Quantcast
Channel: esl kids songs – ESL KidStuff Blog
Viewing all 53 articles
Browse latest View live

The Wheels on the Bus

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Wheels on the Bus

Wheels on the BusThe Wheels of the Bus

Song Theme: Talking about travelling on the bus
Target Vocab: bus, wheels, go round, town, wipers, go swish, horn, goes beep, doors, open, shut, babies, go boo-hoo, driver, sit down.
Song Length: 1:58

A fun song with great vocab.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
The wheels on the bus
Go round and round
Round and round
Round and round.
The wheels on the bus
Go round and round
All around the town.

Verse 2:
The wipers on the bus
Go swish, swish, swish
Swish, swish, swish
Swish, swish, swish.
The wipers on the bus
Go swish, swish, swish
All around the town.

Verse 3:
The horn on the bus
Goes beep, beep, beep
Beep, beep, beep
Beep, beep, beep.
The horn on the bus
Goes beep, beep, beep
All around the town.

Verse 4:
The doors on the bus
Go open and shut
Open and shut
Open and shut.
The doors on the bus
Go open and shut
All around the town.

Verse 5:
The babies on the bus
Go “Boo-hoo-hoo!
Boo-hoo-hoo!
Boo-hoo-hoo!”
The babies on the bus
Go “Boo-hoo-hoo!”
All around the town.

Verse 6:
The driver of the bus
Says “Please sit down!
Please sit down!
Please sit down!”
The driver of the bus
Says “Please sit down!
All around the town.

Verse 7:
The wheels on the bus
Go round and round
Round and round
Round and round.
The wheels on the bus
Go round and round
All around the town.

 

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.

 


New Song: The Easter Song!

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Easter Song!

Easter SongThe Easter Song!

Song Theme: Singing about the Easter rabbit and looking for Easter eggs
Target Vocab: Easter rabbit, hiding, chocolate eggs, Look in the ~, garden, living room, kitchen, bedroom, dining room, bathroom, everywhere, I’ve found my chocolate eggs, yummy!
Song Length: 1:13

A really fun Easter song with about searching for Easter eggs!

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Comes when I’m in bed,
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Hiding chocolate eggs.

Verse 1:
Look in the garden (garden)
Look in the living room (living room)
Look in the kitchen (kitchen)
Look everywhere!

Where are the chocolate eggs?

Chorus
 
Verse 2:
Look in the bedroom (bedroom)
Look in the dining room (dining room)
Look in the bathroom (bathroom)
Look everywhere!
 
Where are the chocolate eggs?
 
Chorus
 
Verse 3:
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!
Chocolate eggs!
 

 

Gestures and activities to use with “The Easter Song”

The actions for this song are very simple, fun and energetic – lots of hopping around like a rabbit!

Everyone stands up for the song:

  • For the chorus, everyone hops around the classroom like a rabbit
  • For the verses, pretend to be looking for Easter eggs (gesture with palm of hand over eyes)

 

Using “The Easter Song” in class

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

 

New Song: Where are you Going?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Where are you Going?

Where are you Going? songWhere are you Going?

Song Theme: Asking and answering about where you are going.
Target Vocab: Where are you going (right now)?, I’m going to ~, school, the park, the shops, the beach, my friend’s house, the station, the zoo, home.
Song Length: 0:54

A song about going to different places in your neighborhood using the present continuous tense.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Where are you going right now?

Verse 1:
I’m going to school,
I’m going to the park,
I’m going to the shops,
I’m going to the beach.

Chorus:
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Where are you going right now?

Verse 2:
I’m going to my friend’s house,
I’m going to the station,
I’m going to the zoo,
I’m going home.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Where are you Going?” song

The gestures are very simple and fun:

  • during the chorus everyone does the ‘question gesture’ (both palms up, looking quizzical) whilst swaying in time with the music.
  • during the verses everyone either walks around the classroom or walks on the spot – in time with the music.

 

Using the “Where are you Going?” song in class

This is a nice easy song which introduces students to different places in their town.  NOTE: You should do the “How did you get here today?” song and lesson before this lesson as the transportation vocab taught for that song will be used in this lesson during the “Where are you Going? Board Game”.

  1. Play the “Snake Follow” game. This lesson starts in a really fun way.  Get everyone to line up behind the teacher.  Get everyone to shout “Where are you going?” and on that prompt shout back “Over here!” and start walking to a different part of the classroom, with everyone following in a line behind you (like a snake).  Keep doing as you snake your way around the classroom at different speeds.  Other students can also have a go at being the head of the snake.
  2. Introduce the vocab. Before class prepare the flashcards for the different places in the song:

    school, the park, the shops, my friend’s house, the station, the zoo
    home
    the beach

    Hold up each flashcard and elicit / teach the word.  Have students pass each flashcard around the class with each student saying the word as s/he passes the card.

  3. Play “Flashcard Slam” and “Missing Flashcard”. First play “Flashcard Slam” – lay all the flashcards on the floor and get everyone to sit around the cards in a circle (for large groups, have a few sets of flashcards so you can do this in groups).  Teacher says “Touch the station!” and everyone must quickly slam their hand down on the correct card.  Play this until every card has been practised.  Then play “Missing Flashcard” – with the cards all laid out on the floor, tell everyone to close their eyes.  Then the teacher takes away one card.  Say “Open your eyes” and everyone must shout out the missing card.  Continue to play with other missing cards until all vocab has been practised.
  4. Play “I’m going to… “. You’ll need two sets of the places flashcards for this game, which practises the key structures “Where are you going?” and “I’m going to …”.  Get everyone to close their eyes as you place each card from one set around the room (e.g. place the zoo card in the corner, the park card under a desk, etc.).  Tell everyone to open their eyes.  Give a card (e.g. zoo) from the second set to a student.  Have the following conversation (model):

    Teacher: “Where are you going?”
    Student: “I’m going to the zoo”
    Teacher: “Ok then.  Goodbye”
    Student: “Goodbye”

    The student must then search for the zoo flashcard. When s/he finds it s/he can return to you for another card.  As the first student is searching, give another card (e.g. the beach) to another student and have the same conversation.  Eventually, you will have students searching all over the place and returning for another card – it’ll be a bit hectic but great fun – plus the key structures are being practised.

  5. Sing the “Where are you Going?” song. Put the places flashcards on the board in the order of the song (or put up the song poster).  Get everyone to stand up and show them the gestures (see above).  Then run through the song a few times.
  6. Play the “Where are you Going” board game. This is a great board game to play in groups of 2-4 players.  Put the class onto groups and give out the boards and game cards (you’ll need to print and cut out before the lesson).  Each group needs a die and each player a small counter (pen tops, etc., will do.).  Then explain the rules and model how to play the game (the rules are on the worksheet).  Then let everyone play.  As they are playing, walk around and help out and make sure the structures are being used.
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Where are you Going Write” worksheet.

