I love when I find picture books that are so simple, and utterly delightful that both my kids (mother-tongue English speakers) and my newbie ELL students can fall in love. HOORAY FOR HAT written and illustrated by Brian Won is one of these masterpieces. The book structure is so simple you'll wonder why you hadn't thought to write it yourself, but the genius is in the simplicity. (And the best news of all for all us ELL teachers, this book has been so popular, it should be easy to order anywhere around the world. )

Your students will love the repetitive structure of the story.

​They will cross their arms and repeat, "Go away! I'm grumpy." They will smile at the adorable animals. And the yell along with you as you say "HOORAY FOR HAT!" Believe me!

When you finish reading, you can take one of two routes: focus on emotions (Grumpy, Sad, Mad, Happy, Scared) or the wild animals (Elephant, Zebra, Turtle, Owl, Lion, and Giraffe) as your target language. No matter what you choose, this book absolutely begs to be turned into a theater. So choose your actors and get them talking!

ELEPHANT: Today I'm feeling very grumpy. (Ding dong) Go away, I'm grumpy!

(There is a present at the door)

ELEPHANT: What's this? A hat? I can't be grumpy now! HOORAY FOR HAT! I will show Zebra.

ELEPHANT: Hello, Zebra!

ZEBRA: Go away, I'm grumpy!

And if you'd like some more fun activities, I found this on FloweringMinds.

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ATTENTION!!!! ATTENTION!!!! ELL TEACHER MUST-HAVE!!!!


​Hello everyone! I'm back with an absolute must-have picture book for every ELL teacher who works with kids. GO AWAY, BIG GREEN MONSTER written and illustrated by Ed Emberley is everything!

Do you want your kids engaged in a fun read-aloud which will introduce parts of the face? Eyes. Nose. Ears. Teeth. Mouth. Hair.

Do you want your kids practicing English by repeating phrases? Then this book is for you. 

The genius of this book comes with each new page turn. 

​As page by page, the Green Monster gets built facial part by facial part. 

​And then page by page, gets deconstructed again as kids yell
"GO AWAY!"

It's so much fun!

Use it as a great intro into teaching parts of the face, or reviewing them...or just for fun, because my students absolutely squeal every time I get this one back out for a reread. 

I hope you and your students love this one as much as we do!

Hello everyone! I am back with another great suggestion for your ESL classroom. This book TANKA TANK SKUNK written and illustrated by Steve Webb is the perfect way to get your kids stomping their feet and trying out all sorts of new words, while introducing them to a lively cast of wild animals.  The book introduces Tanka (an elephant) and Skunka (a skunk) who LOVE to play the drums. 

SKUNKA TANKA
SKUNKA TANKA
TANKA TANKA SKUNK

Your students won't be able to stop themselves from joining you as you read aloud (which as an ESL is EXACTLY what you want!) Just look at these example pages. 

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Of course, after you read, it's the perfect time to introduce wild animals to your students. I usually start with the following: elephant, zebra, giraffe, lion, monkey, crocodile, penguin, and snake. You might be surprised how many animals they already know. 

Remember to get the kids up and moving. Acting out the animals is a great way to do that. Then we usually pretend to take a visit to the zoo. Four students act as the family (Daddy, Mommy, Brother, and Baby) and the rest act as animals. If your students are anything like mine, they'll want to do this over and over again, switching parts each time. 

Hope you get some great ideas when you pick up this book!

As we are right in the middle of some very fall-like weather, all the teachers at school have been doing fall-themed activities. I took this opportunity to introduce some new fall vocabulary to my preschoolers: Apple, pumpkin, leaf, tree, scarecrow, and wind. 

After introducing the words, I shared this GORGEOUS book. Each illustrated page features a design of animals, rivers and orchards made entirely of autumn leaves. 

Afterward, we pretended to be leaves blowing in the wind. Each time I called a different fall word and the students pretended to be them. It was good practice for the words I introduced earlier.
To finish, we went on a leaf hunt outside and made our own leaf men - making sure they had heads, arms, legs, stomachs, and hands and feet. Students really loved this activity and felt very inspired by the book. 

After a very long break, here I am back with a fantastic recommendation for your preschool/elementary ESL classroom. SHAPE BY SHAPE by Suse MacDonald, is an exciting read-aloud that introduces children to the English names for basic shapes (circle, semi-circle, triangle, diamond, etc.) all while involving them in an exciting "guessing game" to guess the animal. The book begins with a nearly blank page with two small dots and the words...

"Do you know what I am? I lived a long, long time ago."

Page by page, cut-out circles, triangles, crescents, etc. are added to finally become a big green dinosaur. 

My students LOVED this book. In fact, they asked me to read it not once, not twice, but THREE times before beginning our ESL games. 

After reading the book, I introduced 4 basic shapes (3 for the smallest kids): square, circle, triangle, and diamond. As always, I got the kids actively involved forming the shapes with their arms and legs. 

Afterward, we had a shapes scavenger hunt. The kids outdid themselves! 

Finally, we finished with a shape cutting activity from ESL KidsStuff which the kids really enjoyed while practicing their fine-motor cutting and glueing skills.

The end of the school year us just around the corner for us (preschool runs until the end of June here). To finish off the year I thought it would be fun to do a post about our top 5 favorite picture books we used this year. Without further ado...

