Young children are mesmerized by fingerplay. That’s why it’s found in nurseries and kindergartens all over the world. But which ones work best in the ESL classroom? Here are my favourites, guaranteed to engage the youngest learners!
1. Finger Family
There are a million variations on this song to be found on YouTube, which attest to the popularity of this song. Kids love to sing this song and wiggle the correct finger. It’s a great way to teach family vocabulary too.
Tip: with the youngest students I skip brother and sister because 3 new words are enough – and these fingers are more difficult to wiggle! Tip 2: With older students, once you have sung all the fingers, teach the word “family” and wiggle all your fingers.
2.Two Dicky Little Birds
This rhyme requires some props – the easiest way is to draw or print two birds on small pieces of paper, lick the paper and stick it to your middle fingers. The lady in the video has a more elaborate design – if you are feeling crafty you could do something similar. Either way, kids love the trick of the disappearing birds!
3. Itsy Bitsy Spider
There is no doubt that this finger action is challenging for the little ones, but they love to watch the teacher do it and try their best! To give the kids more benefit from the language, print out some flashcards here from the Super Simple website to introduce vocabulary such as “spider” and “rain” before you do the fingerplay.
4. Ten Little Fingers
We take any opportunity to count on our fingers in my youngest class. How old are you? 3! 1, 2, 3. How many students do we have today? 7!
How many fingers do you have? Let’s count! This song is a fun way of reinforcing counting. By the way, for the ESL kids, sing it a little slower than the lady in this video 😉