• Remember that preschool students have small attention spans.  You’ll want to change up your activities every five to ten minutes or so because if they go longer than that, the children can become restless and you will spend more time trying to keep their attention than actually doing the activity.
• Teach a small amount of language in any given session.  For this age group, try to introduce three words at a time and then add to the list as you see they understand the meaning of the words you’ve already introduced.
• Engage your students on multiple levels.  This includes using fine and large motor movement, singing, talking, listening and looking.  For example, you could have a game where the students need to move around the room to stand next to a picture or object of the word they heard you say in engage them through listening, looking and moving.
• Preschool students can get very excitable.  Vary excitable games with quiet ones to balance out the energy level in the classroom.
• Competition in the preschool classroom causes undo stress on the students.  Avoid playing games or doing activities that have winners and losers.  Either have the class work together to “win” as a group or do not distinguish between winning and losing.  On the same note, be sure to be supportive and encouraging to all of the learners in your class.
• Preschoolers are very visual.  Bring in real objects whenever possible.  When it is not possible, find colorful and vivid pictures to use in place of the actual object.
• Preschool students usually are not yet reading and writing (at least not to a large extent) in their own language, so don’t expect them to do it in a second language.  At this age, you can expect them to listen and understand first.  After a while, they will begin speaking individual words and short phrases.
• Themes work well in the preschool classroom.  Focus your vocabulary learning on groups of similar types of words such as foods, colours, numbers, animals, families and body parts.  You can work in short phrases that are relevant to your theme.
• Because the activities are short and you don’t want to give preschool students too much “down time” between activities, make sure you have all of your supplies and activities ready to go before the children enter the classroom.  On the same note, plan more than you think you’ll use.  Sometimes an activity will not go over well and other times they will go faster than you had planned.
• If you have a particularly naughty or rough student in the class, keep him or her close to you.  Ask him or her to be your special helper and be sure to give a lot of praise when you see him or her behaving appropriately.
• Repeat, review and revise.  You need to periodically review the vocabulary that you have previously taught or the children will quickly forget it.
• Don’t use the same game over and over again, or let a game go on too long.  You’ll get bored and so will the students!  That said, don’t be afraid to have a few “star” games that are favorites of the students that you know will always be a hit.  The best ones are the ones that are easily adaptable to whatever topic or theme you’re currently covering.
• If you use a game and it doesn’t go over well, examine what went wrong, put it away for a while and then give it another try.
• Don’t expect preschool children to actually speak the words right away.  It will take a while.  Just keep going and keep playing the games so that they at least understand the words you’re teaching.  The speaking will come.

Remember above all to have fun with your preschoolers.  If you and the children are enjoying yourselves while engaged in English games and stories, then the chances are the children will be learning.