Chorus:

Good morning! Good Morning!
It’s time to wake up.
Good morning! Good Morning!
I have to get up.

If you’re happy and you know it, say “We are!”
If you’re happy and you know it, say “We are!”
If you’re happy and you know it
And you really want to show it
If you’re happy and you know it, say “We are!”

Verse 4:

If you’re happy and you know it, do all three.
If you’re happy and you know it, do all three.
If you’re happy and you know it
And you really want to show it
If you’re happy and you know it, do all three.

Gestures and activities to use with “If You’re Happy & You Know It”

The actions are very simple: as you sing march on the spot and do the actions from the song (clap your hands, stomp your feet, say “We are”, do all three).

Using “If You’re Happy & You Know It” in class

This song can be used with the lesson theme of emotions & feelings (for the word “happy”) or when teaching action verbs.  However, we like to use it as a fun, quick activity in the following situations:

• At the beginning of the lesson as a fun warm up.
• At the end of the lesson to end the class on a fun high note.
• As an energy burner: if your kids have far too much energy and you are having a bit of trouble controlling them, running through this song a couple of times will help to burn off some of that extra energy.
• As a wake-me-up: if your kids are getting a bit lethargic and need a boost, get everyone up, singing and marching along to this song.  It will wake them right up!
• As a reward: kids just love this song!  Encourage everyone to do well in an activity by promising them that they can sing this song afterwards if they do a good job.
• As a request: sometimes it’s nice to ask your students what they would like to do next.  I will often give some options (e.g. play a particular game, read a story, sing a song, etc.) including this song.

Verse 2:

Sit down and stand up,
Jump up and down and clap your hands.
Sit down and stand up,
Jump up and down and clap your hands.

Gestures and activities to use with “The Directions Song”

The actions are very simple: as you sing along do the actions of the song.

Using “The Directions Song” in class

This is a great song for burning up energy so it can be used as a warm up, energy burner or even to wake everyone up. There is some useful vocab centred around the directions left, right, forwards, back.  This is very much an action-based lesson focusing on the verbs in the song.  You’ll need two lengths of rope for this lesson.

1. Teach left / right. Get a long length of rope and lay it on the floor from the front of the classroom to the back.  Stand at the font and to one side of the rope and get everyone to line up behind you, facing forward.  Shout “Jump to the left” and jump left over the rope.  Get everyone to follow you.  The do the same for the right: “Jump to the right”.  Do this a few times getting everyone to copy you and shout out “Jump to the left / right”.  Next, the teacher can leave the line and shout out for the rest of the class to jump left / right over the rope.  To make it into a game, sometimes shout out for the side of the rope everyone is already on – in this case everyone must jump but stay on the correct side of the rope.
2. Teach forward / back. Now move the rope so it goes across the classroom, left to right.  Stand behind the rope with everyone in line with you.  Shout “Jump forward” and jump over the rope, with everyone copying you.  Next, shout “Jump back”.  Continue in the same way as with point 1 above.
3. Practice left / right / forward / back. Put a second length of rope from the front to the back of the classroom, so with the two ropes it forms a large “+” in the room.  Get everyone to start front, left.  Shout out instructions (e.g.” Jump to the right”, “Jump back”, etc.) so that everyone jumps over the ropes.  Start off slowly and then get faster and faster.
4. Left / right / forward / back pair activity. Put the students into pairs.  If you have hula-hoops use can use them but if not they aren’t necessary.  Demonstrate to the class with one student.  Tell the student to stand in the hula-hoop (or just in some space). Say to the student “Jump forward” and the student must do that.  Then Say another action (e.g. “Jump to the right”).  Continue giving instructions so the student jumps around the space in the hula-hoop (or just in the space in the room).  Now, get your pairs to do the activity, with one student shouting out instructions to his/her partner.  After a while, get the pairs to change.
5. Practice the verbs of the song. Stand everyone in front of you.  Say the first verb and do the action (e.g. “turn around”).  Get everyone to follow you.  Continue through all of the verbs and repeat a few times so that everyone knows the actions.  You can also put the song sheet on the board so everyone can see the actions.
6. Sing “The Directions Song”. Now that everyone has got the idea of the actions for the song they should be ready.  The song is pretty fast so make sure everyone is ready.  The teacher should also do the actions of the song and sing along so to encourage everyone to follow.  Play the song through the first time and just focus on getting the actions right.  After that play the song a couple more times and encourage everyone to sing as well.  You can play this song each week – it will become a class favorite!
7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the Left Right Color worksheets.

Verse 2:

It’s seven o’clock
It’s eight o’clock
It’s nine o’clock
It’s ten o’clock
It’s eleven o’clock
It’s twelve o’clock

Tick-tock-tick-tock
Tick-tock-tick-tock

Gestures and activities to use with the “What Time Is It?” song

For this song your students are going to be human clocks, using their arms to show the time.  Have everybody stand up with plenty of room to move their arms around without hitting anyone.

1. For the question words sing along and hold your hands out, palms up, in the question gesture.
2. For the times, hold your arms straight out in the time position.  So, for 1 o’clock, hold one arm straight up towards 12 and the other arm towards one.  As the song continues, one arm will move around the clock counting off each hour.

