Great Ideas to Teach Nursery Rhymes in the ESL Classroom

 

This Little Piggy is an excellent example of a nursery rhyme with a lot to offer for ESL teachers and their students. Continue reading for five interesting ideas to help you with this rhyme.

1.      Ordinal numbers

When learning a foreign language, people tend to get taught numbers early on in their language journey. However, number names are not much good without ordinal numbers, too. While retelling the story of the pigs, you can easily describe what happens to each by referring to them as the first piggy and so on. You could also encourage your pupils to sequence the parts of the nursery rhyme back into order, using first, second, third and so on to do so. We have headbands in our teaching pack, which would be perfect for helping to achieve this.

2.  Puppets

Retelling this simple nursery rhyme can be done brilliantly with the use of puppets. Depending on how much time you have, you could encourage the students to draw their own pictures of the pigs as well as the different locations and activities. Alternatively, use the images contained within our teaching pack. Simply print, get the students to colour them in, cut out and then stick onto a craft stick. Your students can then use them in pairs or small groups to retell the story. You may wish to encourage them to film their puppet shows as a way to assess their accent and work out what they need to do to make even further progress.

3.  Adjectives

Using descriptive words to add interest to sentences is an essential part of language learning. Colours are often the first adjectives that we teach our ESL learners with words linked to size and simple emotions next. In our teaching pack, we have worksheets where children can add their own adjectives around the outside. The inside features outline illustrations of one of the pigs, which allows children to colour in however they would like. As well as using a sheet like this where children can freely choose their own adjectives, you could focus their learning a bit more. For example, provide them with a selection of flashcards and ask them to sort them
into two piles – one which is accurate for the character in mind and the other which
is words that are irrelevant.

4.     Who, what, when, where, why?

Asking and responding to questions is a key skill when learning a new language. The five Ws is always a good place to start with children. Encourage students to create questions using any of the five Ws (you could also add a sixth with ‘which’), for example, where did the first
little piggy go? Although those in the early stages of learning English may respond simply with a word or phrase, you should expect your more advanced learners to answer questions using full sentences. While we feel that enhancing verbal skills is vital, you should also support them to extend their written English skills. In our teaching pack, you will find a question and answers sheet to help you do this.

5.   Recreate the story

Do you ever read a story and think that it sounds familiar? Often authors and poets take ideas from elsewhere, changing certain features and creating something new but still similar. Encouraging your
students to do this can be really fun. You could stick with the pigs as your
characters or choose a different animal. Next, change what each character does.

For example:

This cheeky monkey went to the shops

This cheeky monkey stayed in bed
This cheeky monkey ate bananas
This cheeky monkey just had bread
And this cheeky monkey went Ooh Ooh Ooh Ooh
All the way home

Grab the free pack here

grab your free copy here

Don't let a simple nursery rhyme keep you from using it in class. There are so many great teaching points from these traditional rhymes that your students will be practicing key reading and writing skills while having fun!