 

The Family Song

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Family Song

The Family SongThe Family Song

Song Theme: Saying different members of the family.
Target Vocab: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, family, hello, how are you?, I’m fine thank you, See you soon.
Song Length: 2:30

A really nice song for very young learners with family finger puppet play.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Hello father, Hello father,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 2:
Hello mother, Hello mother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 3:
Hello brother, Hello brother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 4:
Hello sister, Hello sister,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 5:
Hello grandfather, Hello grandfather,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 6:
Hello grandmother, Hello grandmother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 7:
Hello family, Hello family,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

 

Gestures and activities to use with “The Family Song”

For this song students use finger puppets (download and cut out the puppets):

  • before the song, help everyone to put on the puppets – there are 6 puppets altogether, 3 on each hand.
  • as the song plays, students wiggle the puppet for that particular verse (e.g. in Verse 1 it is “father”) and sing along.
  • for the last verse (family) students wiggle all of their finger puppets

 

Using “The Family Song” in class

This is an easy song which introduces students to the words for different family members. This is a great song and lesson to teach little ones as they completely understand the concept of family.

NOTE: if possible, ask the parents before class to arrange for their kids to bring in family photos – parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, themselves.  Also, bring in a few family photos of your own.

  1. Do “Teacher’s Family Photos Time” activity. If you can bring in photos of your family, this is a great activity to do.  Also try to encourage your students to bring in photos of their family – you’ll need to arrange this with the parents before the lesson.  If you can’t bring in photos, see the alternative below.

    Draw 7 squares on the top of your board in a row (see image below). Hold up a photo of yourself and ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit that it is you, stick the photo inside the middle square and write your name under the photo.  Next take out another photo (e.g. your father) and again ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit and teach the family vocab and stick the photo in one of the squares and write the word (e.g. “father”) under the photo.  Do for all of the following: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother – you may not have some of these family members, but for the sake of this lesson, use photos of friends, etc., and pretend they are your brother, grandmother, etc.

    Board layout for family photos 1

    Your students will really enjoy seeing your family photos and will probably ask questions – feel free to extend the information you give on your family members, especially if it reviews previous lessons, such as ages and jobs.  Also, you can practice/review describing vocab (e.g. blond hair, big eyes, etc.).

    Alternative: If you can’t bring in family photos: instead of using your family photos, cut out pictures of people from magazines and pretend they are your family members. Younger kids will generally believe you (and may even be quite impressed!).

  2. Do “Students’ Family Photos Time” activity. If your students have brought in photos of themselves and their families, this is a great activity to do. If not, go to step 3.

    On the board, under the row of 7 photos of your family you are going to place photos from each of the students’ families. First, hold up the photos of the students in your class and elicit who they are – each time, stick their photo in the middle column and write their names underneath.

    Next, you are going to play a guessing game – hold up a photo of one of your student’s family members (e.g. Hugo’s sister) and get everyone to guess whose family the person belongs to.  Elicit family vocab (e.g. “It’s Hugo’s sister“) and place the photo on the board in the correct place (e.g., for Hugo’s sister, it would go in the row of Hugo’s photo and in the sister column).

    Board layout for family photos 2

    Keep holding up randomly selected photos of your students’ family members and placing on the board until your board is full of family photos. 

  3. Make “My Family Tree” Posters. Give out a piece of colored construction paper / card to each student.  They are each going to make a family tree poster of their family.  Begin by demonstrating the activity – with a green and brown crayon draw a large tree, filling up the whole piece of paper.  At the top write in large letters “My family”.  Then, either stick your photos family photos onto the tree or draw pictures of your family (grandparents at the top, next your parents and you and your siblings at the bottom).  Finally, under each family member photo/picture write the vocab (grandfather, mother, etc.).

    Now get your students to do the same.  If they brought in photos they can use them on their poster – if not, encourage them to draw pictures of their family members.  Students can copy the words from your poster (display it clearly).

    Finally, have each student pin their poster to the walls of the classroom.  Ask each student questions (e.g. Is that you mother?  What is your brother’s name?  How old is your sister?).

    NOTE: Depending on the level of your students you can have them write more information about their family members on the poster (e.g. names, ages, jobs, etc.). Students can even draw pictures of their pets.

  4. Make and play with Finger Puppets. For the song we are going to use finger puppets (craft sheet here).  Before class, print and cut out the finger puppets. We have color and black & white versions of the craft sheet – if using the black & white version, have your students color in the puppets before starting the song. Then attach the puppets to each students’ fingers by taping the straps around the finger – 3 puppets on each hand.

    Next, check everyone understands which puppet is which – say “Everybody wiggle grandfather” – make sure you are wearing your finger puppets as well so you can demonstrate.  Go through each puppet, wiggling fingers.  Then play a quick game: say “Wiggle the sister” and everyone has to quickly wiggle the right one.  Do for a few rounds until everyone has got the hang of it.

  5. Sing “The Family Song”. Play the song and sing along – wiggling the correct puppet for each verse (e.g. verse 1 is “father”).  If everyone enjoyed the song, play it once more.
  6. Play “Finger Puppet Conversations”. By now, everyone should have the idea of the structures from the song, so we are going to have some fun role-plays with the finger puppets.  First model with one student.  Hold up one finger puppet (e.g. mother) and get the other student to hold up one finger (e.g. grandfather).  Role-play a fun conversation, for example:

    T: Hello grandfather.
    S: Hello mother.
    T: How are you?
    S: I’m fine, thank you.  How are you?
    T: I’m fine, thank you. See you soon.
    S: See you soon.

    Then you can change finger puppets and do the conversation again.  Depending on level, you can also throw in a few more questions, such as, “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?”, “Where do you live?”, etc.

    Now the class can role-play.  Put everyone into pairs and set a timer to one minute.  Shout “Start!” and the pairs should role-play with different puppets until the timer goes off.  Then shout “Change partners!” and everyone finds a new partner for another one-minute conversation.  Keep going for a few rounds.

  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “My Family” worksheet.

 

What Sports do you Play?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: What Sports do you Play?

What Sports do you Play? songWhat Sports do you Play?

Song Theme: Talking about playing different sports.
Target Vocab: sports, play, soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton.
Song Length: 1:16

A lively song about playing sports.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 1:
I play *soccer (soccer!),
I play tennis (tennis!),
I play golf (golf!),
I play basketball (basketball!).

