Teaching toddlers, 2-3 year olds

Listen to the show.

This show was recorded back in the summer and a few shows got bumped up, so if you feel we’ve gone back in time, I guess we have But first, we of course have some new things on the web to talk about ... Check those out at the end of the show notes.

Teaching toddlers:

This show goes over some basic problems that come up in teaching classes with 1-3 year olds: short attention spans, running around the room, eating your materials, high expectations of the parents and more. Each problem is addressed and a few ideas for dealing with each are discussed.

More advice and focus is given to the actual planning and running of the classes:

• language production and what to expect
• handling zero production
• eliciting language from this group
• activities: what do they like
• activities: what qualities do they like
• vocabulary: how to introduce it
• working with music and actions
• play and explore vs. teaching at them
• how to motivate them

Quite a bit in this show and we hope some of it is helpful if it’s not all applicable.

If you have anything to add to the show, your own advice or questions, please let us know. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Forums. We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for listening!

New materials from Matt and Mark:
Matt has a new phonics section with Touch and Say phonics over at Dream English. There are chants to download, worksheets, flashcards and more. Check those out!

Mark has a new site, 123 Print Calendars.com. You can make custom calendars for you classroom or for home. Enter events, class schedules, vacations, students’ birthdays, whatever. All the text is 100% customizable.

There are all kinds of themes to choose from. I hope you are able to find something you like.