Curriculum for ESL preschool classes

The school year in France is finished and it's time to work on the curriculum for the next year. A lot thinking about what worked last year, what could be done better, what when where how why ... a cup of coffee and my desk was a mess with notes ...

So here I'd like to share our curriculum for our very young learners with you.

Our school year is divided into 5 periods. Each period is between 6-7.5 weeks long. After each period the kids have 2 weeks of holidays.

For our class of 3-year-olds we don't start our ESL classes like the rest of the school in the 1st period, but we start in the 2nd.
This is to ease the children into the new environment, getting used to school, other children, teachers, being away from mummy and daddy for probably the first time ... and not overwhelm them with teachers who don't speak their language which may make them feel uncomfortable and insecure. 

So we like to give the smallest of our school 7 weeks to adapt to the new environment first. In our experience this has led to (a lot!) less behaviour problems in the English classes and the kids feeling more at ease in general to be ready to receive a new language mentally.

The kids in our school have English classes twice per week, each time around 2 hours.

Curriculum for our 3-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks
no classes

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations
Week 2 - 3.5: Feelings 
Week 3.5 - 4: Colours (red, blue, yellow)
Week 5-6: Myself: the body

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Myself: the face
Week 3-4: Clothes
Week 5-6: Family (make sure to relate to old topics to repeat vocab such as my my is wearing a yellow dress)
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: the weather (introducing a weather chart into the morning routine)
Week 3-4: Spring 
Week 5-6: Fruits
Week 7: Vegetables

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1: vegetables
Week 2-3: farm animals (what do they eat? The horse is eating a carrot and an apple)
Week 4-5: number 1-5 (relate to old topics such as how many brothers and sisters do you have, how many cows do you see etc)
Week 6-7: Toys
half a week for end of the year party

Edit:

Curriculum for our 4-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks

Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations

Week 2: Feelings (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Zoo animals
Week 5: Who lives where? (rep zoo and farm animals, classifying)
Week 6-7: Transportation (how do we get to the zoo?)
half a week for reviews

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1-2: Colours (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Number 1-10 (connect with old topics from last year: I see six apples)
Week 5-6: Cooking and baking

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Family (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Jobs
Week 5-6: Winter
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: Arctic animals
Week 3-4: Sports
Week 5-6: Toys
Week 7: Project of teacher's choice

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1: Picnic
Week 2-3: Ocean animals
Week 4-5: ice cream flavours
Week 6-7: Summer
half a week for end of the year party

Curriculum for our 5-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks

Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations
Week 2-3: At the doctor (rep parts of the body)
Week 4-7.5: Senses (touch, small, feel, hear, see)

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1-2: Colours (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Autumn / Fall
Week 5-6: Pumpkins & apples (life cycle, expression how the apple looks, tastes etc)

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Hobbies
Week 3-4: Circus
Week 5-6: Rooms of the house
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: Furniture
Week 3-4: Up in the sky (clouds, sun, birds, balloon, kite, plane, bird)
Week 5-6: air animals (eagle, butterfly, bat, bee, fly ...)
Week 7: Project of teacher's choice

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Numbers 1-20
Week 3-4: Space
Week 5: Space Project
Week 6-7: On the airplane
half a week for end of the year party