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 2:
I play baseball (baseball!),
I play volleyball (volleyball!),
I play rugby (rugby!),
I play badminton (badminton!).

* In the British version of the song the word “football” is sung instead of “soccer”.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song

The gestures revolve around the actions for the different sports in the song:

- During the chorus have everyone sing and clap along.

- For the verses have everyone do the actions as they sing:

  • soccer/football: kick an imaginary ball
  • tennis: hit an imaginary tennis ball with an imaginary racket
  • golf: swing an imaginary gold club
  • basketball: bounce an imaginary basketball
  • baseball: swing an imaginary baseball bat
  • volleyball: smash an imaginary ball with your hand
  • rugby: throw an imaginary rugby ball to the side
  • badminton: smash an imaginary shuttlecock with an imaginary racket

 

Using the “What Sports do you Play?” song in class

This is a lively song which introduces the phrases “What sports do you play” and “I play ~”.  During the lesson you’ll have a lot of fun playing different sports.

  1. Introduce and play sports. As the lesson is sports themed we are going to do lots of fun sports activities.  Make sure all of the desks and chairs are moved to the side of the classroom.

    - You’ll need the following sports flashcards: soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton
    - You’ll also need lots of review flashcards from previous lessons
    - You’ll need the following equipment: balloons, bean bag balls or small soft balls, a waste paper basket or a cardboard box, a length of rope

    Start by dividing the class up into teams (for small classes 2 teams, larger classes up to 4 teams).  Get each team to come up with a team name and then elicit the team names and write across the top of the board (this will become the score board).  During this part of the lesson students will compete in a number of sports and win points for their team.

    Soccer/Football: First, stick the soccer/football flashcard onto the bottom of the board and say “What sport is this?”.  Elicit “Soccer” or “Football”.  Then say, “I like playing soccer (or football)”.  Do you like playing soccer (or football)?”.  Hopefully this will elicit some positive responses.  Then stand up and say “Ok, let’s play soccer (or football)!”.

    Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  At the other end of the classroom make a small goal (use two chairs or cushions for goal posts).  Place a balloon a few meters in front of the goal – far enough so that when kicked makes it possible to score but not too easy.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot.  If correct, let them run up and kick the balloon.  A goal earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores (we are not finished yet!).

    Tennis: Next, place the tennis flashcard on the board and elicit it.  This time we are going to play “Head Tennis” with balloons.  Pair up 2 students from opposing teams and have them stand facing each other.  They then have to head the ball between each other – the last player to head the balloon wins (for younger students, patting the balloon is fine).  The winner has to then answer a question to win a point for their team (e.g. What’s your name? How old are you?, etc.).  Play until everyone has had a go, then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Golf: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard.   This time we are going to play “Pencil Golf”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up in the middle of the classroom with a pencil each. Give each pair a small bean bag ball or soft ball.  Players take turns to hit the ball towards the opposite wall – therefore each student will compete to hit the ball in a different direction – however, as they are only using pencils the balls won’t travel far each hit!  Give a time limit of 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, the student from each pair who is closest to his/her wall is the winner.  Now, the winner will have say the correct vocab word for a review flashcard to win a point for their team.  Then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Basketball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Shoot the Basket”.  You’ll need a waste paper basket or just a cardboard box. Also, take a piece of paper and screw it up into a ball. Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  Put the basket at the other end of the classroom.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot at the basket with the screwed up paper ball.  If correct, let him/her take a shot.  A successful shot earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Baseball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Baseball”.  Have each team line up – everyone is a batter and the teacher is the pitcher.  Stand in front of the first student in the line and ask a question (e.g. Where do you live?,  What is your favorite food?, etc.).  If the student answers correctly pat the balloon towards the student.  S/he has to hold their hands together and swing and hit the balloon (like a baseball swing).  A successful hit wins a point.  Any hit that bounces against a classroom wall wins an extra point for a home run! Play until at least each student has had a chance to bat.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Volleyball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Volleyball”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up with a length of rope separating them (you can lie the rope right across the classroom and have students stand either side as they play). Give each pair a balloon.  They pat the balloon to each other and try to stop it hitting the floor – whoever let’s it drop loses a point.  Let everyone play for a few minutes, then ask who the winner of each game is.  To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Rugby: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Rugby Balloon Pass”. In rugby you have to pass the ball backwards, so we are going to play a game passing a balloon backwards.  Get each team to line up, each student behind the other.  Give the player at the front of each team’s line a balloon.  S/he must pass the balloon backwards to his team-mate over the head.  The next player passes behind to his/her team-mate between the legs, and so on, over the head and between the legs.  Each team must race against each other.  The team that gets the balloon to the last player wins a point. You can play this game a few times. Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Badminton: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Badminton Keep Ups”. Put students in pairs from opposing teams.  Give each student a screwed up paper ball.  Each student has to compete against his/her partner to pat the ball up the most times before the ball hits the ground.  Allow everyone about 2 minutes and then find out who managed to keep the ball up the most from each pair. To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Finally, get everyone to sit down and tally the final scores to find out which team is the winner.  The winning team will get a special prize at the end (see point 6 below)!

  2. Teach structures “What sports do you play?”, “I play ~”, “I don’t play~”. You should now have 8 sports flashcards on the board.  Model the structures: point at the first card and say “I play soccer/football” – while nodding you head.  Then go to the next flashcard and say “I don’t play tennis” shaking your head.  Go through all the cards saying what you do and don’t play.

    Now model with some students.  Ask one student “What sports do you play?” and help him/her go through the 8 sports saying what s/he does and doesn’t play.  Do this with a couple more students so everyone gets the idea.  Now in pairs, students ask and answer the question.  Change pairs a few times until everyone has had plenty of practice.

  3. Sing “What Sports do you Play?”. Get everyone to stand up and sing along to the song whilst they do the gestures (see the ‘Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song’ above).  Either use the flashcards on the board to prompt the order of the sports in the song or use our song poster.  Sing the song through a couple of times.
  4. Teach sports verbs and equipment vocab. On the board write: “To play soccer (or football) you have to __________ a soccer ball (or football).  Elicit the missing verb and write “kick” in the blank.  Before class, cut out the words from this “Sports Vocab Cut Outs” worksheet – enough for each group of students.  In pairs, the students have to match the words (e.g. golf – hit – golf ball).  As students are matching the words go around the class checking and asking questions.
  5. Do the “Let’s Play Sports!” worksheet. This worksheet practices the vocab from the last point.  Give each student a worksheet and circulate as everyone fills in the blanks.
  6. Special prize for the winning team. The winning team from the sports competition at the beginning of the lesson can end the class by choosing one of the 8 sports for everyone to play again (no review flashcards necessary this time!).
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Sports Match up” or “Can you play …?” worksheet.

