Welcome to ALTing: Kindergarten ALT
This particular article focuses on the littlest and cutest students an ALT can work with; kindergarten school students. Or pre-school or nursery school, depending on where you’re from or where you’re placed. In Japan, these schools are called yochien (ようちえん). That’s enough semantics. Time to learn what it is like to work with the youngest of young learners and what to expect from your co-workers.
What to expect from a Japanese kindergarten
At your kindergarten(s), you might be the only English speaking person there. That’s from my experience working at kindergartens in rural Hiroshima Prefecture. I know there are international yochiens in bigger cities. Even so, your experience may vary, but be prepared to practice Japanese. Like at any school, your teachers will be busy. In this case, they’ll be busy chasing after little kids.
You’ll do plenty of chasing after the little munchkins too. Depending on your situation, you may be spending half-a-day or all day at your kindergartens. The teachers may want you to play with the students in the morning before their classes and activities begin. If it is a full day, they may ask you to interact with the students after your English classes are done. Simple things like eating lunch and sitting with the kids during story time goes a long way. The teachers will appreciate this because it gets the students to interact with a foreigner and teach them that these weird, different looking people aren’t so scary after all.
On the topic of teachers, I’ve found it can be helpful to use Google Translate or DeepL to make a translation of a plan for them to read. This puts everyone on the same page. Include some instructions for activities and games so they can help explain things to the kids. Sometimes the teachers won’t be able to read the plan in the morning depending on what they’re doing. If you can’t meet with them before class, give them the plan at the start of class so they have notes to refer to. Let them read the plan while you introduce the words to the students and do a sit-down activity. This gives the teachers a chance to learn about the plan and when you’re ready to move onto the next one, you can point to the activity (number those things!) and the teacher can help.
General principles for the students
These kids are incredibly young which brings on new challenges for you as an instructor. What can you expect from a bunch of 3 to 5 year old students?
Their first language skills are still developing. That’s a bonus because you can do the whole lesson in English with demonstrations and gestures to help them learn words. However, you can’t teach them too many words all at once. At most, I would teach this age group 5 to 7 new words per lesson. Animals, colors, fruits and vegetables, shapes and other things the students are somewhat familiar with (think cars, trains, toys) are great words to build lessons around. You can also review words they’ve previously learned while introducing some new ones. At that point, teaching them around 4 to 6 new words and reviewing 5 or less older words can make for a really great lesson.
The youngest of learners like to move around. You can hold their attention on an activity or game for around 5 minutes at most, so it’s important to switch things up to keep them (relatively) focused and engaged. I’ve found that a sit down game like the missing game followed by a movement based game or two is a really good way to keep them learning and having fun with English. At my kindergartens, classes for the students were 30 minutes long, give or take 5 minutes for some flexibility. Your situation may vary, but classes shouldn’t be any longer than 45 minutes. I’ve been in that situation once, and thank goodness I was with another ALT to work with. (Please come back Isaac. Teaching the little ones just ain’t as much fun without you.)
As for learning outcomes at this stage, if the students say a word, they’re doing really great. However, don’t expect every kid to be able to speak even a single English word. Rather, you can focus on exposure and listening skills. If a student recognizes a word, that’s fantastic. You can teach “Yes” and “No” using gestures. A big circle with their arms is “Yes” and arms crossed into an X is “No.” You can do the Japanese and English for these terms to help familiarize the kids with what the gestures mean. Then, ask simple yes or no questions. Point to a flashcard and ask them, “Is this a _____ ?” For example, if you’re doing a lesson on animals, you can point to a picture of a dog and ask the students “Is this a zebra?” Point to the wrong picture two or three times, make some silly reactions when the kids say “No!” When they say “Yes,” give them a thumbs up or clap and let them know how good they’re doing. This activity is silly and simple, but it helps the students learn how to recognize different English words.
The following ideas work really well for the 4 and 5 year old students, so I’m lumping them together as one group. At this stage, they usually begin to say single English words when prompted. Their ability to recognize words is much better, too. This means you can do more listening based games, such as the high-touch game where students have to touch a flashcard or object using some target vocabulary. I did this game using clothes and colors. The teachers and I organized the kids into groups of 4, and I told them “Blue!” or “Pants!” and they’d rush off to find a pair of blue pants I set out on a table. The students can also understand some simple “Yes” or “No” questions with some first language (L1) support. You can ask simple questions such as “Do you like red?” or “Do you like melon?” Once again, let them answer using gestures. If they can say yes and no, fantastic. It’s good exposure and is a good chance for vocabulary review. You can also ask these questions to wrap class up as a cool-down to help the teachers manage the kids.
Activities
The high-touch game
This is a listening and movement based game that gets little legs moving. This is good for class sizes of around a dozen or so students. Trying this activity with a class of 16 or more students really pushes the kiddos’ patience, so save this one for smaller classes.
The rules of this game are pretty simple. Students, in pairs or small groups, have to hurry and touch a flashcard or some other object.
The procedure for this game is also pretty simple. Practice the words with the students once or twice to get the sounds in their ears. Next, demonstrate the game with a teacher so the students can learn the rules. Lastly, ask the teachers to get the students into pairs or groups. Then, say the word you want the students to high-touch. For extra fun, purchase some novelty ginormous fly swatters and let the students use those to high-touch the words. This game is better for the 4 and 5 year olds as they are better coordinated, but it can be done with 3 year olds as well.
The missing game
If you teach at elementary school, you probably know the missing game. For those uninitiated with the missing game, it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s a game where things (usually flashcards) go missing.
