I am an ESL teacher overseas and I will soon have a group of 10 or 11 6th grade boys that probably all have ADHD and/or learning disabilities and currently know little to no English. I had them last year mixed with kids who did not have difficulty paying attention or other learning disabilities, and I have decided to seperate them this next year to try a more effective approach for both groups. I need some extremely high energy (or extremely interesting and calming) lesson plans that can be done with very little space (I have a very small room and the weather doesn't always cooperate for outdoors activities), and little to no extra materials besides paper, pencils, a black board, etc... I really need to go over the basics with them again (numbers, colors, alphabet, etc...) and any other subjects you can think of for beginning ESL students. I don't really have a curriculum to follow. Also, any ideas you have on classroom management with these boys would also be welcome.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I only have them for 50 minutes a week and usually the kids are between 5-10 minutes late (this is true for all the kids for every class - its just the culture) so its really difficult to teach them much of real substance in such a short amount of time especially when I spend half the time trying to keep them in their seats or at least on task...
Hmm... first of all let me reiterate that I am teaching 6th grade boys (not 4-6 year olds) and I have them for 40-50 minutes once a week... so your lesson plan example for 4-6 year olds that would take over 2 hours didn't really help me at all. And the blocks of 15-20 minutes for activities you suggested is highly unrealistic as all my boys pretty much have attention spans of about 5-10 minutes and again I only have them for 40-50 min to begin with. Its not a good idea to copy and paste answers that you have previously given that are irrelavent in this situation
Also, I am not diagnosing them with anything. I said that they all probably do. There is no way to get them tested for ADHD or LDs where I am at because these tests and the professionals who are qualified to administer them simply don't exist here. The kids here have been "isolated" since the 1st grade because they're split into rich, middle, and poor classes from the start and and any kids that show signs of mental disabilities, ADHD, LDs, etc... or who just simply don't appear "smart" are put in these "poor" classes. They are then stuck in these classes with the same kids till 8th grade. The problem with this class is that i have 1/2 that are paying attention and learning English well, and I have half that can't stay in their seats for more than 5 minutes. I am splitting them so I can try and find ways to teach each 1/2 more effectively according to their needs. And 90% of their other teachers are white women and I have 16 other classes w/o problems so it is not a cultural issue.
I'm well aware that I'm going to be alternating activity levels and activities if they can't concentrate on anything for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. Believe it or not I have been trained for this and know what I'm doing. I asked for ideas of lessons that I can do with energetic 6th grade boys. I'm not expecting an entire years worth of lesson plans but something relavent would be nice. And no I am not simply seperating them on suspected LDs and/or ADHD, I am seperating them based on their level of English proficiency and learning styles (these boys are very much kinesthetic learners), which IS what a GOOD teacher does. I was hoping for ideas from people who have worked with kids with these disabilities (again I CANT get them tested so I have to go with what I "suspect") and this age group in order to further modify my teaching methods to help them learn English better than they did with the other kids who know english better, are much calmer, and are more visual and verbal.
I'm not in the US! I'm in a culture where they split these kids based on income levels! Classes are split routinely in the States based on level of ability (A.K.A. advanced vs. normal classes) I'm not trying to diagnose these kids with anything. It isn't even an option! I just want someone who has experience working with extremely hyper-active 6th grade boys with learning disabilities (many of them can't read or write in their own language includ. siblings of younger kids that are able to) to give me some ideas for English lessons for them. I didn't ask for a lecture on learning disabilities in ELLs because once again it is irrelavent! I can't have them tested anyway! Please, if you don't have any suggestions for lessons for extremely energetic 6th grade boys that have obvious learning delays then please quit writing here and go back to your nice little job in the States where everything is nice and clear cut and you have all the resources in the world to test and help kids. Good Bye.

I would use their energy and keep them up and moving. Some brief ideas:
1. Use the room as a game of hide and seek. Give them a number, for example, and tell them they need to find the number after it, or the number they would have if they added 3.
2. Give each student a card with a word, like little. They need to find a student with another word that is related (synonym, antonym, homonym, etc).
3. Gallery walks and response. Hang pictures along the walls with paper underneath that they have to respond to.
4. When you get them writing, you could post their writing on the wall and have the kids respond to it with post-it notes.
5. Music. Can you teach them songs with body movements?
6. Make your own jigsaw puzzles...maybe even using text like a poem or song that they know. Make it a big floor puzzle and have them work together to solve.

I don't teach elementary kids...those are just some ideas off the top of my head. I don't really know any "calming" lesson plans...my kids call those boring. :)

First off, I wouldn't go self-diagnosing ADHD and LD kids. You're not qualified to do that, and I think "separating" (read: isolating) them is a huge mistake, ESPECIALLY with ELLs. It is very difficult, even with current testing tools, to diagnose a LD in an ELL. It's so difficult to discriminate between normal behavioral/cognitive development in an ELL, and a bonafide learning disability.

As far as classroom management with high energy kids - you need to keep them up and moving, keep activities short, and keep them on a short leash. Sandwich high energy with 'calm' activities, and keep everything short.

