help your students improve their general listening, speaking and understanding

    Do your students ever display poor communication skills?

    Most teachers will answer with a resounding ‘yes’. In fact, communication skills do not always come naturally to many people. Let’s look at some of the most common and egregious errors people make when speaking and listening to each other. I’ll also give you some valuable ways to help your students improve.

    1. They don’t even stop to breathe

    If you find one student doing a LOT of talking, it’s probably because no one else can get a word in edgeways. It can be tempting to assume that this is because the chatty student thinks their ideas are better than anyone else’s, but, in fact, it is often a sign of nerves.

    Look more carefully and see if they appear breathless or anxious. Whatever the reason, this kind of student may benefit from a more structured approach where students are given time to prepare what they are going to say, and everyone is expected to contribute equally. Or make it into a game where students have to make sure that they speak for 50% of the time each, as would be expected in an exam situation.

    2. They aren’t really paying attention to each other

    Whether your students are looking at their phones, staring out of the window or can’t wait to interrupt each other, poor listeners make poor communicators. Deal with this by always requiring the listener in any pair to do something specific. For example, tell them they will need to summarise what their partner said, or they have to think of three questions to ask their partner at the end.

    We usually have a reason to listen in real-life communication, so make sure you give them one. Otherwise, they may assume that only the teacher needs to pay attention when another student is talking.

    3. They ramble and it’s difficult to follow what they’re saying

    Students may ramble because they are unconfident about the target language. It’s fine for students to struggle a bit to communicate, but it’s sensible to set achievable tasks, or they may give up.

    It could also be that they would benefit from more rehearsal and practice. Being able to speak fluently ‘off the cuff’ is very challenging, particularly in front of an audience. Try giving students time to plan what they are going to say first. They shouldn’t be reading off the page, but writing it first can help with confidence and fluency.

    Repetition is also invaluable in building fluency. Try doing speaking tasks more than once, and see how the quality and quantity improves each time. You can ring the changes by swapping partners or changing the format from pairs to small groups, to the whole class.

    4. They don’t treat others’ feelings with respect

    This can show itself in different ways. Maybe your students just completely ignore the feelings the other person is demonstrating or telling them about. Or maybe they dismiss them in other ways, ‘Oh, exactly the same thing happened to me! I was just walking along…’

    You can model better ways to respond yourself. For example, “It sounds as if you feel quite angry about that?”, “That must have been really difficult.’

    This teaches students the kind of phrases they can use to validate, empathize and talk about emotions.

    If you can deal with these problems, your students will be well on the way to becoming master communicators.