Target Language: How are you? I'm (happy).
Vocabulary: happy, sad, hungry, mad (flashcards)
Target: Young Learners
Greetings and Warm-up
Greet the class with a good-morning or good-afternoon depending on the time of the day. Have the class stand up and respond to your greeting and do the warm-up. Ask the students, "Do you want to sing a song?" Usually, they'll nod and begin to twitch and sway their bodies. Some will respond with a yes. Songs I teach young learners include the "Eensy Weensy Spider", "Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes", "The Alphabet Song", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush", "Ring Around The Rosey", and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
After the warm-up, sit the students down. Introduce the new vocabulary using flashcards. Show the flashcard or place them on the blackboard. Point to the flashcard and say happy. Have the students repeat after you. Do this a few times for all the new vocabulary. I'll also act out the emotions using facial and body expressions. The children seem to enjoy it.
Model the dialogue with a puppet. I use a Panda puppet to help me do this. Place the flashcards on the blackboard. Take Panda out of a special bag. Say "Hello Panda" and then introduce him to the class. Ask Panda "How are you?" while pointing to the happy flashcard. Panda's answers: "I'm happy." Do this for all the flashcards and repeat the process a couple of times. Make a mistake or two along the way. Point to the mad flashcard. Have Panda say, "I'm hungry." then turn to the students, and have them tell Panda the correct answer.
Divide the class into 2 groups. One group asks the question "How are you?" And the other group answers, "I'm (adjective) depending on the flashcard shown. Run between the two groups. Better still, if you have a helper or if the homeroom teacher is present, ask them to help you. Alternate the dialogue between the two groups a few times until they get the hang of the dialogue.
Activity
Sit the students in a circle. Hold up a flashcard (happy) and point to it and say, "I'm happy." Then hold up a ball and say, "How are you?" Demo with several students. Give the ball to one student and the flashcard to another student. Have them stand up. Get them to practice the dialogue. Do this several times with several different students until the class gets a feel as to what they are suppose to do. If the students are very timid or shy, have two students stand up and do each part of the dialogue. So, two students say, "How are you?" And the other two students say, "I'm happy." Play the music and get the students to pass the ball and flashcard around the circle, both going in opposite directions. Stop the music. The two students holding the ball and the flashcard stand up and do the dialogue.
If I there's a Chinese or Japanese teacher or helper in the class, I'll play the "How are you?" game. Divide the class into two equal groups, teams A and B. If there's one team with an extra member, have one student play twice. Line up the two teams in two single straight lines. Demo the game with a few students. Team A students go to Team A teacher and Team B students go to Team B teacher and is asked the question "How are you?" while being shown a flashcard. The respective student responds. They then go to the end of the line and the next student advances. When ready, start the game by shouting out go and encourage the students to advance to the front. Show your student a flashcard and ask him/her "How are you?" S/he answers, "I'm happy." and then goes to the end of the line and the next student advances. The first team to get through the questions wins. As a reward, the winning team gets a round of applause.
To wrap up the class, have the students do a drawing activity. Hand out pieces of blank paper. Have the students watch you draw a happy face. Place the flashcards on the board and ask the students to pick one and draw it on their piece of paper.
Go around the classroom and ask the students, "How are you?" while pointing to their piece of paper.
If there's time remaining, teach them a new song or sing again the song you did in the warm-up.
I end the class with a good-bye and say, "That's all for today. See you next time."