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Teachers of young learners will be familiar with the importance of developing children’s fine motor skills. Building muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, and control are essential parts of students’ development during their early years.Ìý

A holistic approach to education

For young learners, their education is frequently holistic. A single game or activity might develop their speaking and listening skills, mathematical knowledge, social interaction, artistic development as well as motor skills. In the same way, improving fine motor skills can form a natural part of students’ English classes and can have the following benefits:Ìý

• Builds concentration and self-esteem
• Actively engages students in their learning
• Develops the ability to switch between physical and mental activities
• Improves social development and autonomy

Below are some simple ways you can develop fine motor skills in your classroom.ÌýÌý

Building muscle strength

Holding a pen for prolonged periods requires strong hand, wrist and arm muscles. If you’ve ever had to sit long hand-written exams, you will be familiar with tired and aching hand muscles.

It is important that students develop their muscle strength so they have the stamina and control needed for writing. Kneading and rolling play dough is a fun way to build these muscles. Then, children can use their playdough creations to role-play scenarios such as having a picnic or visiting a farm. They could even model it into letter shapes.

When singing songs or telling stories to young learners, teachers often incorporate actions to reinforce meaning. This is another opportunity to build those muscles. Children could also create shadow puppets with their hands to act out stories.ÌýÌý

Craft activities that involve scissors and gluing also help improve stamina and hand-eye coordination.Ìý

Mark making

Mark making is an important step in a child’s development, encouraging creativity and coordination.Ìý

Try giving your students the opportunity to explore different mediums of mark making. For example, they could draw marks in trays of sand, jello, shaving foam, flour or rice. Talk to them about their sensory experience (Is it cold? Do you like it? What color is it?). They could start making marks with their whole hands and then, as their coordination improves, use an index finger. Then, they can start using a stick to make marks.ÌýÌý

As their fine motor skills develop, try using magic markers, chunky crayons and egg chalks to make large marks. Egg-shaped chalks are easier for young children to grip. Each straight line, wavy line and circle is another step on the road to learning how to write.Ìý

Pincer grip

As children move on from general mark making, it is important to establish a correct grip when using a writing tool. This is especially important if you expect your students to go on to use a cursive style of handwriting in the future.Ìý

The pincer grip is when we hold something with our index finger and thumb. Peeling off and placing stickers, sorting building blocks and threading beads use this grip and provide opportunities for practicing colors, numbers, vocabulary and prepositions of place. Doing up buttons or zips uses this grasp too.Ìý

While it may be second nature for adults, for children, this grip requires precise control of the small muscles in their hands, wrists and fingers. Challenge students to pick up items with large blunt tweezers or chopsticks and work on their English at the same time (What have you got? I have a car. It’s small.).Ìý

Tripod grip

The next stage of development for most children is the tripod grip. It uses three fingers: the thumb, index and middle fingers. It enables children to keep their wrist steady so they can make small, precise pencil movements.Ìý

Some children find using a rubber pencil grip, or simply wrapping an elastic band or lump of playdough around the base of the pencil helps them maintain this grip.Ìý

At this stage, students will be learning to hold and use writing tools such as pencils, crayons, markers, chalks and paintbrushes.Ìý

Prewriting activities

Prewriting activities offer more controlled fine motor skills practice. The usual progression is to start with straight lines, zig-zags, curved lines and diagonal lines. Then move on to tracing over circles and u-shapes. This is all essential preparation for writing letters and words.Ìý

English courses for young learners are full of mazes, dot-to-dot, tracing and matching activities, all of which combine prewriting with learning English.Ìý

When it comes to writing letters, it can be helpful if students begin by drawing the letter shape in the air or in sand. They then trace the letter shape with an index finger, before finally tracing over the letter with a pencil.

Other writing systems

When teaching students who use a different writing system in L1, establishing fine motor skills routines can make all the difference to students’ writing.Ìý

It can be helpful to work on left-to-right orientation. For example, before they sit down to write, give students scarves to move from left to right in the air. These students will benefit from pre-writing activities that work on left-to-right, top-to-bottom patterns.Ìý

Social development

Doing up buttons, zips, and laces, turning on taps, cutting up food and opening boxes – all of these things improve students’ fine motor skills. They also promote autonomy and social development by helping students learn essential everyday life skillsÌý

This has an added advantage for the teacher. The less time you have to spend helping students with these tasks, the more time you will have to work on other areas of their development. Not only that, it is also motivating for students to have that ‘I can do it all by myself!’ feeling.Ìý

Students will be far better prepared to pick up a pen or pencil if they have developed strength, dexterity and stamina in their hands, wrists and arms. This will leave them free to concentrate on the language element of their classroom task, rather than the physical challenge it presents.Ìý

AboutÌýEnglish Code

Support your young learners withÌýEnglish Code,Ìýa 7-level course for 7-12-year-olds, offering 5 hours or more of English study per week. Available in both American English and British English versions, it promotes hands-on creative learning, investigation, fun projects and experiments.Ìý

Focusing on project work and STEAM learning, children develop fine motor skills while learning how to collaborate and solve problems with their peers. Core functional language is at the forefront, giving students the vocabulary and tools they need to become confident speakers of English inside and outside the classroom.

