Sunday, May 14, 2017

Printable ABC Puzzles

There is no better way for kids to lean English than through a game. Gamification is the key to success in teaching English as foreign language to young learners. Because learning something new can be boring for children unless teachers introduce fun activities into the classroom. ABC is one of the first steps in learning English. Little kids may have hard time memorizing letters especially if it is about the foreign ABC that looks very different from their native alphabet. Therefore children in China, Japan, Korea, Arabic countries need special attention when it comes to teaching English alphabet to them. All kinds of games and activities can help them better memorize the look of letters before they start writing them. So I have designed printable English ABC puzzles to help ESL teachers make letter learning more fun and exciting for their young students.


I have already offered another version of alphabet puzzles to ESL teachers in my recent blog post. But usually there is never enough teaching materials when working with kids as they are always looking for new games and activities. Their never-ending need to play is hard to appease without the entire arsenal of printable handouts. Of course, teachers can purchase ready-made flashcards, worksheets and games from Amazon. However such products can be expensive to supply larger groups of students with. They may also be too flimsy for elementary-aged kids who can bend them and rip them up very quickly. That's why printable cards and worksheets can be a good alternative to expensive cards sold on Amazon and other shops. You can print such cards yourself, as many as you wish, on thick paper or even laminate them if needed. And if one of cards or worksheets is ruined, you can re-print it instead of having to buy the entire kit again.







This new set of ABC puzzles do not feature images but focuses around letters. Each letter card can be put together with nine jigsaw pieces. The printable jigsaw puzzles include uppercase and lowercase letters of the English alphabet. Such puzzles can help teachers get kids busy when a little break is needed for a teacher or when a teacher needs to work individually with some pupils while others are doing a fun activity. The set of printable cutout puzzles will help kids easily memorize and recognize English letters.

I hope both kids and teachers will enjoy working with my printable ABC puzzles. Below are a few samples of cutout puzzle cards from the kit you can buy for $4 in my ESL shop.

Printable ABC puzzle, uppercase letter A

Friday, May 5, 2017

ESL Game: Alphabet Puzzle

English teachers working with kids, especially with those who learn English as second language, have to face one of the biggest challenges a teacher has to deal with. The challenge is keeping young learners entertained while learning the language. Although little kids' brains are brilliant in memorizing things and absorbing a new language, it's extremely hard to make children learn something when they are bored. Their attention span is to short to focus on something boring. The traditional English teaching approaches used for adult learners do not work for preschoolers and elementary school student, let along toddlers whose moms want them to learn English as early as possible. Teach children like adults and you'll see them fidgeting and yawning throughout the entire lesson with almost no success in learning the language. So that's why ESL teachers have to resort to using fun activities, games, songs, colorful pictures and cartoons to grab kids' attention and create that atmosphere of fun and excitement where children's brains get ready to memorize letters, vocabulary and phonetics with and astonishing ease.


Unfortunately, all those games, flashcards, worksheets, songs and movies require a great deal of time, efforts and money for teachers to get or create them. I thought I'd create some teaching materials including printable worksheets and games to spare ESL teachers' time a little bit and let them take care of their personal needs besides getting occupied with their professional stuff.

English alphabet puzzle, ESL game for children
Printable English alphabet puzzle game