Using the “What Time Is It?” song in class

This is a really good song for introducing your students to telling the time as it contains key vocab and structures.  The gestures are easy and fun – your students will enjoy swinging their arms around with the times in the song.

1. Introduce a clock and review numbers 1 to 12. Start the lesson by bringing in a clock or alternatively make a craft clock using our clock shape craft sheet. Elicit and chorus the word “clock”.  Then point to number 1 and elicit the number.  Point to each number 1-12 in order and elicit the numbers (you can move the hour hand around as you do this).
2. Practice recognizing numbers 1-12. Before class prepare twelve A4 sheets of paper with a number (1-12) written on each piece.  Place the numbers randomly around the walls of the classroom at a height where your student can reach them.  In class, draw your students’ attention to the numbers and say “Point to number 1″.  Everyone should point.  Then go through all the numbers 1-12.
3. Play “Touch the numbers on the wall”. Get everyone standing in the middle of the classroom.  Shout “Touch Number 7!”.  Everyone should run and touch that number – it will be a mad scramble but good fun!  Then go through the rest of the numbers.
4. Write the numbers on the board. Along the top of the board write the numbers in order 1-12. Divide the class into 4 teams and get each team to elect a representative to write on the board.  Have the 4 students come to the board and tell them they are going to race to write the numbers 1-12.  The winner will win a point for their team.  Say “Ready – Steady – Go!” and the 4 students race to write the numbers.  Then get another 4 students to have a go.  At the end the team with the most points is the winner.
5. Teach the time vocab. Hold up your clock and set a time (e.g. 4 o’clock).  Ask the class “What time is it?”.  Elicit / teach “It’s 4 o’clock”.  Move the hand to another time, and ask again (you can also ask “Please could you tell me the time?”).  Go through the hours eliciting the times from the class until they have got the hang of the structures.
6. Practice the gestures of the song. Stand everyone in front of you. Say “Point you hands at 1 o’clock” and demonstrate how to do this (hold one arm straight up at 12 and the other at 1).  Then say “Point you hands at 2 o’clock” … continue all the way round to 12 o’clock.
7. Sing the “What Time Is It?” song. Now that everyone has got the idea of the actions for the song they should be ready. The teacher should also do the actions of the song and sing along so to encourage everyone to follow. Play the song through the first time and just focus on getting the actions right. After that play the song a couple more times and encourage everyone to sing as well.
8. Do the Clock Craft Sheet.  Before class print out the clock shape craft sheet – enough so that each student has one. You can either cut out the shapes before class or have your students cut out the shapes in class. You will also need fasteners for each clock to fasten the arms to the clock.  After constructing the clocks, put students in pairs.  First model the activity with a student.  Student A sets a time on his/her clock and asks “What time is it?” or “Please could you tell me the time?”.  Their partner answers.  Each pair takes it in turn to ask each other.
9. Play “What time do you?”. Still using the clocks, your students are going to show you the time they usually do things.  Ask the class questions, such as “What time do you usually wake up?” (if they are not sure you can use gestures to show what you mean). As you ask the questions, everyone should move the hands on their clock to the time they do these activities.  Then select some students to orally tell you their time (e.g. “I wake up at 7 o’clock”). We are only concentrating on “o’clock” for this lesson, so if students have times on their clock such as 7.20 you can teach “About 7 o’clock”.

   Other routine questions you can ask the time for could be: eat breakfast / lunch / dinner, go to bed, go to school, leave school, take a bath, do homework, brush teeth, etc.

10. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “What time is it? It’s __ o’clock” worksheet.

Gestures and activities to use with “The Wheels on the Bus” song

The actions of the song are really easy and mimic what is happening in the song.

• For verse 1, whirl your arms around in the air for “The wheels on the bus go round and round …” part.
• For verse 2, swish your arms lefts and right for “The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish …” part.
• For verse 3, beep an imaginary horn for “The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep …” part.
• For verse 4, swish your arms back and forth for “The doors on the bus go open and shut …” part.
• For verse 5, put your fists to your eyes and mimic crying for “The babies on the bus go boo-hoo-hoo …” part.
• For verse 6, look angry and wave your finger for  “The driver on the bus says “Please sit down” …” part.
• Verse 7 is the same as verse 1

Using ”The Wheels on the Bus” song in class

This is a really popular song which kids just love to sing along to.  The song introduces some great vocab and makes for a good ‘present simple’ lesson.

