Introducing New Topics

Engaging young learners with a new topic in the course book is easy, right? Show them the flash cards from the unit, and voilà! While this has its benefits (notably, flash cards are light and easy to carry to an off-site school), there are lots of more exciting ways to introduce your new theme.

[Note: By ‘new theme/topic’, I mean the theme of the next unit/module in your course book or a scheme of work. However, you can also use some of these ideas to introduce a new lexical set.]

Ideas

Feely Bag

Put realia or toys in a bag. Have the children take turns to put their hand in and guess what they can feel.

Blindfolds

Make blindfolds (e.g. with old ties). Children take turns to wear a blindfold and guess items of realia related to the theme.

Hide and Seek

Hide realia (or images) related to the theme around the classroom (and corridor, if you can). Tell the children there are X number of things to find. They should look for them, and bring them back to where you have circle time.

Sounds

Play rainforest sounds to introduce a wild animal theme. Play household sounds to introduce a ´rooms of the house´ theme. Search YouTube to find an amazing array of sounds related for your theme.

Play the sounds as the children are entering the classroom, or ask them to close their eyes and say what they can hear.

A Song

Start the lesson with a song related to your theme.  Super Simple Songs and British Council Learn English Kids have lots of songs with accompanying videos. Just search for your topic.

A Video

Settle the children in a circle on the floor, dim the lights, and show a video related to your topic. There are many to choose from on  British Council Learn English Kids, but why not try using some videos created for native speaker children? And think about using non-fiction videos, too. Why not try something from National Geographic Kids ?

A Dressing-Up Box

This can work for many different themes. Animal masks and clothes related to different jobs are just two examples. Let the children dress up and have fun- you´ll find some children automatically start acting the part!

Realia

Bring in real food for your kitchen theme, or real clothes, or real sports equipment. Let the children touch the items, smell them, and play with them.

Toys

Bring in toys related to your topic. Animal toys seem to particularly work well. Include a stage in the lesson when the children can play with the toys.

A Puzzle

This could be a jigsaw or dominoes related to the topic. If you don´t have, say, animals dominoes, you could make them.

A Storybook

This is an extremely engaging way to introduce a new topic. It will also set the topic or language in a meaningful context. Simply find a storybook that is somehow related to your theme.

Personalisation

Show a picture of your family or your pet. Show a photo of yourself when you last went to a zoo. Bring in some of your favourite clothes. The children will be really interested in seeing something from your life, and they’ll be eager to tell you about their own pet/zoo visit, etc.

And if you want to use flash cards

Try using keyholes:

• Make differently-shaped small holes in some A4 pieces of card (enough for one per vocabulary flashcard).
• Put onE card over each flashcard. Show each flashcard (with keyhole card) to the children during circle time.
• The children have to guess what the vocabulary item is- but all they can see is what is visible through the keyhole!
• Move the keyhole card around to build suspense. This will encourage the children to look closely and use their imaginations.
• When they guess correctly, remove the keyhole card to reveal the entire image.

Considerations

The above ideas can build suspense, use creativity, are multi-sensory, allow for personalisation, add drama, link the theme to what the children already know, and are fun. All of these things lead to engagement, support understanding, and will aid memory.

What’s your favourite way to introduce a new topic?