Simple English Classroom Phrases for Young Learners - Part 2

Hello and welcome to the second episode of our Simple English Classroom Phrases for Young Learners series! 👋

In our first post, we explored greetings and simple requests that children can start using from their very first English lessons.

Today, we're going to focus on everyday classroom routines: those simple phrases that we use every day to start the lesson, guide activities and end the class.

One of the best ways to help children learn English is to make it part of your daily classroom routine. When pupils hear the same expressions again and again in meaningful situations, they begin to understand them naturally and before long, they will simply respond in English. That's when English becomes a language they use, not just a subject they study. 

As they say: practice makes perfect!

REMEMBER! At the beginning, always support your language with flashcards, real objects (realia), gestures and facial expressions. Visual support makes the meaning clear and helps children connect English to real-life situations without relying on translation.

You can also display classroom posters around the room as visual reminders. Even if your Year 1 pupils are not confident readers yet, don't be afraid to include the written words alongside the pictures. Seeing the words every day while hearing and using them helps children become familiar with print and starts building word recognition naturally.

Now, let's look at some simple classroom phrases you can use throughout the day with your Year 1 and Year 2 pupils.

🌞 Beginning of the Lesson

Starting each lesson with the same routine helps children feel confident and ready to learn. Try using these expressions every day:

• Good morning!
• Sit down, please.
• Are you ready?
• Let's start!
• What's the date today?
• What's the weather like today?
• How are you today?

Listen to them here

💡 Teaching Tip: Don't worry if your pupils don't understand every word at first. Use gestures, point to the calendar or the weather chart, and repeat the same expressions every lesson. Repetition builds confidence!

🎨 During the Lesson

Keep English flowing naturally while children work, play and interact. Useful classroom phrases include:

•  Are you ready?
• Let's play!
• Let's sing!
• Let's listen!
• Let's practise!
• Your turn!
• My turn!
• One more time!
• Are you finished?
• Is everyone ready?

Listen to them here

These expressions soon become familiar, especially when they are always used in the same context. For example, instead of saying "Now it's your turn" in your first language, simply say: "Your turn!" Children quickly understand because the meaning is supported by the activity.

🌈 End of the Lesson

Ending every lesson with a familiar routine gives children a sense of achievement and closure. Try these phrases:

• Let's tidy up!
• Time to go!
• Good job!
• Well done!
• See you next time!
• Goodbye, everyone!

Listen to them here

Don't forget to celebrate your pupils' efforts. A simple "Well done!" or "Good job!" can make a big difference and encourages children to keep trying to use English.

🎵 Turn Your Routines into Games and Songs!

As you know, young learners learn best when English is active, meaningful and fun. Instead of simply repeating classroom phrases, turn them into games and songs that children will look forward to every lesson.

🎶 Use songs to reinforce routines

Songs are a fantastic way to introduce classroom language while exposing children to natural pronunciation, rhythm and intonation.

For example:

• 🧹 Tidy Up Song – Play this song whenever it's time to clean up. Soon, children will associate the music with the routine and begin joining in automatically while revising classroom vocabulary.
• 🧼 Wash Your Hands Song – A perfect choice before snack time or lunch. It reinforces daily routines while introducing useful action verbs and encouraging good hygiene habits.
• 🙋 Songs about asking for permission are another fun way to practise expressions such as:
  • Can I go to the toilet, please?
  • Can I have a pencil, please?
  • Can you help me, please?

By hearing these expressions in songs, children become familiar with authentic pronunciation and are much more likely to use them spontaneously. Children love music...but don't forget to sing along!

🎲 Play Simon Says

Once children know the classroom actions, it's time to get them moving! Use flashcards showing the target actions and play a game of Simon Says. Some useful action cards include:

• 
  Play
• Listen
• Sing
• Read
• Write
• Cut
• Colour
• Glue
• Draw
• Stand up
• Sit down
• Hand out the worksheets
• Open your book
• Close your book

Hold up a flashcard and say: "Simon says... write!" Children perform the action only if they hear "Simon says" first. It's a simple game that develops listening skills, reinforces classroom vocabulary and gets everyone involved.

Here you can find the rules of this game  and another way to use it, if you are teaching phonics.

💛 Little by Little...

Remember, you don't need to introduce every phrase at once.

Choose a few expressions, use them consistently and let them become part of your classroom language.

Little routines create big language learning! ✨

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🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

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📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.

Simon Says + Blending

'Simon says' is an action game teachers can use to review vocabulary and action verbs; it can be played anywhere and it only requires at least 3 people. The teacher is usually designated Simon, but you can always pick one of the children if you'd like to work on their speaking skill; the other children are the players. 

Standing in front of the players, Simon tells them what they must do. However there's a trick: the players must follow the instructions only if they begin with the words "Simon says". For example, if "Simon says hop" then the players must jump, but if Simon simply says "hop", skipping the words"Simon says", then players must not hop. Those who do hop are out.