Engaging in creative writing is one effective way to improve your English language skills. It allows for artistic expression and personal flair, making it a unique way to put your imagination into words. Additionally, creative writing can draw from the author’s life and experiences, providing a personal touch to the narrative. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, creative writing can help you enhance your vocabulary, grammar and overall language proficiency.

Creative writing exercises can also benefit other forms of writing, such as business writing and technical writing, even though these are not typically considered creative writing. In this post, we’ll explore various creative writing exercises that are designed to make learning English fun and engaging, as well as improve writing skills.

For very young learners, children aged 3-6, being in a classroom might be a completely new experience. Most of them won’t know any English words at all and might have very little idea of what English is or why they are learning it. Some of them may not yet be completely fluent in their mother tongue.Ìý

At the beginning of the school year, some of them may find it distressing to be separated from their parents and they also have to learn to get along with their new classmates.Ìý

If we want to keep them comfortable and safe and provide a friendly and welcoming environment, we need to establish routines.Ìý

7 ways you can build routines into your classes

Here are some areas where you can easily incorporate classroom management routines into your English language class.

1. Think about your target language

Our target language for each lesson may be one or two short phrases or a few new words. We should always keep the presentation and practice of this simple and clear.Ìý

However, we can use English for all our greetings, praise, instructions and explanations. After a few days, the children will begin to expect it and they will gradually understand what you are saying.Ìý

2. Coming into the class

Take time to greet each child by name when they enter the classroom and encourage them to learn and use each other’s names too. This will change how they perceive themselves and each other and encourage friendly communication.Ìý

Notice the small things about each child. They might have a new T-shirt on or have done their hair specially. They may not tell you that they have made an effort to look nice for their lesson, but they will be pleased when you notice and will feel encouraged to continue.Ìý

3. Circle time

Make circle time the start of every lesson. It gets the children sitting down together and this helps them to get to know each other and feel part of a comfortable group.Ìý

It’s the time where you present the target language for the day. Use a puppet to help you do this. Make the puppet part of the routine by keeping it in a certain place and bringing it out from there every day. The children can call its name.Ìý

The puppet can greet the children by name and the children can answer back. First, use picture cards or objects to present the language to the puppet. Then, the puppet can show that it understands or ask for repetition.Ìý

Let the children call out responses as a group. As they build their confidence in English they will want to speak by themselves.Ìý

Always accept approximations of words and phrases. Rather than correcting the children, continue to model the words and gradually the students will self-correct. Pass this tip on to parents too.Ìý

4. Book time

Give students time to discover pages and images they like in the books they are using. Always leave time to help each child find the correct page and then help them to focus their attention on that page.Ìý

In Circle time you have introduced the language and presented it with flashcards or objects. In Book time, children can look at these images – the content will be familiar and they will start to feel ownership of what they are learning.Ìý

5. Songs, games and miming

Singing, playing games and miming are the main ways in which the students will start to freely use and show they understand the target language.Ìý

In My Disney Stars and Friends each stage of every game is detailed, along with the language you and the students can use. Students might become so involved in the action of the game that they forget to speak in English! That’s okay – continue using the language and eventually they will start to use it too.Ìý

When a game or a song involves physical activity, have drinks of water ready and let them rest and relax afterwards. Always have a ‘sitting down’ activity ready for them to move on to so that they do not become overexcited or tired.

6. Craft and stickers

For any craft work there are four stages: preparation, production, playing with the completed craft work and tidying up. If you're using My Disney Stars and Friends, there is a special Tidy Up song and all the craft projects are press-outs so there is no need for scissors.Ìý

Children of 3 or 4 years old will need to learn how to unpeel and then re-stick a sticker. Allow time for this and encourage them to learn from each other once some of them have mastered this fine motor skill.Ìý

7. Leaving the class

Time your lessons so that the students don’t have to leave in a rush. It takes them a while to collect up their things and find their bags and coats.Ìý

If you want the parents to know something, make sure that the children know where they have put the note. One notebook for such messages is a simple way of doing this, and you can tell parents to check it after every lesson.Ìý

Just as you greeted each child by name when they came in, say goodbye to them individually as they leave.Ìý

Incorporating effective classroom management routines makes young learners feel more comfortable as they know what to expect from their language classes. Familiarity is welcome for children, so exploit these times for more language learning opportunities.Ìý

Find more ideas on effective classroom management routines in Jeanne Perrett’s webinar, where she focuses on practical ideas and teaching tips for how we can organise and manage a class of young learners.