Preschoolers at Fountain Gate Academy, Mwema School
Teaching and learning
process at a pre-primary level can be somehow challenging to most of us.
Children find themselves in a strange place full of new faces after a long
season of staying at home and making a lot of plays. Teachers on their hand
struggle on how to make these children cope with the learning environment for
the better academic outcomes.
Can you imagine how it
used to be when you are being introduced to something new that you never come
across it before? This is how it happens to most Tanzanian pre-primary pupils, they
go to their first day of preschool having a lot of expectations like making friends,
expecting to learn how to read and write that very day, etc.
When they fail to meet their
expectations, these little children find themselves in a hard time and they can
even hate schooling. In most cases you can hear a kid speaking to his or her parent
saying, "I hate school, and I'm not going back!”, although this feeling does
not last long, but it can affect the kid learning development.
In order to eliminate the
kid’s worries, a teacher can employ the following four ways in his or her teaching
to preschoolers.
1. Stop putting too much
Pressure on Children
One of the most
important things to remember when you teach children is not to put pressure on
them. Do not dare to use much force to make them master a lot of thing within a
limited time. You should understand they are still new to the learning process.
Allow them to learn through trial and error, as an American psychologist Edward
Lee Thorndike suggested. Remember learning takes place through a process of
approximation and correction. A child makes a number of trials some responses
do not give satisfaction to the individual, but he goes on making further trial
till he gets satisfactory response.
2. Keep everything as
simple and short as possible.
These students do not have long attention
spans and are easily distracted so you should try to be the most interesting
thing in the room at all times. Students may also have a hard time sitting
still during class so plan activities that let them move around. Simon Says is
excellent for preschoolers. You can also have them make groups with the same
number of people as the number you say aloud so if you say “Four” students have
to make groups of four. This is another very fun, fast moving, and active game.
With decks of vocabulary cards that have pictures instead of words, students
can play simple games in small groups. A very basic game is to spread the cards
face up and the first student to slap the correct card when you call out a word
gets to keep it; the student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.
3. Employ the use of Songs
and Gestures
Students at this age do
well with songs and gestures. You can have songs for each part of the day to
help them learn and remember certain vocabulary for instance, a morning song
might include getting up, brushing teeth, and eating breakfast. You can also
use songs in your lessons for speaking practice since it is less intimidating
to sing-a-long with the class than to speak individually. You should create
gestures for different words because this will make it easier for students to
remember new vocabulary. Choose gestures that you are comfortable with and that
are simple enough for you to do repeatedly throughout the course. Teaching
preschoolers requires a high energy level and you may feel silly at first but
these students can be a real pleasure to work with and they will certainly
appreciate your efforts.
4. Employ the use of Stories
While your students
will not be reading much in your class, they may enjoy hearing some stories
especially if the lesson is during a quieter part of their day. The best
stories for this age group, regardless of the activity you have in mind, are
repetitive. This ensures that students catch the main points. Stories such as
Goldilocks and the Three Bears and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
might be appropriate for your students at this level. If students have heard
the story more than once, you can ask them to tell you the story based on the
illustrations. Students often enjoy this type of activity in their native
language so you may as well include it in your lessons. Start with the most
basic story you can find to see if your class enjoys having story time.
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