I'm in a similar boat. I've been teaching since October, but with the new school year I'm with absolute beginners for the first time ever. What I have learned with working with little ones up to this point, though, is that (1) repetition is key, and (2) they get bored very quickly.The first thing you should do is establish quick class management tricks that don't require them to understand what you're saying, and practice them with the kids. That way you can keep control over the class even with a language barrier. I do a "clap" that they have to repeat, and "bunny ears" (like hands on your head, but the kids think it's funnier). Try a variation of things, and see where you get the best response. Things that work the best for younger kids (in my experience) are always things that require the kids to do something back, like repeat what you've said or copy an action.I try to avoid raising my voice, because my school really wants the kids to feel that English class is fun, and don't want me doing the disciplining (I think that's probably pretty consistent across public schools). That being said, you're still the teacher. Don't be afraid to get loud, or stop a game halfway through. When the kids get too hyped up, it works to stop the activity, let everyone calm down, and then resume the game after a firm talking to. Even when they don't know what you're saying, they normally know what they did wrong. I try not to single kids out too much at this age, because they take it very hard, but I will occasionally sit a kid out of a game for a couple of minutes if they're not following my rules. At the end of the class, I let kids get in line to go one table at a time, with the quietest tables going first. That gets them to calm down before you send them back to their homeroom.It also helps to teach some basic English phrases that you'll use a lot, but introduce them gradually as you use them, or they'll get overwhelmed. (Alternatively, learn the Korean phrase yourself). For instance, teach them "what sound does it make?", "what letter is it?", "what does it say?" and "page ___". Also teach them "open/close your book", "do you understand?" and "are you ready?".You also want to get them familiar with your class rules. Particularly "Don't Run" and "Don't Yell". It helps to have pictures of this up in the classroom, that you can use to remind them of the rules before a game.For instructions, go slow, repeat (a lot), and use PPT or pictures. Most important, act everything out. I also find it helps to model everything. Choose the strongest kid in the class (who doesn't get embarassed), pull them to the front, and act out the activity with them.There are tons of great phonics songs on youtube (the kids love songs at this age), and I like to sing the alphabet with them regularly. Make sure they understand the difference between the name of the letter and the sound. A lot of Korean letters are named for the way they sound, so this needs extra emphasis.As a general rule, at this age I avoid any activity that goes on for too long, or that requires them to wait a long time for their turn. I haven't tried a bomb game with my kiddies, but I think it would be a disaster.Some ideas for phonics teaching:- Four corners. Hang up four-six letters around the classroom, and have the kids listen to you. Make a letter sound, and have the kids run to the letter they think it is. Use letters the kids mix up a lot, like "a" and "e". (Only do this if you've got decent management of the class, or it turns into chaos). This game is good at the very beginning when they're still learning, but isn't great for checking their knowledge, since mob mentality takes over and you don't know who understands, and who is just following the crowd.- X-O. Write a letter on the board and make the sound/ say the letter. If the kids think the sound is right, they make an o with their arms. If they think it's wrong, they make an x. It's a great warm-up or cool down activity, and it gives you an idea of who's struggling. You can also do this with upper and lower case letters.- Give the kids whiteboards and put them in pairs or small groups. You make a sound and they have to write down the letter. (It's ideal if you can get whiteboards with writing lines). This is an especially great activity as they get a little further along, because you can actually have the kids spelling simple words. You can work your way up to two and three letter sounds quite easily. Also an excellent way to see immediately which kids have difficulties.- Pick the letter. Essentially a more guided version of the whiteboard game, where the kids have a limited set of letters to work with. You say the sound/ letter, and the kids raise the letter in the air.- Slap/ grab the letter. Pair the kids off. Print off letters and give a set to each pair of kids (if you're at the beginning, just give them a set of 6 or 8 letters) and make the sound. The kids have to slap the letter first. For this game, I always print off some extra letters in case you have really weak kids. Pay close attention to how the games are going, because at this age, losing is very upsetting to them. If one kid is dominating the game, I give that pair an extra set of letters, so that they can both grab one card. Otherwise you inevitably end up with crying kids.- Letter bingo. Have the kids write down letters on their bingo sheets themselves. You can read the letters/ sounds yourself, or do pass the ball style bingo, where the kids take turns saying the letters or making the sounds. Bring little prizes for the winners.- Make a group. Give the kids each their own letter and tell them they're not allowed to show the letter or say anything in Korean. They can only make the sound of the letter. They have to find everyone in the class with the same letter as them only by mkaing and listening to the sound. Again, requires the ability to manage the class well.- Find your partner. Good way to pair kids off for the next activity. Give kids each a letter, some uppercase, some lower case. Tell them they need to find someone with the same letter as them, but in the other case. Then they sit down with their partner.- Word searches. Give the kids word searches where the word is in lower case, but the word search itself is in upper case. This will be a lot harder than you would think, so make it simple, and make it a group activity as much as possible.- Hangman. (Or if that seems a little morbid for first graders, I do a version with a flower where the flower keeps losing it's petals.) Its a good class starter, and you can stop after each letter they guess and ask "what sound does this letter make?". Then you can sound out the word with them.- Connect the dots (with letters). I haven't tried this one yet as a teacher, but I did one myself when I was learning hangeul, and thought it was a good idea. You can use it for teaching alphabetical order, or mix up the letters and use it for sounds. You can find these on the web pretty easily.- Fill in the blanks. This is good for helping the kids put sounds in context. So you can show them m_d and say "mad", and they need to figure out the missing letter. I like to make a worksheet, but let them do it in pairs. If you make worksheets, put fun characters on them (like pikachu or minions), and make it very short. More than 7 minutes, and you will see the agony on their little faces.- Seven-Up. You might have played this as a kid. Seven kids are "Up", and the rest of the kids put their heads down. The players who are "up" each tap one kid on the shoulder, and the kids who've been tapped have to guess who tapped them. The difference, though, is that you give each kid who's "up" a letter, and the kids guess by saying their letter. Again, every time you can involve the whole class with "what sound does it make." To make sure every kid is getting a turn, you may need to "suggest" who the kids pick occasionally, or institute a rule like always picking someone of the opposite gender. I like this game after the kids have had a tougher lesson, as it's fun for them, but don't do it too often, as it's not the most learning intensive game.- Broken Telephone. You whisper a sound, and the kids need to whisper it down the line. The first team to write the letter on the board wins. I save this lesson for when I have a better idea of abilities, because ideally the teams should be evenly matched. Don't do this lesson if you have kids with any hearing difficulties or mobility issues which will slow down the team. The last thing you want is kids getting mad at their friend because of his or her disability.- PPT unscramble games like "Silly Bulls" (there's a template in the PPT games thread). When you're up to three letters, and you can say words like "mad" and have the kids put the letters in the right order. Telepathy is another good one you can use with letters (the pokemon template is a hit my grade 3 boys) - but instead of making it random, make the sound and then have the kids write it down. As a rule, I try to swap back and forth between templates that will interest different groups of kids (like Pokemon one time, and Frozen the next).Hopefully some of those ideas were inspiring. Good luck!
