Volunteer Teacher Resources - Lesson Plans
Practicing English -- Children love to teach adults, and this is a great activity for you to teach while learning. Use the flash cards and tell the children what the word is in English i.e.: tree, and then have the children tell you the word in their language. You can practice together and incorporate a small weekly test of the word you have taught and learnt. Once you have all learnt the flashcards you could begin to put them together into short sentences i.e.: the tree is green.
What you need: Flash cards with pictures of simple English words (harder English words if the children are more able). These may need to be made before you leave if you want printed pictures, or making the flashcards could be an activity you plan with the kids.
Geography -- Talk to the kids about where you are from, show them on the map where it is in relation to them, talk about things you like to do, places you like to go, food that is common in your home country and what school is like there, remember to check if the children have any questions. Then talk about any similarities or differences you have noticed with the volunteer country, ask the children if they can think of any more.
What you need: a map showing the volunteer country and your home country, photos of things from your home country that are similar or different to the volunteer country.
Music -- Talk to the children about music, sing nursery rhymes and songs for the children (twinkle twinkle little star, jingle bells or even the alphabet). Also ask the children to teach you any songs they might know. If there are instruments available, drums etc, incorporate them into the songs. If not, you could get the kids to make their own instruments using boxes, tin cans, spoons, or even skicks leaves etc.
What you need: Songs, instruments if possible.
Writing -- Have the children write a book. If they find writing hard it could be a picture book. Talk about the setup of a book, start, middle and end. That it needs to be interesting and exciting to get people to want to read it. Depending on the age group you could have a discussion about describing words etc. You could also begin this lesson by looking at a photo or a picture from a newspaper and using this as a focus point for the story – what is happening in the picture or what might happen next.
What you need: Paper, pencils, a draft of a book so the kids can understand what you want them to do.
Drama -- Choose a children’s book like The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood. Read the story to the children and then help them to act out the different parts in the story. If they enjoy this it could be practiced and presented as a little show to other children, teachers or parents. Depending on the length of your placement this could lead to making masks and simple costumes.
What you need: Paper, colouring pencils, books from home resources could be limited at the project.
Telling the time -- Explain to the kids how a clock works, what the different numbers mean. If this is a new concept for them start with hours and half hours, practice telling the time throughout the day. Use the pictures to help them visualize what happens at certain times throughout the day. If English is a barrier for them you could ask them to put the pictures in the order that they happen in a day.
What you need: a clock if available – you could also make one, pictures of activities done at certain times –sleeping, breakfast, lunch, dinner, school, sun, moon etc. If you take paper and split pins you could have each child make their own clock that they could use to help them learn this.