I've thought we can make the most of this game with young learners who are learning English using Synthetic Phonics and are already acquainted with 'blending'. Actually the adaptation is absolutely easy peasy: we only have to substitude "Simon says hop" with "Simon says h-o-p". 

Some examples: Simon says... J-u-m-p
H-o-p
S-k-i-p
R-u-n
T-u-r-n around
S-t-o-p
S-i-t
S-t-a-n-d
S-t-a-m-p your f-ee-t
C-l-a-p your h-a-n-d-s
Touch your l-e-g/a-r-m/f-ee-t/...
P-l-ay  the piano/the guitar/football/tennis/...
P-oi-n-t to the door/the window/... 
S-i-ng a s-o-ng
P-i-ck a flower/ an apple /...
Ea-t a lolly/spaghetti/...
Drive a c-ar/ a b-u-s / a j-e-t/ a b-oa-t/...
R-oa-r like a lion
Qu-a-ck like a d-u-ck
etc. 

The only advice I'd give you is to choose your words taking into account the phonemes and the vocabulary we've already worked with our students, either using flashcards or chants, and as always... have fun! 

--> Quiero leer este post en español

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.

Rhyme Robber: the game that helps children improve their listening skills

Today I'm going to tell you about one of my favorite board games: Rhyme Robber.It's produced by Orchard Toys, the British company I mentioned in a previous post,  and it's a perfect filler for these last hot days of school.

The most remarkable ESL purpose of this game is to develop listening skills at a very young age through sound recognition and rhyming skills, which, as I already wrote here, are crucial in order to build effective communication skills as adults.

In the game box you'll find 4 rhyme robber boards showing a child with a robber's swag bag (1 for each player), 48 rhyme cards and a rhyme guide board, where all the pictures and their respective words are grouped by rhyming sounds and colors.

Each player is given two cards, which they hold in their hands without showing to anybody else, then 4 more cards are placed face up in the centre of the table, while the rest of the cards are left face down in a pile next to these.

The youngest player starts and if they are holding a card that rhymes with one of the four cards in the centre of the table, then they can take the matching card while saying, for example, 'rake rhymes with lake', and put both cards face up on top of their robber board in their character's swag bag. If the next player has in their hand a card that matches a card on another player's board, they can choose to take that one, instead of one from the centre of the table. In any case once a player puts down a card, they have to take another one from the pile so that they are always holding two cards. The game ends  when all 48 cards have been stolen or no more cards can be stolen.
 
The game is especially effective with preschoolers and first graders straight out of the box: you'll only have to be there to read the names under the pictures out loud to help children recognize the rhyming sounds. Very small kids won't love the fact that other players can steal their cards so I'd suggest not insisting that they follow that rule, especially since we should focus on the development of listening skills more than anything else.
 
Once I noticed that older kids have stronger rhyming skills I suggested an extension of the game: through reading rhyming books I encouraged my students to look for new rhyming word families which they would then copy onto paper, cut out in circles, and added to the basic game in order to make it last longer.

My students' favorite books are ones written by Dr Seuss, the author of Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who! and many more, as well as others by Julia Donaldson such as The Gruffalo, What the Ladybird Heard, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale,  A Squash and a Squeeze among others.

Click on the links to Orchard Toys, Seussville and Julia Donaldson websites to entertain your childish soul as much as it needs :)

--> Quiero leer esta entrada en castellano

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.

 

LESSON PLAN: Exploring Feelings With Cat and Mouse

Teaching the different kinds of feelings is important because it helps children recognize and express their emotions.  

But, how can we arrange an interesting and fun English class for preschoolers about this topic?

Pictures and drama will surely be useful tools to help kids learn about and explore their feelings.

So let's start with a picture book.

One of the books in the Cat and Mouse collection is exactly what we'll need: 

boredom, happiness, excitement, tiredness, thirst, hunger, sickness, fun, surprise, fear, anger, etc. are presented by the two protagonists who decided to go to the circus that has just showed up in town.

As in all the other books of this collection there's an audio CD and a dictionary at the end of the story to learn the right pronunciation and spelling of the new vocabulary.

After reading the book you can arrange a drama game, calling a child to the front of the class to pull a face to express a feeling that the others will have to guess. 

It might be necessary to hand out flashcards for clearer instructions. Here you can find some. 

In addition, once your students have learnt how to pull a face you can teach them this song about feelings.

Mr Printables.com

Finally, I found this handicraft somewhere on Pinterest and I think it would be interesting to reproduce it and let your students play with it. You'll just need some cardboard and patterned paper.

Have fun!

More about Cat and Mouse:

Meet the Animals 

Learn the Colours

Let's go shopping

Eat Good Food

---> lee el post en castellano

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks! 🇬🇧✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

Available in digital and print formats on Amazon in every country, and on the major e-book platforms.