 

Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables

Mr. Farmer's Vegetables SongMr. Farmer’s Vegetables

Song Theme: Talking about different vegetables.
Target Vocab: farmer, farm, growing, carrots, potatoes, cabbages, onions, pumpkins, corn, radish, lettuce.
Song Length: 1:36

An upbeat song about a farmer growing vegetables on his farm.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh,  Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 1:
I am growing carrots, carrots,
I am growing potatoes, potatoes,
I am growing cabbages, cabbages,
I am growing onions, onions.

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh,  Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 2:
I am growing pumpkins, pumpkins,
I am growing corn, corn,
I am growing radish, radish,
I am growing lettuce, lettuce.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song

Before playing the song, put flashcards of the vegetables all around the walls of the classroom (in the same order of the song). Then start the song and do the following gestures:

- During the chorus have everyone do the cowboy dance – thumbs in belt hoops and kicking your legs out in time with the music.

- For the verses point to each of the vegetable flashcards on the wall.

 

Using the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song in class

This is a fun, cowboy-style song which introduces some common vegetables. Students will make a vegetable basket craft and practice saying their likes and dislikes.

  1. Play “Find the Vegetables”. If possible, before class buy one of each of the following vegetables (and other kinds if you like): a carrot, a potato, a cabbage, an onion, a pumpkin, corn (on the cob if possible), a radish, a lettuce.  If you can’t bring vegetables into class, other options are: plastic fruit (sometimes available at dollar shops and toy shops), vegetable flashcards, vegetable photos cut out of free supermarket magazines.  Also, bring in a basket for the vegetables.

    Before your students enter your classroom hide the vegetables all around the room – in draws, behind books, under things, etc.  Once you are ready to begin the main part of your lesson, have everyone sit down and say to your students “Let’s look for some vegetables!”.  Then stand up and demonstrate that you are searching for something.  Find one of the vegetables and show your thrill in doing so.  Take it over to the basket and drop it in saying “Put it in the basket”.  Then get everyone to hunt around the room until all of the vegetables have been found and placed in the basket.

  2. Teach vegetable vocabulary. Hold up the first vegetable and chorus the word three times (e.g. “carrot, carrot, carrot”).  Then pass the vegetable around the class, each student saying the name as they pass it.  Do this for all of the vegetables.
  3. Play “The Missing Vegetable” and “Blindfold Touch”.  Line all the vegetables up on a desk.  Say “Close your eyes” and get everyone to cover and close their eyes.  Take away one of the vegetables and hide it behind your back – everyone must open their eyes and shout out the missing vegetable. Play this until all of the vegetable vocabulary has been practised.

    Keep the vegetables lined up on the desk.  Take out a blindfold and model the activity – put on the blindfold then touch and feel one of the vegetables.  Look confused and say the wrong word (e.g. touch a cabbage and say “Is it a carrot?”).  Get the students to help you until you guess correctly.  Then blindfold one student, turn him/her around 3 times and help him/her to go to the desk and touch/feel one vegetable and say what it is.  Give all of the students a go.

  4. Play “Musical Pass the Vegetables”. Sit everyone in a circle, put on some music, and have everyone pass all of the vegetables around the circle (in the same direction).  So the music will be playing and all of your vegetables will be going around the circle.  Suddenly stop the music – the students holding the vegetables must shout out the name of the vegetable they are holding.  The last person to shout out the correct word is out (and also remove their vegetable).  Keep playing, with each round the last person going out.  This should end with just 2 students passing one vegetable back and forth. It’s a really fun game!
  5. Sing “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables”. Prepare for the song by taking out the flashcards of the vegetables.  Show each one in the order of the song (so carrot first, potato next, etc.) and stick each one on the walls of the classroom.  Try and get it so that the cards are evenly distributed around the walls (still in the order of the song) so you will have to turn 360 degrees to look at all of the cards.  Alternatively, you can use the song poster.  Get everyone to stand up and dance, sing and point to the vegetables (as described in “Gestures and activities to use with the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song” above). You can play the song 2 or three times.
  6. Do the “Vegetable Basket Craft. Use the following craft sheets:

    Before class, print off enough craft sheets for each student as well as yourself and cut out the basket and vegetable pictures. Give the cut-outs to each student and then get everyone to follow you as you color in the vegetables and the basket – as you are doing this chat with your students, asking questions such as “What color shall we use for the potato?”, “Do you like cabbage?”, “What’s your favourite vegetable?”, etc.  When everything has been colored in, glue the baskets to construction paper and get students to put in their vegetables (have students say the names of the vegetables as they do so).

    An alternative is to print off just one large basket and get everyone to put their colored vegetables into the “class basket”.

  7. Play “Let’s make Vegetable Soup”. To finish off the lesson we are going make some imaginary vegetable soup.  You need a large cooking pot, ladle and some plastic/paper bowls and spoons.

    Say “I’m hungry.  Let’s make some soup!” (while rubbing your empty stomach).  Take out the large pot and say “Let’s cook vegetable soup!  We need some vegetables”. Model by taking one of your vegetable cut-outs from your craft basket – say “Yummy, I like (radish)” and put it into the pot and stir.  Then say, “Hmm. We need some more vegetables”.  Invite each student to take some of their vegetables from their craft basket and put into the pot, saying “Yummy, I like ~”.  Keep stirring – you can also invite students to give the soup a stir.

    Finally, say “The soup is ready!”.  Get everyone to hold out their bowls and ladle in some imaginary soup.  If some students refuse, this is fine – try and get them to say “I don’t like vegetable soup”.  Then say “Let’s eat!”.  Make lots of slurping noises and say things like “Yummy!” and “Delicious!” and encourage everyone else to do the same.  You can even offer seconds!  Finish off by getting everyone to retrieve their vegetable cut-outs from the pot and put back into their baskets.

  8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Vegetable Basket” worksheet.

 

Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)

Let's Look at the Animals songLet’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)

Song Theme: Using adjectives to describe animals.
Target Vocab: big, small, long, fat, fast, strong, bear, mouse, snake, hippo, horse, lion, What’s that?
Song Length: 1:54

A nice, easy-to-sing tune about describing animals.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 1:
It’s a bear and it’s big.
It’s a bear and it’s big.
It’s a big bear!

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 2:
It’s a mouse and it’s small.
It’s a mouse and it’s small.
It’s a small mouse!