1. Introduce the vocab with a drawing exercise. For this lesson you are going to use your artistic drawing skills.
   • Start by drawing a large picture of a bus on the board – make it as large as you can, filling the whole board.  Elicit / teach / chorus the word “bus”.
   • Next, shade in the wheels and again elicit / teach / chorus the word “wheels”.  Now teach the action word “go round and round” and get everybody making round and round movements with their arms as you say “The wheels on the bus go round and round”.
   • Now draw wipers onto the picture and teach “wipers” and “swish” and get everyone to do the swishing action with their arms.
   • Then draw a steering wheel (through the window) and motion driving and honking the horn.  Teach and practice “horn” and “beep”.
   • Draw the doors on the bus and teach “doors”, “open and shut” and practice do opening and shutting actions with your arms.
   • Now for the tough bit – drawing babies on the bus!  Draw the windows and draw babies looking out.  You can show flashcard pictures if your drawing is not up to scratch! Teach and practice “babies”, “boo-hoo”.
   • Finally, draw the driver sitting on the bus holding the steering wheel.  Teach / practice “driver”, “Please sit down”.  When teaching “Please sit down” get everyone standing up and have fun telling everyone to sit down and stand up, so they all get the meaning.
2. Play “I say, you do”. Now to practice the vocab.  Get everyone to stand up facing the teacher.  Start by saying a random sentence from the song (e.g. “The doors on the bus go open and shut”) and get everyone to do the action.  At first go slowly, saying different sentences and having everyone do the action from the gestures section above.  Then go faster and faster until it is impossible to keep up.
3. Sing “The Wheels on the Bus”. First play the song and get everyone to follow you with the actions.  Then play the song again and encourage everyone to sing along.
4. Draw the bus pair work activity. Put everyone in pairs and give them a large piece of plain paper (A3 size is good).  Each pair will have to cooperate to draw the same picture as yours on the board.  Give the first instruction “Everybody draw a bus” and encourage each pair to work together to draw the outline of the bus.  Then give the next instruction “Now draw the wipers”.  As they are doing so ask random students what wipers do (“swish- swish-swish”).  Keep going until all the pictures are complete and colored in.  Finally, pin all the pictures to the walls and have each pairs stand in front of their pictures.  Play the song one more time, and have the students touch the parts of the picture as it is mentioned in the song (e.g. they touch the wipers on the line “The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish”)
5. Do a “Take the Bus” role-play. This is the show stopper which your students will love.  Arrange all the chairs so that they are facing forwards in rows, just like on a bus.  The teacher can be the driver (if you can find a driver’s cap to wear, all the better!).  Get everyone to line up outside the bus (at the bus stop) and ‘drive’ the bus to the bus stop.  Everyone can enter the bus, pay for their ticket (prepare tickets before class and ever use toy money) and then sit down.  Then start driving the bus and as you go, shout out “lean left!” and “lean right” as you go around corners and get everyone to lean with you.  Do lots of other fun things, such as:
   • beep the horn (everyone does together)
   • stand up and sit down to help go up and down hills (Don’t forget to say “Please sit down”)
   • stop!!!  (everyone lurches forward)
   • speed up!!! (everyone is pushed back in their seats
   • jump up and down (when the bus gets stuck in mud)

   At the end, pull up to the stop and shout “Everybody, get off the bus!”  You can even invite other students to take on the role of bus driver.

6. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Bus Draw” worksheet.

Gestures and activities to use with “Numbers 1-20 Song” song

There are a few activities you can do with this song.

• Before playing the song write the numbers 1-20 on the board.  Keep them large and in order.  Everyone sings along as the teacher points to each number.
• Have the numbers 1-20 printed on A4 sheets of paper and stuck around the walls of the classroom.  As the song is sung, everybody has to point to the correct number (the numbers can be put on the walls in the correct order or for a more difficult activity, in random order!).
• Giving everybody a copy of the Numbers 1-20 song poster.  As the song is being played the students must sing along and touch each number as it is sung.

Using “Numbers 1-20 Song” in class

This should not be taught before the Numbers 1-10 lesson.  Once your students can count to 10 this lesson will help them to reach 20!

1. Review numbers 1-10. First write the numbers 1-10 on the board and have everyone shout out the numbers as you write them.  Next, get 10 soft balls, cubes or something similar (before class, tape numbers 1-10 onto the balls) and chorus the numbers on each ball.  Then throw the balls around the room and ask individual students to bring you different numbers (e.g. “Maria, please give me number 6″). Finally, play and sing along to “The Numbers Song (Numbers 1-10)“.
2. Play “Pass the Parcel Numbers 11-20″.  You are going to play a version of “Pass the Parcel” to introduce the numbers 11-20.  Before class get 10 sheets of A4 paper and write a number (11-20) on each sheet.  Shuffle the papers up so they are ordered randomly.  Now make your parcel – roll one sheet of paper onto a ball (with the number on the inside) and then wrap the next sheet (number inside) around the ball.  Keep wrapping the sheets around the ball until all are used up and you have a parcel.  If you like, you can include a small sweet with each sheet of wrapped paper.

   In class, get everybody to sit in a circle.

