Have you packed your luggage already?
In addition, are you ready to live your dream life abroad as a TEFL teacher?
Well, before starting your teaching English journey abroad we suggest you carry some teaching resources of your own like manipulatives or even better you can learn to create manipulatives for your ESL classroom on your own. Creating your own hand-made manipulatives will helps you to connect better with all the students abroad while you will be teaching as a TEFL teacher abroad.
Approaches To Create DIY Manipulatives for Your ESL Classroom
Below we have crafted some cool and funny DIY manipulatives for your ESL classroom which you can create by yourself while having fun at the same time:
1. Hand Puppets Out of Socks:
Students who are in ESL classes generally nervous and shy in nature. So, to break the ice using socks puppets with hair while teaching will make the classroom environment entertaining and make the student more comfortable to engage in class.
You can create multiple socks puppets, give them their unique names, and use them in different situations. For ex- Blue color socks puppet comes in during vocabulary lessons, Orange socks puppet comes when there is a particular topic that is hard to understand, to make it simpler and fun.
But you might be thinking about how to make one?
The answer is simple, all you need to arrange is a bunch of socks, markers, shoe laces for hair, and white balls for the eyes lastly put everything in place then you’re set to go.
2. Use Popsicle Stick:
Which kid doesn’t love popsicles? However, what if we tell you kids after enjoying their popsicles can learn vocabulary from a popsicle stick? You can make your students learn different words by writing different words on every Popsicle stick.
You can even host activities like- Games of charades or Pictionary to make an entertaining environment for the class so that every student feels comfortable engaging in those activities and at the same time learning new words or vocabulary each day. Other than the games activity you can also them some sentences where they need to fill in the blanks, and give them 3-4 options Popsicle sticks to choose the correct words.
3. Magazines Cut-out:
As you go teaching abroad, you will access a lot of magazines and newspapers. This method is one of the best DIY Manipulatives for Your ESL Classroom, which you are not even aware of. You can give your students tasks such as- creating new sentences, quotes, greeting cards for their friends or family, and posters by cutting out random letters from newspapers or magazines.
All you need to do is give every student a magazine, newspaper, scissors, and art paper where they can put all the letters to form sentences or to create a poster. Give them the liberty to be as creative as possible.
4. Use of Lego Blocks:
Generally, kids love to play with Lego blocks and build some structure of their own using their creativity or imagination. Still, what if we tell you that with the use of Lego blocks you can teach your students to learn new words or form new sentences? You can give many tasks to your student’s like- building words, sentences, or the longest grammatical words, which they can think of they, can build with the help of Lego blocks.
5. Make Them Create A Colour Book:
At an early age, students love to be creative. They love to draw and love to fill them with random different colors of their choice. Therefore, as a teacher you can give the task of writing some words, characters, and sentences in such a way that they can fill them with different colors. In addition, you can also give them a task to draw their own random characters, objects, and pets and tell them to give their names and fill them with colors as well.
Final Thoughts
Being a TEFL teacher in a foreign land and dealing with non-native English-speaking students can be a little daunting. However, with the right approach and strategy, you can become an engaging and a good teacher. There are multiple DIY Techniques for Language Learners you can create for your students which will make students comfortable to be in the classroom and make them learn English in a fun and interactive way. Just follow our 5 easy-to-create DIY Manipulative for Your ESL Classroom which will enable you to create bonds with every student and will make you good at your job as well.
Lastly, if you’re an aspirant TEFL teacher then we highly recommend our TEFL courses in Hyderabad, will give you in-depth knowledge on how to handle students in classes and gives you the necessary edge in the competitive market of teaching in a foreign land.
Written By : Abhishek