Set your flashcards up on a blackboard or whiteboard with some magnets. Practice the words with the students at least one time. Then, tell them to close their eyes. I usually tell my students “O yasumi!” (Good night!) and they cover their eyes or put their heads down. I pull down one or two flashcards — sometimes three — and hide them in my teaching bag. When I say “Ok! Good morning!” they can look and guess which words are missing. Students have to raise their hands and guess, but that doesn’t ever stop them from shouting the answer. We do the hand raising thing so they learn that rule for elementary school. If they answer correctly, I pull out the flashcard and put it back on the board. The round is finished when all of the cards are back on the board. Then, I rearrange the cards, let the students look, and we play another round.
This game is particularly good for all ages at kindergarten. It’s good for vocabulary building and recall. On another note, it’s OK if the students speak Japanese for the game. You can give them some simple feedback like this. “That’s right! Neko means cat. Good job!” This helps them get exposure to English and teaches them there is more than just one word for something. Anytime I play this game with the students, I usually get a mix of English and Japanese answers. I usually play 3 or 4 rounds with the students at a time because that’s about how long their attention lasts.
The “STOP!” game
Another game learned (stolen) from another ALT. This is a movement, listening, and speaking based game. The game involves you and the students walking in a circle and repeating the target word until you say “STOP!” When you say “STOP!” the students have to be quiet and hold still or you’ll eat them.
After reviewing the vocabulary, practice some gestures with the students. If you’re doing shapes, make shapes in the air with your fingers. If you’re learning about animals, make some silly animal gestures. Demonstrate with the teacher a couple of times so students get the idea. Emphasize they should walk instead of run; your teachers should help with this. Get involved. Walk around with the students while saying the target word four to a dozen times until you say “STOP!” When the students stop, walk around with a wicked, pointing finger and a sour look on your face. The more exaggerated everything is, the more they’ll giggle. If they hold very still, they’re safe. If they move, get ’em with a pointy finger! After checking to make sure everyone is still, tell them “Safe” (a big O gesture with your arms helps) and start with a new gesture and new target word.
This is a very good game to do after the morning greeting and learning new words, especially for those more restless classes. You can also use it towards the end of class before singing a good-bye song or reviewing the target language to get some extra restlessness worked out.
Songs, Dances, and Total Physical Response (TPR)
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a teaching and learning strategy used by language teachers. TPR is a movement and action oriented means of learning language. The aforementioned “STOP!” game is an example of TPR. Gestures and dances are other examples.
Any song can be danced to. Hello and goodbye songs can include waves and gestures. “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” is pretty easy. Dance and point to your head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes. The advantage for young learners is that TPR engages their physical senses and inclination towards play and movement. They learn to associate words with certain motions, making them easier to learn and to remember. If you use music in your classes, coordinate a simple little dance that the students can do. During my good-bye song, I point to my eyes for “See you,” wave at the students for “Good-bye,” and open my arms wide for “Thank you.”
You can also use TPR to teach simple feelings like “hungry,” “happy,” “sleepy,” and “sad.” Hold your stomach for hungry; shoot your arms up and smile real big for happy; sleepy can be closing your eyes and resting your head on your hands; and sad can be a finger or hand wiping away some tears. Ask “Are you…happy?” and try to elicit a “Yes” or “No” answer from the kiddos. You can always do a gesture and have them answer by raising their hand.
Hot Potato / Ball roll
This is a speaking game that may be more suitable for the 4 year-olds and 5 year-olds. For this game, I would limit the words to ones from the day’s lesson because they will be fresh in the students’ heads. Wrangle the students into a circle. Get the teachers to help. Roll a ball toward a teacher and show them a flashcard. The teacher needs to say the word and then roll it to a student. Then, show the same flashcard to the student. Encourage them to try English. If they speak Japanese, that’s ok. Just say the English word after them. Then the student needs to roll the ball to another student. You can show them the same flashcard or a different one and encourage English speaking.
The Kindergarten experience
Not every ALT will get to teach at a kindergarten. But those of us that do, liking children or learning how to like them (I was in the “learning to like them” camp) really helps. Going in with a smile, patience, and your best attitude always helps. You’re almost guaranteed to walk away with some happy and warm memories. One of my happiest memories will be having one little kid climbing my back during story time. Another happy memory is one of my 4 year-old boys helping me clean up the classroom after our class. Little guy didn’t do very much beyond wad up some masking tape into a big ball and play with it, but it’s the thought that counts.
It’s also important to remember that you’re (more than likely) this population’s first contact with a foreigner. I remember visiting one kindergarten school in my placement city. It was super small. I think we had only 10 students in class and there were at least 3 of us ALTs present. We did a quick little intro, played some games, and read a story. Before we left, our supervisor told us that we were the first foreigners those kids ever met. As we were getting into the city hall car, from the second floor of the old kindergarten, 10 little voices were saying bye bye. It’s hard not to smile even thinking about that.
Extra reading
Blincowe, Alfie. Gaijin Pot. “Teaching Japanese Kindergartens: 4 Reason It’s Not as Scary as You Think.” 2018, July 24. https://blog.gaijinpot.com/teaching-japanese-kindergartners-4-reasons-its-not-as-scary-as-you-think/
Maguire, Claire. Twinkl. “Fun Activities for English Class in Kindergarten.” 2021, Jan. 19. https://www.twinkl.jp/blog/fun-activities-for-english-class-in-kindergarten