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 3:
It’s a snake and it’s long.
It’s a snake and it’s long.
It’s a long snake!

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 4:
It’s a hippo and it’s fat,
It’s a hippo and it’s fat,
It’s a fat hippo!

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 5:
It’s a horse and it’s fast,
It’s a horse and it’s fast,
It’s a fast horse!

Chorus:
Let’s look at the animals,
Look, Look, Look!  What’s that?

Verse 6:
It’s a lion and it’s strong,
It’s a lion and it’s strong,
It’s a strong lion!

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)” song

There are two options:

  1. Listening worksheet – use this worksheet.  As you play the song students listen and circle the animal which best fits the description in the song.
  2. Actions.  Get everyone to stand up and do the following actions as they sing along to the song:
    - “Let’s look at the animals, Look, Look, Look!”: put your palm above your eyes as if you are looking into the distance
    - “What’s that?”: point at an imaginary animal
    - bear: act big and strong and show your claws
    - mouse: act small and run around like a mouse
    - snake: move your body like a slithering snake
    - hippo: act big and fat (blow out your cheeks) and roar
    - horse: gallop around like a horse
    - lion: act big and strong and roar like a lion

 

Using the “Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)” song in class

This is a catchy song which introduces some common adjectives to describe animals.

  1. Introduce the adjectives. You are going to introduce the following adjectives by drawing pictures on the board: big / small, long / short, fat / thin, strong / weak, fast / slow.  Don’t worry if you are not very artistic – even simple line drawings will do.

    First start by drawing two lines vertically down the board so you divide the board into three equal sections. Then do the following for each set of adjectives:

    • big / small: in the first section draw an apple (as shown below).  Elicit “apple” and write “an apple” under the picture.   Then, in the second section, draw a really big apple – fill up the whole section.  Teach / Elicit “big” and write “a big apple” under the picture.  Finally, draw a really small apple in the last section, teach / elicit “small” and write “a small apple”.

      Chorus each of the phrases three times.  Then erase the pictures of the big and small apples.  Invite one student up to the board and pointing in the middle section say “draw a big apple”.  Then invite another student up and say “draw a small apple” pointing at the last section.  Give each student a round of applause.

      Adjectives board

      For the rest of the adjectives, follow the same drawing on the board procedure:

    • long / short: draw a pencil (long and short).

    • fat / thin: draw a cat (fat and thin).

    • strong / weak: draw a man (strong – with big muscles, thin – a stick man with no muscles at all).
    • fast / slow: draw a car (a fast, sporty car, zooming around and an old, broken down car with smoke coming out of the exhaust).
  2. Play “Adjectives Pictionary”.  Start by playing on the board so everyone understands how to play.  Erase everything from the board except the two vertical lines from the previous activity.  Invite three students to the board and stand them in front of each blank section on the board and give them a marker / chalk each.  Say “Draw two thin snakes and one fat snake”.  When the drawings are finished select a winner for the best picture.  Play another round or two on the board with different students (use different adjectives and nouns each round).

    Next, put students into groups of three and give each student a large piece of paper to draw on.  Shout out the adjectives to draw and give everyone 1 minute to complete their drawings.  At the end of 1 minute get everybody to hold up their pictures – you are the judge and you have to select the best picture from each group of three students as the winning picture.  Then move onto the next drawings – play until all the adjectives have been practiced.  Here are some ideas for drawings:

    • thin / fat snakes
    • big / small houses
    • fast / slow snails
    • long / short carrots
    • strong / weak animals (e.g. dogs, lions, elephants, etc.)
  3. Sing “Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)”. There are two options for this song – either listening and doing the worksheet (click here) or singing along doing the gestures. Or you can do both!  See the section above “Gestures and activities to use with the “Let’s Look at the Animals (Adjectives Song)” song”.
  4. Play “Animal Races”.  Now we will have fun running across the room using the animal vocabulary in the song.  Clear all the tables and chairs from the room.  Line everyone up at one end of the room and lie a rope across the other end of the room (the finish line).  This isn’t going to be an actual race – there will be no prizes for the first across the finish line, but prizes can be given for the best performance (stickers, stars next to names on the class poster, praise, etc.).

    Start modeling the first “race”: say “Run like a big bear” and demonstrate running like a bear (roaring and clawing the air).  Then start the race and give your prize to the best performance (at this point make it obvious that the fastest isn’t the winner – the best performance wins!).

    Now do more races:

    • run like a big bear
    • run like a small mouse
    • slither like a long snake
    • wade across the river like a fat hippo
    • gallop like a fast horse
    • chase a deer like a strong lion
  5. Do the “Adjectives – Draw the Opposites” worksheet. Sit everyone down at their desks and give out the worksheets.  Have the students draw the opposites.  As they are working, circulate and ask questions (e.g. What is this?,  Is this a slow horse?, etc.).
  6. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Animal Adjectives – Write” worksheet.

 

What are you doing?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: What are you doing?

What are you Doing songWhat are you doing?

Song Theme: Using the present continuous tense to talk about activities you are doing now.
Target Vocab: What are you doing?, right now, I am~, running, cooking, eating, swimming, walking, drinking, drawing, sleeping.
Song Length: 1:57

An energetic song with lots of actions.  The songs starts off at a medium tempo and gets faster half way through.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing right now?

Verse 1:
I am running (running!)
I am cooking (cooking!)
I am eating (eating!)
I am swimming (swimming!)
Running, cooking, eating, swimming!

Chorus:
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing right now?

Verse 2:
I am walking (walking!)
I am drinking (drinking!)
I am drawing! (drawing!)
I am sleeping! (sleeping!)
Walking, drinking, drawing, sleeping!

Chorus:
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing right now?

Verse 3:
I am running (running!)
I am cooking (cooking!)
I am eating (eating!)
I am swimming (swimming!)
Running, cooking, eating, swimming.

Chorus:
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing right now?

Verse 4:
I am walking (walking!)
I am drinking (drinking!)
I am drawing! (drawing!)
I am sleeping! (sleeping!)
Walking, drinking, drawing, sleeping!

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “What are you doing?” song

Have everyone stand up for the song. We are going to do all of the actions as we sing, so it will be help to have the song poster on the board so everyone can see what actions to do.

  • during the chorus have everyone march in time with the song (either on the spot or around the classroom, depending on how much space you have available)
  • during the verses do the actions of the song

 

Using the “What are you doing?” song in class

This is a great energy burner song which introduces the present continuous tense for actions taking place at the time of speaking.

