Learning is an important process in the intellectual maturation and socialization of a person. It is determined by numerous components, the most important being cognition, motivation and emotions. As modern teaching requires an active role of students in the learning process, a key element for successful learning is quality teaching. Teachers' main challenge is how to arouse interest among students for the educational field. Thereby, teaching should be based on the choice of approaches and procedures. In this paper were discussed effective strategies and forms of learning in the teaching of the Croatian language at the lower level of primary education, in the classroom teaching. The Croatian language is a complex teaching subject, so the functional teaching of language and literature requires the purposefulness of methods and forms of work. We monitored the applicability of collaborative, experiential and self-regulated learning. Attached are various creative procedures in the early stages of language learning, and offer guidelines for working with students in the classroom. It is important to facilitate situations in which students will become aware of their learning process and make decisions about how to achieve the planned learning outcomes ang goals.