Oh, games. Lots and lots of games. Once the kids find ones they enjoy, keep those games for the end of the lesson as a carrot.
Simple ones work best, although anything too physical like Simon Says can get messy if your class isn't well-behaved.
Try stuff like:
> Fruit Basket
> Bingo
> Card-slap/snatch game in groups
Kids get little cards and the sit in groups and slap the one that you say out. First to slap it wins the card. Give them hands on heads ready positions as a clear rule. Great for revising or teaching numbers as everyone counts their cards together afterwards.
An alternate version is a big card-slap game. Use big flashcards on the board and they line up in little queues behind a line. Get little flyswatters for the team leaders to race to slap the flashcard you yell. Then they pass the swatter on and go to the line's end.
> Whispers/Telephone
Politically-incorrect whispers.
> The ticking bomb game
Put an egg timer in a box, pass it around using target vocab or expressions. When it goes off, that child is "unlucky" but doesn't really lose anything.
> Western gunslinger duel
Two teams, team leaders stand back to back and are each given ~secret~ flashcards to hold to their chests. On your mark they take three big steps, spin around. The first to yell out whats on the opponent's chest-flashcard shoots first and wins their team a point. And a sticker or something.
> Letter tracing
Sing the alphabet song and show flashcards. Now, line children up in teams. Trace a letter on the final child's back. They trace it on the next and so on. Front child eventually draws it on the board.
To ensure you're not remaking materials, or left high and dry if one child plays up, young grades are something I'd advocate heavy, wasteful use of a laminator if you have one. Thats right, I'm saying laminate bingo boards and give them counters. Im saying laminate slap/snatch cards (but trim the corners because they will impale thier hands!). Laminate the trees, laminate the whales, laminate your own face if you have to, y'know?
For the second graders, try asking for two student leaders (Is volunteer a loan word in Korean? I suspect it may be, so they may know that. For young learners, you _can_ sometimes use loanwords as a crutch to push instructions.) and reward them with stickers or something. When explaining a game, demonstrate with them. Literally just kinda relocate them around like chess pieces to explain if needbe.
For safety, in any high energy game, I'd consider getting the student volunteers to become Ministers for Silly Walks and come up with a "funny super special walk" for the day, that the students must mimic. The goal is something so utterly disjointed (think horrid Elaine dance from Seinfeld level) that its IMPOSSIBLE to funny-walk and run at the same time. Do this even for games like whispers.
For discipline, I've seen some elementary school teachers exaggerate their expressions to Jekyll and Hyde levels and it works hey. Smile a stupid amount, but as soon as something is not ok, show it clearly. Even if another teacher is assisting. Then switch back to stupidly happy the second its over with a big cheery "OK!"
My best luck with younger grades came from a well structured lesson plan each time.
In this case, the kids first sung a few warmup songs including a standard "Hello Song" every lesson, one related to their current target language, and a revision one. A very good idea from one of my former co-teachers was to ensure one song at the start was really energetic. Like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, or any song with the kids making actions up. This burnt them out so much they were ready to collapse and listen. Once you teach a song, be sure to get the kids to sing it again next lesson, and the one after, and the one after that etc. Drum it into them because they'll get satisfaction out of being able to show off their knowledge.
Moved on then to flashcards and the like (d/l from mes-english, can't recommend them enough!). Make the cards fun, hide cards and slowly reveal them, put surprise ones in the deck that they know (like Korean foods), vary your voice and get them to mimic.
Finally, a game or activity.
Lesson split in thirds. The kids came to expect it that way, let's you control energy levels.
Storybooks work very well if you can get them settled, thats 1/3 of a lesson there.
Finally, ensure they have name-tags. Younger grades respond extremely well to learning their names. If you have too many to remember, the tags work wonders. Plus, without tags, how will you ever learn? "English names" (shudder, pet peeve of mine!), romanised Korean names or Westernised abbreviated Korean names, all are good.
To translate things, use images as a medium, or use the phrase "Whats that, in Korean?" and pick a student. You may find some know and can be your translator for tricky stuff.
Sorry about the long messy list type post, but I hope theres something in that mess that helps someone! Personally, I miss teaching the 1sts and 2nds, my spot this year is 3rd and up. I almost find the younger ones
easier to work with, simply because you can see what they learn and build on it easily. Planning can be methodical. Progress may not be fast, and the lessons can be rather trying, but its very obvious when they do improve, and that sort of feedback makes for a rewarding job!