I also hope you are writing objectives for your lessons, overplanning your activities, keeping an agenda on the board, so everyone knows where we're at. There's no quicker way to lose a group of kids, than by being unclear on what we are learning, and unorganized in how we're going to learn it.

Here's an answer I posted to a similar question a few days ago. This EFL teacher of 4-6 year olds wasn't able to control her classroom, complaining about the high energy, etc.

What's the quantity/quality of input you're giving them? Depending on their proficiency level, you could be overwhelming them with too much English input. That would account for the tuning out and ignoring you. Keep it simple.

I also wonder if some of the behavior you're seeing might be a culture bump. I'm not sure what country you are in, how conservative it is, the kids' exposure to white women (I'm assuming this, based on your Avatar...), white women in authority, if you're wearing the hijab or not, etc. Since some of them, you say, have never been to school, there could be some confusion with this, too.

I also wonder what sorts of activities you are doing with them. 4-6 year olds can't easily sustain interest in formal instruction for 30 minutes. You'll need to do many different little activities for the two hours.

The nature of your question makes me want to ask what your qualifications are in EFL instruction. I see this a lot: expats working in the EFL/ESL field, feeling overqualified and confident, simply because they are native speakers. Then they fall flat on their faces, and their only resources are on Yahoo Answers... It's like, I've BEEN to a dentist, so can I BE a dentist??? This sort of logic is what perpetuates teachers not being treated as professionals gee, anyone can do it. Well, it's not that easy, now is it? Here are some suggestions below, not pulled out of my butt, but actually thrown together using my EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE as an EDUCATOR. If you're in this situation, please at least do some reading up on EFL methods, using comprehensible input (how about krashen's i+1 theory?), and bridging cultural gaps. Ok, I'm off my soapbox, I want to help:

Think in 15-20 minute blocks, easy/uncomplicated things that don't take a huge amount of paying attention to directions (at first). Once they see that it's paced, fun, organized, and easy for them to be successful at, they'll settle down a bit. Focus on a general theme for the day, or an objective, and run with it.

Here's an example: ANIMALS

Show some pictures of animals. Let them use L1 (first language) to identify the animals. Follow up with English, listen, repeat, reinforce. You could also talk about where these animals live- zoo, house, farm, etc. Use L1/L2. Animal noises would also be fun, although the difference between L1/L2 might be confusing (what do you mean, a rooster says kockadoodledo?). Categorize animals, hang them up. 20 min

Get them up and moving around.
Sing and dance. Old McDonald? Use those pictures to help comprehension. 15 min.

Have a quiet story time, just one book. Short, comprehensible. 15 min.

Follow up with a worksheet with some info from the book, coloring, etc. Build some structure into the passing out/collection of materials. Get the kids involved as "helpers." 20 min.

Teach them a simple playground game in English, like do hopscotch, but have them say the numbers in English as they hop. Stuff like that. Alternatively, you could use those pictures you were just working with, and put those down next to the numbers in the hopscotch boxes. 20 min.

Get them settled again, play a round of Animal Bingo. Get the kids involved again with the passing out/collection. 20 min.

Get them up and moving again. Another song or animal dance? 15 min.

Ok, that's over half the class. Just keep them up and moving around. They like consistency, too. So feel free to follow the same pattern (active vs. quiet work), just substitute themes/objectives. Always be spiraling the content, and do little informal assessments (like thumbs up/down or cultural equivalent) to monitor where they are at. It could also help keep you (and them) organized, if you put up a daily agenda on the board. Also, prime them for every activity - let them know, "Now we're going to do X. These are the steps... This is what I need from you..." You might need to use some phrases in L1 to support things like "quiet," "eyes this way," "sit in a circle," etc - until they learn to respond to these in L2.

EDIT: What you fail to realize, is that this sample lesson could easily be adapted to your situation. Notice what there is here a topic, varied activities that alternate activity levels. When something says "20 min" - that includes moving around, frontloading prior knowledge, setting the stage, the actual lesson (which may only last 5 min), reinforcement, clean up/move back. As a teacher, you should be able to adapt the lesson to your particular teaching situation. Like, if you don't want to do something for 20 minutes, then don't! Wow. Don't take everything so CONCRETELY. Are you expecting someone to post 20 weeks worth of 50 minute lessons for you? Sorry, but you are a TEACHER. It is your responsibility to create your lessons, and GOOD TEACHERS don't separate their classrooms based on SUSPECTED LDs. If you were to go to your principal in the US and say, "I think we should move these 10 kids into their own class, because they are unruly, and I think they have LD," you'd be laughed out of the field. I could send you my MA thesis on the invalidity of testing ELLs for LD, but I don't think you'd even read it. And no, the cultural element won't relate 1:1 per se, but if you were to just reflect, rather than taking everything LITERALLY, you would probably realize that there is a cultural element in your situation, as well. I'd suggest a few books here to help you with classroom management, how about Tools for Teaching (Fred Jones), and Discipline with Dignity (Allen Mendler).