  1. Introduce the actions vocab: play “Slowly reveal the flashcard”. Your students should know some of these actions from previous lessons and possibly your warm-up routine (the “Exercise Routine” activity).  This will be a good review and an introduction to some more common verbs.

    Before class prepare the following flashcards: run, cook, eat, swim, walk, drink, draw, sleep.  You can also add some more action flashcards to this list for more practice.

    Start with the “run” flashcard – place it behind the pack of the other flashcards so your students can’t see the picture.  Slowly push the flashcard up, revealing a little of the picture.  Encourage students to shout out what they think it is.  Keep slowly revealing the image until someone shouts our the correct word (or for new words you will have to tell them the answer).  Then chorus the word 3 times.  Finally, shout “Ok, everyone run or 5 seconds … 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – Stop!” and have everyone run around as you count five seconds.

    Then do the same routine with the other flashcards.

  2. Play “Teacher Says”. This is the same as the game “Simon Says” but with the word “teacher” instead of “Simon”.  Line everyone up in front of you and say “Teacher says drink” and have everyone do the drinking action.  Go through a few more verbs with everyone doing the actions.  Then say “sleep” without the “Teacher says” part – anyone who does the action is out!  First time, you can give a warning but after that any mistakes result in the student sitting out the round.

  3. Introduce the structure – do “Marching Chant”. After playing “Teacher says”, keep everyone standing in a line facing you.  Place the flashcards on the board in the order of the song (or use the song poster).  Model marching on the spot and clapping a slow rhythm and get everybody to copy you – marching on the spot and clapping at an easy pace.  Then start the chant in time with the clapping: “What are you doing? – What are you doing? – What are you doing?, etc”.  Make it so that everyone echoes your chant:

    Teacher (chanting): What are you doing?
    Students (echoing): What are you doing?
    Teacher (chanting): What are you doing?
    Students (echoing): What are you doing?
    etc.

    Next, insert the first action into your chant and have everyone echo as they march and clap along:

    Teacher (chanting): I am running.
    Students (echoing): I am running.

    Then add more actions into the chant:

    Teacher (chanting): What are you doing?
    Students (echoing): What are you doing?
    Teacher (chanting): I am running.
    Students (echoing): I am running.
    Teacher (chanting): What are you doing?
    Students (echoing): What are you doing?
    Teacher (chanting): I am cooking.
    Students (echoing): I am cooking.
    etc.

    You can have some fun by going fast and slow, adjusting the pace of the marching and the chant.

  4. Play “What are you doing?” actions.  Start by modelling the activity.  Get a volunteer to help you.  Start running on the spot and have your volunteer say “What are you doing?” and reply “I am running!”.  Then start doing a cooking action and have the student ask again “What are you doing?”.  Reply “I am cooking!”.  Continue this for all of the verbs, in the order of the song, using the flashcards on the board (or the song poster) as prompts.

    Next, pair up your students.  Have one doing all of the actions and the other asking “What are you doing?”.  Once finished, students swap roles.

  5. Sing the “What are you doing?” song. By now, you will be ready for the song.  Play it through one time and have everyone do the actions and encourage them to sing along (see “Gestures and activities to use with the “What are you doing?” song” above).  Use the flashcards on the board or the song poster for prompts.

    Then play the song once more for fun.

  6. Do the “What are you Doing 1?” worksheet. Give out the worksheets and circulate as your students match the sentences to the pictures.
  7. Teach “I am, He is, She is, They are”. Start by teaching the following structures on the board:
    • I am running (draw a stick man / woman running and write your name under the picture)
    • He is running (draw a stick man running)
    • She is running (draw a stick woman running)
    • They are running (draw some stick people running)

    Chorus the sentences.  Then ask students to come up to the board and draw stick men doing other actions (e.g. “She is drawing”, “They are sleeping”, “He is swimming”, etc.).

  8. Do “Magazine cut and paste activity”.  Before class you will need to prepare some old magazines, catalogues or newspapers.  Anything with pictures of people doing things which you can cut out.  The more you can get the better.  You’ll also need some large sheets of construction paper.

    Start by modelling: hold up a magazine and flick though some pages asking questions about what the people are doing E.g. “What is he doing?” and elicit “He is walking”, etc.  Feel free to choose pictures with other verbs your students might know (e.g. “She is talking”).  For each picture you choose, cut it out and stick onto a large piece of construction paper with the following written in marker pen in the middle: “What is he doing?  What is she doing?  What are they doing?”.

    After demonstrating with a few pictures, split your class up into groups – the same number of groups as the number of magazines that you have (3-4 students per group is ideal).  Give each group a large sheet of construction paper with the same text written in the middle (“What is he doing?  What is she doing?  What are they doing?”).  Have the groups go through the magazines to cut out and paste pictures of people doing things onto their construction paper.  As they are doing so encourage everybody to use the key structures.

    When everyone has finished get one or two students from each group to join a new group.  They will then ask questions about the people in the pictures (e.g. “What is she doing?”) and the other members need to reply (e.g. “She is riding a bike”.).

    Finally, end this activity by asking questions to each group about their pictures.

  9. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “What are you doing? 2” worksheet.

 


New Song: Who is Happy? (Pronouns song)

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Who is Happy? (Pronouns song)

Who's Happy SongWho is Happy? (Pronouns song)

Song Theme: Using subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, we, they, who) with “to be” to describe.
Target Vocab: I am, you are, he is, she is, we are, they are, who is, today, happy, hungry, quiet, noisy.
Song Length: 2:30

A fun subject pronouns song to practice saying how different people are feeling or acting.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Who is happy? Who is happy?
Who is happy today?

I am happy, I am happy,
You are happy, You are happy,
He is happy, He is happy,
She is happy, She is happy,
We are happy, We are happy,
They are happy, They are happy.

Verse 2:
Who is hungry? Who is hungry?
Who is hungry today?

I am hungry, I am hungry,
You are hungry, You are hungry,
He is hungry, He is hungry,
She is hungry, She is hungry,
We are hungry, We are hungry,
They are hungry, They are hungry.

Verse 3:
Who is quiet? Who is quiet?
Who is quiet today?

I am quiet, I am quiet,
You are quiet, You are quiet,
He is quiet, He is quiet,
She is quiet, She is quiet,
We are quiet, We are quiet,
They are quiet, They are quiet.

Verse 4:
Who is noisy? Who is noisy?
Who is noisy today?

I am noisy, I am noisy,
You are noisy, You are noisy,
He is noisy, He is noisy,
She is noisy, She is noisy,
We are noisy, We are noisy,
They are noisy, They are noisy.

