One of the first skills we work on with our students is counting, and one of the first phrases we teach is “How many?” We don’t drill or force the students, just constantly practice counting as part of our lessons. Learning the numbers is a fun and easy way for students to build confidence and enjoy English. There are many ways to incorporate this into your lessons through songs, worksheets, story time books and simply by counting everything around you.
Even older students benefit from the constant review. Challenge them with increasingly larger numbers, make sure they are correctly pronouncing their ‘teens’ (thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc.) and have them spell out the words instead of writing the numbers.
Five Creepy Spiders
In addition to counting, Five Creepy Spiders works on action verbs. Crawl, run, dance, fly, and haunt with Halloween characters. To round out a lesson, print a Five Creepy Spiders Halloween worksheet appropriate to the student’s age and ability level. There are several to choose from.
For beginning learners, counting the number of spiders, ghosts, skeletons, cats and witches is enough. Older students can work on numbers from 0 to 9. They can either circle the number (identification), write the number, or write out the word. There’s a worksheet for each of these that go with Five Creepy Spiders.
One For You, One For Me
There’s no end to counting activities that you can do. Here’s another idea to practice counting and manners using One For You, One For Me.
Activity – Let’s Share
Sit down with a child and an even number (10, 12, 20, etc.) of objects that you can share (candy, pom poms, marbles, etc). Say, “Let’s share, okay?” Start dividing the objects between the two of you while saying, “One for you, one for me. Two for you. Two for me. Three for you. Three for me.” When you have finished dividing the objects, count them together. Put all of the objects back in the middle and repeat. Let the child take the lead.
For the classroom, give pairs of students a bag with pom poms (or other small objects) and let them practice counting and sharing together.
As with any activities with young learners and small objects, please supervise closely!
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