Getting Started: Finding "Filler" Activities to Use Until Program Starts

• Sequence Picture Cards may help build left-right orientation for young students or those with a much different writing system.
• Handwriting Practice. Make sure the child is forming the letters correctly, especially if her writing system is different from ours.
• Math. Many foreign students excel at this from the first.
• Language Master. If pictures of classmates are available, clip to language master cards and either record: This is Tim. or have the peer himself record: Hi! I'm Tim. The language master can also be used to teach number names, letter names, etc.
• Music. Sometimes students need a break from listening to unintelligible talk, which can be fatiguing. Listening to music can provide this.
• Coloring, dot-to-dot puzzles, mazes and other such games are easy and fun. Word search puzzles can be used to reinforce new vocabulary when the words themselves are given as clues.
• Drawing. The teacher or another child can provide words and sentences for what is drawn. This is helpful in getting to know the child's interests.
• Worksheets and workbooks provided by the E.S.L. teacher may be used to reinforce what is taught in English as a Second Language tutorial sessions.
• Tapes of books can be listened to several times over succeeding days. Use well-illustrated folk takes with much repetition within the story for best results.
• The non-English speaking child can cut pictures from catalogs or old books and possibly mount them on cards to be used in tutorial sessions or with the language master. Consult the E.S.L. teacher regarding what types of pictures are most useful and what vocabulary reinforces what the child is learning in E.S.L.