 

Gestures and activities to use with “Who is Happy? (Pronouns song)”

The main learning point for this song is learning the subject pronouns, so the gestures will focus on these words:

- during the question part of each song, do gestures for the adjectives:
  • “Who is happy?” – do a big smile and exaggerate this by placing your hands in a smile shape to extend your own mouth (thumbs touching the corners of your mouth)
  • “Who is hungry?” – look hungry and rub your tummy
  • “Who is quite?” – sing quietly and put your finger to your mouth in the “hush” gesture
  • “Who is noisy?” – sing loudly and put arms out as if trying to be really noisy

- during the pronouns part of the song have everyone point for each line:

  • “I am …” – point to yourself
  • “You are …” – point to your partner
  • “*He is …” – point to a boy in the class
  • “*She is …” – point to a girl in the class
  • “We are …” – put your arms out with hands bending inwards in the “group hug” gesture
  • “They are …” – point around the classroom to different students with both hands

*In classes with only boys/girls use a photo on the wall to point at.

 

Using “Who is Happy? (Pronouns song)” in class

This is great, repetitive song which really helps to learn the structure of subject pronouns plus “to be”.

  1. Introduce the vocab: subject pronouns.  Before class prepare 6 large prices of card with one subject pronoun written on each piece (I, you, he, she, we, they).  Get everyone standing up and show the first card “I”.  Shout “I” and point to yourself and get everyone to do the same (pointing to themselves). Do a few times and then put the card on the board.  Next show the “you” card and point to someone and say “you”, again have everyone follow along.  For “he” and “she”, point at a girl and boy – check that everyone understands the difference.  Then for “we” grab a couple of students in a group hug and shout “we” and have everyone get into groups as they do this.  Finally, for “they” point at other students whist shouting “they” and get everyone to do the same.

    Now you will have all of the subject pronouns on the board.  You are going to touch each card and get everyone to point and say the word – start slowly (“I” and point to yourself) and go through the pronouns going faster and faster.  This is great fun and very confusing when it really speeds up.

  2. Play “Wall Touch”.  Next, stick the pronoun cards (that are on the board) around the walls of the classroom.  Try and space them evenly around the room.  Have everyone stand in the middle of the classroom.  Shout out a pronoun (e.g. “we”) and everyone must rush to the correct word on the wall and touch it.  Do this for all of the pronouns.

  3. Do the “Subject Pronoun Chant”. Put the pronoun cards on the board in the correct order (I, you, he, she, we, they).  Have everyone sit down and start clapping a rhythm along with you – clap hands together then slap legs, clap hands, slap legs, clap hands, slap legs, etc. (start off quite slow, all in time together) .Once everyone is on time start the chant:

    Teacher (chanting): I
    Students (echoing): I
    Teacher (chanting): you
    Students (echoing): you
    Teacher (chanting): he
    etc.

    With the word on each hand clap (no chant on the leg slap yet).

    Keep going and after a a while add the verb to the leg slap:

    Teacher (chanting): I – am
    Students (echoing): I – am
    Teacher (chanting): you – are
    Students (echoing): you – are
    Teacher (chanting): he – is
    etc.

    You can have some fun by going fast and slow, adjusting the pace.

  4. Introduce the vocab: adjectives.  Before class print off some adjective flashcards, including the following: happy, sad, hungry, quiet, noisy, sleepy.  Show the first flashcard (e.g. “happy”) and get everyone to do the action for the card (e.g. a big smile and exaggerate this by placing your hands in a smile shape to extend your own mouth (thumbs touching the corners of your mouth).  Then chorus the word 3 times.  Go through each of the flashcards doing the actions and chorusing the words.
  5. Play “Guess which adjective”. Have one student come to the front of the class and show him/her one of the adjective flashcards.  He/She must do the action for that card – the first student to put his/her hand up and say the word correctly can act out the next flashcard adjective.  Keep going until everyone has had a chance to act out the adjective.
  6. Sing the “Who is Happy?” song. Put the subject pronoun cards on the board in the correct order as well as the adjective flashcards.  Alternatively, use the “Who is Happy” song poster.  Get everyone to stand up and follow you doing the actions and singing (as described above in Gestures and activities to use with “Who is Happy? (Pronouns song)”).  Play the song through 2 or 3 times.
  7. Play the “I like strawberries” pair-work activity. In this game students are going to practice using subject pronouns to talk about food likes.  Clean your board and write “Food” at the top.  Draw a picture of a strawberry and say “I like strawberries – yummy!” (and rub your tummy).  Get students, one-by-one to come to the board and draw a food they really like – each time make sure everyone knows who likes what.  It is fine if some students draw the same thing – in fact this will help to practice the words “we” and “they”.

    Once all of the food pictures are on the board, model the activity with one student.  Stand together in front of the board and choose a food picture.  Point at the person who drew it and say (for example) “He likes hot dogs” and point to the person who draw the picture.  Do the same for some more food pictures – say “she” for a girl’s picture, “I” for your picture, “you” for your partners picture, “we” for any people who have drawn the same picture as you and “they” for others who have drawn the same picture.  Each time take turns to say a sentence.

    Now put the class into pairs and have them say sentences together about different people in the classroom, all the time pointing and using a pronoun.  After about 5 minutes end the activity and then ask some pairs to stand up and show everyone some of the sentences they said.

  8. Do “Subject Pronouns 2″ worksheet.  Sit everyone down at their desks and give out the worksheets.  Have the students complete the sentences.  As they are working, circulate and ask questions (e.g. What food does she like?).
  9. Play “Spin the bottle”.  We’ll end with a fun game which practices the pronouns and “to be”.  Before class, prepare a bunch of flashcards – some adjectives (e.g. angry, fast, hungry, etc.) some animals (e.g. elephant, lion, rabbit) and some transport (e.g. car, airplane, train) – shuffle them well. You’ll also need a plastic bottle.  Get everyone to sit on the floor in a circle with the bottle and the stack of flashcards (face-down) in the middle (large classes can be split into a few circles).  Teacher starts by spinning the bottle – when the bottle stops spinning the teacher has to pick up a flashcard and make a sentence using a pronoun depending on who the bottle is pointing at.  For example, if the bottle is pointing at a girl and the flashcard is “hungry” say “She is hungry” and point at the girl.  The girl then has to do the action (act hungry and rub her tummy). Other examples are:
    • bottle pointing at a boy / elephant flashcard – “He is an elephant” (the boy acts as an elephant)
    • bottle pointing at a girl / train flashcard – “She is a train” (the girl pretends to be a train)
    • bottle pointing the person who span it / cat flashcard – “I am a cat” (the spinner acts as a cat)
    • bottle pointing between 2 people / sleepy flashcard – “They are sleepy” (the two students yawn and fall asleep)
    • bottle pointing between the spinner and another student / airplane flashcard – “We are airplanes!” (both students fly around the room like airplanes)

    Then, the person who had to do the action can spin the bottle.  This game is great fun – you can play it for quite a while as it creates a lot of laughter but also is a great way to practice the target structures.