   • Play some music and have everybody pass the parcel around the circle until you stop the music.  The person holding the parcel when you stop the music can unwrap the first layer.  Ask for that sheet of paper and stick it on the board with the number showing.  At this point there is no need to teach the number.
   • Start the music again and then stop it after the parcel has been passed around a while.  The student holding the parcel can unwrap the next sheet and look at the number.  S/He should then stick it on the board either to the left or right of the number already there, depending on if it comes before or after that number (e.g. if the first number was 15 and the second one is 19, then it should be placed after the 15).
   • Keep playing “Pass the Parcel” until all the numbers are stuck on the board in the correct order 11-20
3. Teach numbers 11-20. Now that you have all the numbers on the board, you can chorus them with your class.  Start with 11 and chorus it 3 times with the class.  Continue with all the numbers.  Now chorus each number in turn (11, 12, 13, etc.) and run through 11-20 a few times, each time getting faster and faster.  Now, put your class into pairs.  Have each pair practice saying the numbers together (e.g. A: 11, b: 12, A: 13, B: 14, etc.).
4. Play “Stand in the right order”. Next give each student a number sheet from the board.  If you have more than 10 students make more numbers so you have two groups.  For less than 10 students, give out more sheets per student but make sure the numbers they have are in sequence (e.g. give a student numbers 14 and 15, not 14 and 18).  Now tell your students to stand in a line in the right order.  Everyone has to shuffle around until they are standing and holding their numbers in order 11-20.  Now, get the class to shout out their numbers from 11-20, down the line.  Make it a game – each round try and do it faster than the last!
5. Do the “Write the numbers 1-20 on the board” activity.  You are going to get everyone to help write the numbers on the board which you can use when singing the “Numbers 1-20 Song”.  Draw 20 large squares on the board 4 rows.  Call out a student and ask him/her to write a large number 1 in the first box.  Keep calling out students to fill in the rest of the squares so you have all of the numbers 1-20 on the board.
6. Sing the “Numbers 1-20 Song”.  Play the song and have everybody call out the numbers along with the song.  It will help a lot if you point to each number on the board as it is sung.  It is a really fast paced song so keeping up might be a challenge but this makes it fun.  Play the song a few times until everyone can sing along well.  Also worth doing is giving everybody a copy of the Numbers 1-20 song poster.  As the song is being played the students must sing along and touch each number as it is sung.
7. Do the “1-20 Balls Write 1” worksheet.  Give out the worksheet and circulate and help as the students write the numbers.
8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “1-20 Balls Write 2” worksheet.

Gestures and activities to use with the “Describe Your Friend” song

There are no gestures for this song – a listening activity with worksheets accompanies the song (see point 3 below).  However, if students enjoy the song you can encourage them to sing along and dance!

Here are the worksheets: Describe Your Friend song worksheets

• The first two pages is the song poster.
• The next page “Describe your Friend Worksheet 1″ is a ‘listen and circle what you hear’ exercise.
• The final page “Describe your Friend Worksheet 2″ is a ‘listen and draw’ exercise (this is better if you can’t print out the color Worksheet 1)

Using the “Describe Your Friend” song in class

This is a really lively song which can be used as an active listening task – students have to listen to the song to complete their worksheets.

1. Introduce the descriptions vocab. For this lesson you are going to use your artistic drawing skills. Use a whiteboard or blackboard to draw the following:
   • At the top of the board draw 2 circles (these will be the heads). Elicit “circles”.
   • On each head draw a nose, ears and a mouth. Elicit each as you draw them. Then ask “What’s missing?”.
   • Elicit “eyes”. Ask “What color are they?” and give the students the options of the colors of markers / chalk you have. Then draw the eyes in the chosen colors with different colors for each set of eyes (NB: it’s ok to have strange colors, such as yellow, for the eyes – this will just make it more fun).
   • Elicit “hair” and again ask “What color is it?”. On one head draw long hair in one color (for the girl) and on the other draw short hair (for the boy) in a different color. Teach / Elicit “long / short hair”.
   • Finally, you’ll need to draw 2 bodies. But rather than you draw them you are going to ask for 2 volunteers to do the drawings. For the girl, draw some shoes quite near the head (so that she will be short) and for the boy draw some shoes right down at the bottom of the board (so he will be tall). Have the students draw the bodies so that they join the heads with the shoes. Now teach / elicit “tall / short”.

     It should end up looking something like this:

   • Now that the completed pictures are on the board, chorus 3 times the following sentences and point to the pictures as you do:
     - He is tall.
     - He has short hair.
     - He has (blue) eyes.
     - He has (orange) hair.

     - She is short.
     - She has long hair.
     - She has (green) eyes.
     - She has (brown) hair.

2. Do “Funny Body” drawings. Give a piece of A4 paper to each student and yourself.
   • On your piece of paper, model drawing a head with eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth and hair. Make it a really funny picture. Then tell everyone to draw their funny head. Make sure they use colors for the eyes and hair.
   • Next show them how to fold the paper so only the neck shows (so the head is folded behind). Then get everyone to pass their paper to a different student.
   • Now model drawing the body starting from the neck and going down to ankles – make it either a really short or long body and make it as funny as you can. Now have your students draw their bodies.
   • Again, show everyone how to fold the paper so only the ankles are showing and have everyone pass their paper to another student.
   • Finally, model drawing funny feet and get everyone to draw feet on their pictures. Then get everyone to fold up their papers and return each piece to the person who drew the head.
   • Let everyone open up their paper and have a good laugh at the pictures. Now ask everyone to “present” their person in the drawing to the rest of the class – you model first (e.g. “This is Tom. He is short. He has pink hair, etc.”).
3. Play the “Describe Your Friend” song and do the active listening worksheet. Tell the class that they are going to listen to a song about a boy and a girl.  Give out either “Describe your Friend Worksheet 1″ or “Describe your Friend Worksheet 2″ (worksheet 2 is better if you cannot print out colored worksheets).  Read the instructions to the class and then play the song.  As they song is playing students should do the worksheet activity.  Play the song again if required.  Finally, go through the song one more time stopping to check answers.  If everyone enjoyed the song, you can play it again and have everyone sing along (especially as it’s such a catchy tune!).
4. Do the “Describe Your Friend Class Survey“. This will give your students the chance to use the lesson structures.  Give out the class survey worksheet. Each student should work on their own for a few minutes looking at their classmates and filling in the table about 6 of their friends in the class.  Whilst they are doing this, circulate and check and ask questions.  Finally, once everyone has finished, ask each student to describe some of their friends: Ask, “Tell me about your friend”, “What does he / she look like?”.  Then put students in pairs to practice asking about their classmates.

