ABC as easy as one-two-three, what?! Who said one-two-three is easy?!
Hi my name's Jema Perry and welcome to Mooncake ESL teaching made easy. If
you're new here then you need to know that I make weekly ESL teaching tip
videos to help you improve your English teaching. So if you are teaching ESL
abroad make sure you subscribe below and hit that notification bell for weekly
ESL teaching tips. Also real quick if you are new here remember to say hi in the
comments below and let me know where in the world you are teaching. If you're
struggling to teach numbers to kids then you could be making some very simple
mistakes. This video is part one of two where I explain everything you need to know
about teaching numbers. In today's video I'm gonna explain the three parts to
teaching numbers and stay tuned to the end where I'll be explaining what you
can expect from different age groups. So let's get started. So there are two
really important things that we need to consider when planning our numbers class
and that's the what and the how. The what is what we should be teaching and
what we can realistically expect from our students. I mean you wouldn't expect
a three-year-old to count to a hundred right? The second is the how and
actually there are three steps to teaching numbers. So let's take a look at
the first step, sequence. What I mean by sequence is the order in which
numbers go. So we know that counting goes 1 2 3 and not 2 1 3 for us this might
seem obvious but for students learning to count for the first time, it's not and
they need to learn it. So how do we teach this? Well practice makes perfect and we
can practice counting all the time. Like a lot. Take a moment to stop and think
about all the different opportunities you have during class to practice
counting. Maybe you're laying out some flashcards and you can count as you go,
if you're teaching body parts you can count your fingers and your toes, if
you're teaching shapes you can count how many circles and how many squares there
are. Even just lining up and waiting to go outside you'll be surprised how much
fun students find counting. Step number two, number recognition. Now the students
can say the numbers, they need to be able to recognize them on paper. A great exercise
for this is to have students put number flashcards
in the correct order. I've given a great example of this in part two of this
number series. Just like learning any other word learning to recognize numbers
takes time and practice. So make sure that you put this into your class
regularly. Step number three, quantity. The final
part of the puzzle is quantity and matching numbers with it. What I mean by
this is that students need to understand the quantity that numbers represent. So
if we were talking about candies for example, then number one would represent
one candy. Number two would represent two candies, and so on. If students have
really grasped quantity then they should be able to correctly count the number of
candies in a jar and correctly count out a given number of candies when sharing.
So now that we know the three steps of teaching numbers we need to understand
what we should be teaching students so that we don't teach way above their
level. So let's take a look at some different age groups and what you can
expect, starting with those two to three year-olds. Oh the little darlings
These little darlings can count from one to ten and recognize numbers from one to five.
three to four year-olds. little munchkins these little munchkins can count all the
way to 20 and recognize numbers from one to ten. Two five-year-olds, the bigger
little ones. These little darlings can count all the way up to 50 and recognize
numbers between 1 and 20. But not only that at this age they can also start
counting backwards from 10 down to zero. 5 to 6 year olds, the big little ones.
These are darlings can count all the way up to 100 and can even start counting in
twos, fives, in tens and at this point that can also start adding and completing
some simple math. Oh it's like they're all grown up! Of course this is all just
a guide and you are going to encounter some students who have been exposed to
numbers much earlier and therefore have developed their mathematical reasoning
skills much faster. On the other hand you're going to encounter some students
who are learning much slower. That's all ok just make sure that you adjust the
level for the class that you're teaching. So there you have it everything you need to
know about planning your numbers class. Be sure to check out part 2 where I go
through some more practical ways of how to teach this in the classroom. If you
like this video let me know by commenting of the word helpful in the
comments below and by sharing with your fellow teachers. If you're looking for
some more fun ESL games and you can check out
some of my other videos right here. That's it for this video thanks so much
for watching. You can find me on Facebook Instagram and Twitter
or if you're interested in a Mooncake sweatshirt or mug you can find them
linked below, and of course remember to subscribe and hit that notification bell
for more weekly ESL teaching tips from Mooncake.