Kindergarten Teaching Tips: Paid Lesson Planning Resources

If you have any experience teaching in a typical kindergarten hagwon, you're bound to run into a few hiccups along the way. These problems can range from minor issues, like having to come up with an activity on the fly, to more significant challenges, such as having to create your own curriculum without assistance. In this series of articles, I hope to share lesson plans, themes, and other useful tools that can help you navigate these challenges.

It’s fairly common for kindergarten academies to advertise that they have their own “curriculum,” giving the impression that teaching there will be as simple as “following their program.” Some of the more audacious academies may even claim that you’ll have minimal prep work, using this as a justification for not providing you with adequate paid time to prepare for your classes. You might go about your days lulled into thinking that since the hagwon has been operating for so long, it should be as easy as finding the curriculum and coming up with a supplementary idea or two. But then—BAM!—you discover that the materials or ideas used last year aren’t sufficient, the director wants to change things up, or, more commonly, there wasn’t enough material to begin with. In my eight years of experience, I have yet to encounter a single school that has a fully developed curriculum with detailed records or plans for the school year.

While this can be a headache for newer teachers, I’m here to introduce several websites that can serve as great starting points, or even lifesavers, if you ever find yourself walking into a “theme week” unprepared. (Important note: Even with these resources, I strongly recommend that you test all activities and worksheets on your own to ensure they are suitable for your specific class. What works for one age group or class level may not work for all, so please prepare accordingly.)

These websites typically offer both free and paid versions. For full transparency, I have access to the paid versions of each. I highly suggest teaming up with other teachers to share the cost, or better yet, approaching your director or department head to see if the academy would consider covering the subscriptions. For larger schools (those with more than 3-4 English teachers), this could bring the cost down to under 100,000 won per year.

We’ll start with my favorite website for making flashcards, posters, and any visual aids that I can print: Canva. Canva offers both free and paid versions, both of which are useful for basic flashcard designs, PowerPoints, and other visual aids. I recommend the paid version if you want access to additional features like background removal, a more extensive art library, and a wide range of templates. Canva costs 129,000 won per year, with a one-month free trial to check it out.

For activities, worksheets, crafts, and premade visual aids, it’s hard to beat Twinkl. Based in the UK, Twinkl has been a reliable source of pre-made lesson plans and arts and crafts ideas. Twinkl’s strength lies in its extensive database, which has been built over many years and offers a wide variety of activities and worksheets suitable for different age groups. Twinkl also provides PowerPoints and interactive activities for those days when you need to create an age-appropriate lesson plan on short notice. I particularly like using the animal fact files and pairing them with video clips to create engaging class activities. For younger learners, Twinkl offers phonics word family kits that can enhance whatever text you use in your classroom. Paid plans start from under 7,000 won per month.

One important thing to note about Twinkl is that it uses British English, so spellings and grammar may follow British conventions (e.g., “colour” instead of “color,” “maths” instead of “math”). If your school prefers American English, be sure to double-check the materials you use. Additionally, Twinkl tends to use a slightly higher level of English than what a typical Korean kindergartener might understand, and it may include idioms that are difficult to explain. For these reasons, I highly recommend reviewing all activities and language used to ensure they are appropriate for your students.

The third website I recommend for mini-books, game ideas, and thematic activities is Scholastic Teachables. Scholastic subscriptions start at $29.99 per year and follow US Common Core standards, with an easy look-up for specific standards. I use this website for weeks when I want to make mini-books with my students. They offer both colored and black-and-white books, as well as books with words or just pictures. Given its lower yearly cost, I highly suggest this website for teachers at English kindergarten hagwons, as there are books for almost any theme you can think of.

Finally, for more grammar-focused classes or for students who are at a higher level, I recommend Education.com. Education.com offers a wide range of workbooks, from pre-kindergarten to middle school, and plenty of worksheets that make the planning process easier for teachers. I particularly like using the pre-kindergarten/preschool level workbooks to help students who are just beginning to learn English. If you’re looking for interactive games that reinforce skills from phonics to typing, Education.com is also worth checking out. Another benefit of Education.com is its diverse subjects, including math and social studies. While these subjects are not typically taught in English classes, they can be useful in other contexts. Education.com’s paid subscription starts at 150,000 won per year.

Again, it’s important to note that Education.com uses a higher level of English than your typical student might understand. I urge teachers to carefully review the language and difficulty of any materials before using them in the classroom.

With these three subscription-based websites, I hope your kindergarten teaching experience becomes just a little bit easier. In next week’s article, I’ll introduce my favorite free websites for classroom use.

Happy Teaching!