   Additional activity: Have your students ask about and describe family members (e.g. brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, etc.).

5. Play “Guess Who?”. For this activity, you’ll need lots of magazine pictures of people.  Try and get lots of different types of people pictures, with different color eyes and hair.  The more pictures you can find and cut-out before class the better (Note: This is a great resource to have for future lessons, as people pictures can be used in many different ways).  In class, lay out all of pictures on the floor or on a large table.  Start by saying “My friend has (short, brown) hair, he is (tall) and he has (green) eyes”.  Everyone should try and guess which picture you are describing.  You can also give additional clues (clothes, etc.).  The student who guesses correctly can then have a go describing someone.  Now that everyone has got the idea of the game, put student into small groups and have them play the game together.  Whilst they are playing, monitor, help and encourage the use of the lesson structures.
6. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Describe Your Family” worksheet.

Gestures and activities to use with the “Happy Halloween” song

If you can get everyone to dress up in a Halloween fancy dress costume for the class it will make the whole experience more fun! 

• “Happy, Happy Halloween!” – sing and dance along to this (dancing like zombies or monsters – like in Michael Jackson’s Thriller).
• “Look out of the window tonight” – everyone puts their hand above their eyes to ‘peer’ out of the window with a frightened expression.
• “What will we see on Halloween night?” – look around with a frightened expression.
• “Go outside in the street tonight” – walking on the spot.
• “Who will we meet on Halloween night?” - look around with a frightened expression.
• “Look there’s a ghost (Whooooooooo!)” – all do a ghost gesture and say “Whoooooooo!”.
• “Look there’s a monster (Rhhaaaaaa!)” – all walk like a scary monster and say “Rhhaaaaaa!”.
• “Look there’s a witch (Cackle cackle!)” – everyone wiggles their fingers in front of their face like a witch whilst cackling.
• “Look there’s a black cat (Mioooowwww!)” – all act like a cat whilst meowing.
• “Look there’s a wizard (Ho ho hoooo!)” – all wave imaginary wands in the air and say “Ho ho hoooo!”.
• “Look there’s a mummy (Grrrrrrrrrr!)” – walk around with arms stretched out in front and say :Grrrrrrr!”.
• “Look there’s a bat (Eeekk! Eeekk!)“- all flap around and say “Eeekkk! Eeekkk!”.
• “Look there’s a zombie (Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!)“- do the zombie dance/walk (as in Thriller) and say “Rrrrrrr!”.

Using the “Happy Halloween” song in class

Please check our free Halloween Lesson Plan page for ideas to use in your Halloween lessons.

Gestures and activities to use with the “I Don’t Like Cheese” song

There are no gestures for this song – a listening activity with worksheet accompanies the song (see point 3 below). However, if students enjoy the song you can encourage them to sing along and dance!

Here is the worksheet: Click here to download the “I Don’t Like Cheese” song worksheet

• students listen to the song and draw the food items they hear in the ‘I like’ and ‘I don’t like’ columns (only cheese is in the “don’t like” column). The song runs through the vocab pretty quickly, so play the song at least twice.

Using the “I Don’t Like Cheese” song in class

This is a really fun song which uses the key structures in a funny way – students have to listen to the song to complete their worksheets.

1. Introduce “I like” and “I don’t like”. Start off by preparing your board as shown below (without the food drawings).  Also, have the following flashcards printed out (just in case): cheese, chocolate, rice, French fries, strawberries, bread, ice cream, grapes, pasta, pizza, beans.

   The board should be divided into two sections: “likes” on the left and “dislikes” on the right (indicated with a smiley and unhappy face).