1) PETE THE CAT: I LOVE MY WHITE SHOES was a real winner for us. The simplicity of the language, the repetitive story structure, and the "song" within the story made this probably the kids' favorite. I brought it back a few different times and each time they sang and danced along with this "cool cat." Next year, I'll probably add PETE THE CAT and MY GROOVY BUTTONS to my line-up. 

2) QUIET LOUD. This one has great read-aloud-ability, a character that makes kids laugh and simple language that is perfect for a beginning ESL class. It does leave my hoarse each time I read it though, so beware. 

3) SHH! WE HAVE A PLAN - I LOVE this book! It's one of my favorites in or outside the classroom. Kids love it too! What I love about this book in the ESL classroom is that it really gets students involved as they count 1, 2, 3, Go!

4) THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR - This is one of those perennial favorites that people love internationally. But it's a favorite with good reason. Every ESL teacher should have this one in the library. 

5) POLAR BEAR'S UNDERWEAR - This book has such a cute concept. It works well in the ESL classroom because students will start calling out their animal guesses as soon as they get the gist of the story. 

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle is a picture book classic which children all around the world are familiar with. The familiarity of the story along with the simple language and colorful artwork make it an absolute must-have for the ESL teacher. It can be used to teach numbers, days of the week, colors, or (how I used it this year) to teach the names of fruit. 

After reading aloud THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR, I introduced fruit words using flashcards similar to these ones below which are a free printable through TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS - (though I like mine bigger). 
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Game 1: I filled a big cardboard boxed with a mix of plastic fruit (one of each we introduced) and small plastic balls. One by one, students took turns "fishing" for the fruit with their eyes closed, and placing them on the corresponding flashcard. I know this game sounds so simple, but my 3-6 year olds love it. It's a great sensory game, and really gets their young neurons firing. 

You can make this game harder or easier by either allowing them to look with their eyes AND hands, or blindfolding them. OR by giving students a particular fruit to search for. OR making them guess which fruit they have in their hands only by touch. 

Game 2: After each student had a turn with the box, we made an obstacle course. This allowed us to practice our fruit vocabulary by still building on the ACTION VERBS we introduced a few weeks back.

Students were lined up on one end of the room. The fruit was lined up at the other. I also laid a broom on the ground as our main obstacle. 

One by one, students took turns JUMPING over the broom, TIPTOEING toward the fruit, choosing the fruit which I called out, and RUNNING back to the line. 

My obstacle course was very simple, but you can add to it or change it to suit your needs. 

For our table activity, students completed a fruit coloring page. This one below available for a free download would be a good one to try if you only want to introduce the fruit in THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR. 

As the school year wraps up (and these little ones have been conquering more English than I ever thought they would due to our limited time) we've reached the fun topic of ACTION VERBS. For this mini-unit, I used CLAP YOUR HANDS by Lorinda Bryan Cauley. The book includes all sorts of fun actions for the kids to do, clapping hands, stomping feet, roaring like a lion, etc. And the adorable illustrations are filled with delicious details ideal for gazing. I highly recommend this book for teachers looking to get their kids up and moving. 

We followed this book by introducing the basic phrases, "I can" and "I can't." Then using flashcards for the following action words, we decided what "we can" and "can't" do. 

Swim
Fly
Hop
Run
Walk
Spin
Ride a Bike
Tiptoe

After this, we followed with a rousing game of TEACHER SAYS. This one can be a challenge to explain to young ESL learners, so I've found the best way to approach it is to model the activity right away. Once the children understand how it works, they LOVE this game. I usual don't play "elimination style" right away, and never at all with the littlest ones. 

We finished our activity with a modified version of RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT or the Italian version UN, DUE, TRE STELLA! Instead of just moving towards the "leader", students had to complete the actions I called out. 

I've been waiting all year to get to my opposite unit, just so I could read this book for the kids. QUIET LOUD by Leslie Patricelli is the perfect read-aloud for preschool aged ESL learners. The text is simple, but fun. The illustrations are clear, but fun. And reading it aloud is fast and FUN! Kids get the giggles on the very first page when I "scream" at the top of my lungs. Soon, they're joining in, which is always my favorite part of sharing a book with kids. 

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Did I mention how fun this book is?

After reading the book, I introduced the words "quiet", "loud", "fast" and "slow". To practice the words, we used shakey eggs (like egg-shaped maracas). We shook them "quiet", "loud", "fast" and "slow". 

This is the perfect lesson to sing the YouTube sensation, "Open, Shut Them". 

Next, we used my colorful tent and shook it gently for "quiet", very hard to make a "loud" noise, and we moved it "fast" and "slow".  After a bit of practice, students took turns calling out the words.

For the table activity, I used this free quiet and loud sorting activity from the Teachers Pay Teachers website. 

This book, written and illustrated by Tupera Tupera, was so much fun to read in class, that I simply HAD to share. 

Polar Bear has lost his underwear! Where could it be? There's only one thing to do: Remove the book's underwear-shaped bellyband to find the missing pair! Is that Polar Bear's underwear? No, it's Zebra's—see the colorful stripes?

The kids at school had a blast calling out animals to guess "Who's underwear is it?" It's a great way to introduce more animal names OR just to have some fun. Be ready for a loud and exuberant class, because this surely brings out the silly in them. 

4-Stars for this great read-aloud!