   As a class you are going to draw food and drink items you like and don’t like, as follows:

   • First, draw a food or drink in the ‘like’ column (such as a banana).  Get everyone to shout out what you have drawn.  Gesture that you like this (say “Yummy!” and rub your tummy and smile – make it obvious that you like it a lot).  Say “I like bananas”.
   • Next, draw something in the ‘dislike’ column (such as a tomato).  Again, get everyone to shout out what you have drawn.  Gesture that you don’t like this (say “Yuk!” or “It stinks!” and grimace – make it obvious that you don’t like it).  Say “I don’t like tomatoes”.
   • To make sure everyone understands, draw another food/drink item in the like and dislike columns, using the same structures and gestures as before.  This will turn into a fun guessing game as everyone tries to guess what is being drawn.
   • Next, your students are going to draw some pictures on the board.  Invite a student up and point to the ‘like’ column and say “Draw a food or drink that you like”.  When the student draws the item, everyone has to guess what it is.  Then get the student to say “I like ~”.  The next student should draw something in the ‘dislike’ column and say “I don’t like ~”.  Keep bringing students up to the board to draw their likes and dislikes until the board is pretty full.
   • If any of the items from the song haven’t been drawn (cheese, chocolate, rice, French fries, strawberries, bread, ice cream, grapes, pasta, pizza, beans) use the flashcards to get them on the board: hold up each picture and elicit the word, then ask students to place the flashcard (use blue tak or tape) on the board in the column of their choice (whilst saying “I like ~” or “I don’t like~”).
2. Controlled Practice saying “I like ~” and “I don’t like ~”. Put the students into pairs.  They are going to make sentences using the food and drink items on the board.  Model with a student first so everyone understands what to do: Teacher says “banana” – choosing an item from the board.  The student has to make a sentence (e.g. “I like bananas”),  The answer should be the student’s own true answer.  Then in pairs, students take turns in choosing a food item for their partner to make a sentence about.  For example:

   Student A: apples
   Student B: I like apples!

   Student B: carrots
   Student A: I don’t like carrots!

   Also, encourage the use of phrases such as “Yummy”, “Yuk” and “It stinks”. Pairs keep talking until they have gone through all of the items on the board.

3. Play the song “I Don’t Like Cheese” and students fill in their worksheets. For this song, students listen and fill in their worksheets by drawing the different food items they hear.  The song runs through the vocab pretty quickly, so play the song at least twice.

   Click here to download the “I Don’t Like Cheese” song worksheet.

   After playing the song a few times, elicit the answers and put the flashcards on the board in the right columns so everyone can check (there will only be “cheese” in the ‘I don’t like’ column). Play the song through once more, pointing at the items on the board – encourage everyone to sing along.  Alternatively, you could use the “I Don’t Like Cheese” song poster.

4. Magazine cut outs. Now everyone is going to make a poster showing the food and drink they like / dislike.  You will need some supermarket magazines for this – many supermarkets have free magazines showing the food they have on sale – collect as many as you can before the lesson.  Give each student a large piece of paper (construction paper or card, if possible), scissors, glue and a magazine (you can group students together to share magazines).  On the paper, each student should write their name at the top and then make a table with two columns titled “I like …” and “I don’t like”.  Then they can go through the magazines and cut out and glue food and drink pictures into the correct column on their posters.

   As the students are working on this, circulate, helping with vocab and asking questions (e.g. What’s this, Do you like ~, etc.).

   When everyone has finished, get each student to hold up their posters and explain what they like and dislike.  If you have a large class, you can do this in pairs or groups.

5. Play the “Funny Food Likes & Dislikes Game”.  This is a really fun way to end the lesson.  You will need put the class into groups of 3 or 4 and give each group a die and the following handout (if you can enlarge it to A3 size it would be better):

   Funny Food Likes & Dislikes Game handout

   Instructions:
   Before the game starts write the following on the board:

   1. pizza
   2. soup
   3. ice cream
   4. sandwich
   5. juice
   6. cake

   1. Play the game in groups of 3 or 4.  Everyone sits around the game board.  Decide who goes first and play in a clockwise direction around the game board.
   2. Player 1 rolls a die onto the game board paper. Look at which food item it lands on and the number of the die.
   3. The player must then make a sentence with the food item and using the number on the board.  E.g. If the die lands on the cheese picture and number 3 s/he must say:

      “I don’t like cheese ice cream!”
      or
      “I like cheese ice cream” (in this case, probably not!)

   4. Cross out that picture with a pencil.
   5. The next player must roll the die.  If the die lands on a crossed out picture s/he misses a turn (also miss a turn if the die doesn’t land on a picture at all).  If the die lands on a new picture, s/he must make another like  / don’t like sentence.
   6. The game continues until all of the pictures are crossed out.

   At the end of the game you can ask everyone to tell you the strangest thing they made a sentence about (e.g. “I don’t like hamburger ice cream!”).

6. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Food likes & dislikes 1” or “Food likes & dislikes 2” worksheet (depending on the level of your students).

Gestures and activities to use with the “Let’s Get Dressed” song

During the song your students will play a wonderful dressing up game – a lot of fun!  Before class you need to collect as many old (adult size) clothes as you can for the following vocab: shirt, pants/trousers, socks, jacket, shoes, hat.  If you can’t get enough, ask parents to bring in some old clothes for the lesson.  The clothes need to be adult size as the students are going to put them over their own clothes – having such big clothes actually makes the activity more fun!

Depending on how many clothes you can find, you can either have everyone dress up at the same time or you can have a few students come up to the front of the class to do the activity.

Pile the clothes in a big heap and start the song.  As the first clothing item is mentioned (shirt) the students have to scramble in the pile of clothes to find a shirt and put it on before the next item of clothing is mentioned. As the song is played the students put on all the clothes until they are fully dressed.  Then finish the game by getting the students to race in taking off their adult-sized clothes – the first to remove them all is the winner!

Using the “Let’s Get Dressed” song in class

This is an active song which can be used to play a really fun dressing up game. NOTE: You will need to prepare some old clothes to use in the lesson (see point 1 below):

1. Prepare as many old (adult-sized) clothes as possible. Before class you need to collect as many old (adult size) clothes as you can. Have at least the following: shirt, pants/trousers, socks, jacket, shoes, hat – however, other clothes will be useful as well, such as skirt, dress, coat, jeans, shorts, blouse, sweater, neck tie, t-shirt, vest.  If you can’t get enough, ask parents to bring in some old clothes for the lesson.  The clothes need to be adult size as the students are going to put them over their own clothes – having such big clothes actually makes the activity more fun!
2. Introduce the vocab. No doubt the large pile of clothes in the classroom will have attracted a great amount of attention, so you’ll have little difficulty in introducing the topic!  Settle the class down and get everyone to sit down.  Ask for a volunteer and have them stand at the front of the class with you.  Tell the class the volunteer is going to get dressed up – with as many different types of clothes as possible!  Pull out the first clothing item (e.g. a t-shirt).  Elicit / teach and chorus the word for the item.  Then help your volunteer to put it on.  Only put on each item of clothing when you are satisfied that everyone has chorused the word correctly.  Then move onto the next clothing item.  As you select each item think about the order – you’ll want your volunteer to be putting the jacket, shoes and hat on last.  Keep adding clothes until your volunteer is really well dressed up.
3. Practice the clothing vocab with flashcards. Help the volunteer undress and then get everyone to look at the board.  Make sure you have the same clothing flashcards as the old clothes you are using. Stick the first flashcard on the board and elicit the vocab and write the word clearly below it.  Do the same for all of the other flashcards.  Next tell everyone to close their eyes and remove one of the flashcards from the board.  Now shout “Open your eyes” – everyone must shout out the missing flashcard.  Play this until all the flashcards have been elicited.
4. Play “Team Racing”. Divide the class into 2 teams.  Line up the 2 teams at one end of the classroom with the old clothes on the floor at the other end.  You will shout out an instruction (e.g. “Put on some socks!”) and one member from each team will race against the other to the pile of clothes, put on the clothing item and run back to their team.  The person who gets back first wins a point for his/her team.  At the end, the team with the most points is the winner.
5. Sing “Let’s Get Dressed”. Prepare everyone for the song first.  Make sure the following clothes are on the floor: shirt, pants/trousers, socks, jacket, shoes, hat.  If you have enough for everyone to get dressed at the same time you can do the song with everyone participating with the actions.  If not, have a few students do the song actions while everyone else sings along (the words are simple) – you can give everyone a go by playing the song a few times.

   The song is also an active listening exercise.  Students will have to listen for the clothing item and then put it on.  Pile the clothes in a big heap and start the song.  As the first clothing item is mentioned (shirt) the students have to scramble in the pile of clothes to find a shirt and put it on before the next item of clothing is mentioned. As the song is played the students put on all the clothes until they are fully dressed.  Then finish the game by getting the students to race in taking off their adult-sized clothes – the first to remove them is the winner!

6. Do cut and paste craft sheets.  We have two different cut and paste craft sheets for clothes: “Dress Up Craft“(for lower levels) and “Clothes Craft” (for higher levels).  For younger students, cut out the clothes before class so they only need to color and glue the clothes onto the bodies.  You can do this craft as an active listening exercise but giving instructions on which clothes to cut out and what colors they should be:

   E.g. “First cut out the socks, color them blue and glue them on the boy”

   So that everyone has to listen and cut out/color the correct items.

7. Create a “Clothes Catalogue Scene“. For this you will need to bring in some old catalogues or magazines.  Put the class into small groups and give each group a large piece of construction paper / card, scissors, glue and some felt tip pens. Tell the class that they have 10 minutes to create a scene with lots of people: the students will have to cut out clothes and draw to create the picture.  It will help if you have already created your own scene so students can see what they have to do.  As everyone is creating their scenes, walk around the classroom asking lots of questions related to the vocab (What is he wearing?, etc.) and helping with any new vocab.

   Finally, have each group present the scene using the structure “He / She is wearing” (e.g. “She is wearing a blue hat”).  You can put all the scenes on the classroom walls as decoration and to review in future lessons.

8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Colorful Clothes” or “Jungle Clothes” worksheets (depending on the level of your students).

Gestures and activities to use with “The Thanksgiving Song”

The actions for this song are simple, fun and energetic – who wouldn’t enjoy running around like a turkey?!

Everyone stands up for the song:

• “Hello Mr. Turkey, Hello Mr. Turkey” – everyone sings and waves.
• “How are you? How are you?” – do the question gesture (palms up with inquisitive face).
• “With a gobble … And a wobble…” – this is the really fun bit. Everyone runs around like a turkey (crouched over, flapping elbows in a wobbly fashion) while gobbling!
• “Happy, Happy Thanksgiving” – stop running around and sing.
• “Hip hip hooray!” – throw arms up in the air in celebration!

Using ”The Thanksgiving Song” in class

Please check our free Thanksgiving Lesson Plan page for ideas to use in your Thanksgiving lessons.

Using the “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” song in class

Please check our free Christmas Lesson Plan page for ideas to use in your Christmas lessons.

Jingle Bells (adapted)

Song Theme: Talking about Christmas and Christmas traditions
Target Vocab: Jingle Bells, riding, snow, Santa, Rudolf, sleigh, laughing, bells, nose, shining, roof, chimney, fast asleep, Christmas tree, Merry Christmas, shout.
Song Length: 1:22

A classic Christmas song with easier lyrics for kids learning English.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Using the “Jingle Bells” song in class

Please check our free Christmas Lesson Plan page for ideas to use in your Christmas lessons.

Verse 2:

It’s seven o’clock
It’s eight o’clock
It’s nine o’clock
It’s ten o’clock
It’s eleven o’clock
It’s twelve o’clock

Tick-tock-tick-tock
Tick-tock-tick-tock

Gestures and activities to use with the “What Time Is It?” song

For this song your students are going to be human clocks, using their arms to show the time.  Have everybody stand up with plenty of room to move their arms around without hitting anyone.

1. For the question words sing along and hold your hands out, palms up, in the question gesture.
2. For the times, hold your arms straight out in the time position.  So, for 1 o’clock, hold one arm straight up towards 12 and the other arm towards one.  As the song continues, one arm will move around the clock counting off each hour.

Using the “What Time Is It?” song in class

This is a really good song for introducing your students to telling the time as it contains key vocab and structures.  The gestures are easy and fun – your students will enjoy swinging their arms around with the times in the song.

1. Introduce a clock and review numbers 1 to 12. Start the lesson by bringing in a clock or alternatively make a craft clock using our clock shape craft sheet. Elicit and chorus the word “clock”.  Then point to number 1 and elicit the number.  Point to each number 1-12 in order and elicit the numbers (you can move the hour hand around as you do this).
2. Practice recognizing numbers 1-12. Before class prepare twelve A4 sheets of paper with a number (1-12) written on each piece.  Place the numbers randomly around the walls of the classroom at a height where your student can reach them.  In class, draw your students’ attention to the numbers and say “Point to number 1″.  Everyone should point.  Then go through all the numbers 1-12.
3. Play “Touch the numbers on the wall”. Get everyone standing in the middle of the classroom.  Shout “Touch Number 7!”.  Everyone should run and touch that number – it will be a mad scramble but good fun!  Then go through the rest of the numbers.
4. Write the numbers on the board. Along the top of the board write the numbers in order 1-12. Divide the class into 4 teams and get each team to elect a representative to write on the board.  Have the 4 students come to the board and tell them they are going to race to write the numbers 1-12.  The winner will win a point for their team.  Say “Ready – Steady – Go!” and the 4 students race to write the numbers.  Then get another 4 students to have a go.  At the end the team with the most points is the winner.
5. Teach the time vocab. Hold up your clock and set a time (e.g. 4 o’clock).  Ask the class “What time is it?”.  Elicit / teach “It’s 4 o’clock”.  Move the hand to another time, and ask again (you can also ask “Please could you tell me the time?”).  Go through the hours eliciting the times from the class until they have got the hang of the structures.
6. Practice the gestures of the song. Stand everyone in front of you. Say “Point you hands at 1 o’clock” and demonstrate how to do this (hold one arm straight up at 12 and the other at 1).  Then say “Point you hands at 2 o’clock” … continue all the way round to 12 o’clock.
7. Sing the “What Time Is It?” song. Now that everyone has got the idea of the actions for the song they should be ready. The teacher should also do the actions of the song and sing along so to encourage everyone to follow. Play the song through the first time and just focus on getting the actions right. After that play the song a couple more times and encourage everyone to sing as well.
8. Do the Clock Craft Sheet.  Before class print out the clock shape craft sheet – enough so that each student has one. You can either cut out the shapes before class or have your students cut out the shapes in class. You will also need fasteners for each clock to fasten the arms to the clock.  After constructing the clocks, put students in pairs.  First model the activity with a student.  Student A sets a time on his/her clock and asks “What time is it?” or “Please could you tell me the time?”.  Their partner answers.  Each pair takes it in turn to ask each other.
9. Play “What time do you?”. Still using the clocks, your students are going to show you the time they usually do things.  Ask the class questions, such as “What time do you usually wake up?” (if they are not sure you can use gestures to show what you mean). As you ask the questions, everyone should move the hands on their clock to the time they do these activities.  Then select some students to orally tell you their time (e.g. “I wake up at 7 o’clock”). We are only concentrating on “o’clock” for this lesson, so if students have times on their clock such as 7.20 you can teach “About 7 o’clock”.

   Other routine questions you can ask the time for could be: eat breakfast / lunch / dinner, go to bed, go to school, leave school, take a bath, do homework, brush teeth, etc.

10. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “What time is it? It’s __ o’clock” worksheet.