  10. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Subject Pronouns 1” worksheet.

 

New Song: What’s in your Bag? (stationery song)

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: What’s in your Bag? (stationery song)

What's in your Bag? songWhat’s in your Bag? (stationery song)

Song Theme: Talking about classroom stationery and requesting things
Target Vocab: bag, pencil, pen, book, glue, crayons, ruler, eraser (GB: rubber), scissors, pencil case, stapler, pencil sharpener, tape
Song Length: 1:28

A song about stationery that you use at school, with a really fun activity.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
What’s in your bag?
What’s in your bag?
What is in your bag?

Verse 1:
Do you have a pencil?
Do you have a pen?
Do you have a book?
Do you have glue?

Chorus

Verse 2:
Do you have crayons?
Do you have a ruler?
Do you have *an eraser?
Do you have scissors?

Chorus

Verse 3:
Do you have a pencil case?
Do you have a stapler?
Do you have a pencil sharpener?
Do you have tape?

Chorus

*a rubber in the GB version of the song

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “What’s in your Bag?” song

There is a great activity to go with this song.

  • before class, prepare enough bags of stationery (with all the objects in the song) so that each student has a bag.  It may be easier if you tell your students (or their parents) what to bring in the preceding class – though have plenty of spares for students who forget.  For the bags, simple supermarket bags are fine.
  • play the song and have students listen and take out each item of stationery as it is sung and place the items on their desk in the correct order (you can check by using the song poster).  This can be quite challenging, but good fun!  You may want to play the song two or three times to give everyone a chance of getting the correct order.

 

Using the “What’s in your Bag?” song in class

This is a great song for learning different classroom stationery.

Preparation: before class, prepare enough bags of stationery (with all the objects in the song: pencil, pen, book, glue, crayons, ruler, eraser (GB: rubber), scissors, pencil case, stapler, pencil sharpener, tape) so that each student has a bag.  It may be easier if you tell your students (or their parents) what to bring in the preceding class – though have plenty of spares for students who forget.  For the bags, simple supermarket bags are fine.

NOTE: if you don’t have enough stationery items for everyone you can use flashcards in a bag instead

  1. Introduce the vocab: Have everyone sit so they can see the table you are going to use.  Before class, put the following stationery items in a bag: pencil, pen, book, glue, crayon, ruler, eraser (GB: rubber), scissors, pencil case, stapler, pencil sharpener, tape.  First, hold up the bag and teach / elicit and chorus the word “bag”.  Then take out the first item from the bag (e.g. a pencil) and elicit / teach and chorus the word.  Place that object on the table.  Do the same for all the objects, each time placing them in a line on the table.

    When all the items are on the table, point to each in turn and elicit the item.

  2. Play “What’s Missing?”.  Tell everyone to close and cover their eyes.  Take away an item from the table and hide it behind your back.  Then say “Open your eyes”.  Point to the missing space on the table and encourage everyone to shout out the missing item.  Keep playing until you have practiced every word.

  3. Play “Bring me the item”. Pick up all of the items from the table and place them around the room.  Then select a student and say “Bring me the (scissors)” – that student will have to stand up, locate the object and bring it to you (dropping into your bag).  Do this for all the objects, each time selecting a different student.  For a challenge, you can have everyone close and cover their eyes as you put the objects around the room.

    Next, put students in pairs.  Each pair should have one bag of the stationery objects between them.  One of the students should place different items around the room and then ask his/her partner to collect each item and place into his/her bag using the structures:

    • “Bring me the (tape), please.”
    • “Put it into my bag.”
    • “Thank you.”

    When the bag is full, the students can change roles.

  4. Sing the “What’s in your Bag?” song. By now your students will be ready for the song.  Make sure everyone has a bag full of the items from the song.  Explain that they have to listen carefully and take out each item in the order of the items in the song – and place them in a line, in the correct order, on their desk.  Play the song and then check the order of everyone’s items after the song has finished (you can use the song poster for this).  You may want to do this activity 2 or even three times until everyone can get the order right.
  5. Play “Object Swap”.  By the end of the song activity, everyone will have their stationery objects in front of them, on their desks.  We are going to mix them all up amongst the students and then everyone will have to find their objects again!

    Start by saying to one student, “Collect the (pencils) and give everybody a different pencil.”.  Do the same for all of the objects (using different student to distribute them), so by the end everyone has a bag full of stationery which isn’t theirs.

    Everybody now has to find their own stationery.  Get everyone to stand up and mingle, using the structure:

    • “Do you have my (pencil)?”

    As everyone mingles they have to swap their objects (each student cannot have two or more of any one item) and continue until their bag is full of their own items.

  6. Do the “Classroom Stationery Match-up” worksheet. Give out the worksheets and have everyone color, read and write the words for each object.  Circulate as everyone is working away, and ask lots of questions (e.g. What’s this?, What color is this?, Do you have a (pen)?, etc.).
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Stationery Matchup 3” worksheet.

 

New Song: Do You Have Any Pets?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Do You Have Any Pets?

Do you have any Pets songDo You Have Any Pets?

Song Theme: Talking about possession of pets, Using the phrase “Do you have any …?”, Counting 1-10.
Target Vocab: pets, Do you have any…?, I have …, a dog, cats, hamsters, rabbits, goldfish, mice, turtles, parrots, horses, elephants, 1-10.
Song Length: 2:14

A rhythmic song about pets with counting and marching.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Do you, do you, do you
Do you have any pets?
Do you, do you, do you
Do you have any pets?

Yes! Yes!

Verse 1:
I have a dog (a dog!)
I have 2 cats (2 cats!)
I have 3 hamsters (3 hamsters!)
I have 4 rabbits (4 rabbits!)
I have 5 goldfish (5 goldfish!)

Chorus

Verse 2:
I have 6 mice (6 mice!)
I have 7 turtles (7 turtles!)
I have 8 parrots (8 parrots!)
I have 9 horses (9 horses!)
I have 10 elephants! (10 elephants! No way!)

Chorus

Verse 3:
I have
a dog
2 cats
3 hamsters
4 rabbits
5 goldfish
6 mice
7 turtles
8 parrots
9 horses
and 10 elephants!

No way!

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song

The actions are very simple for this song:

  • for the chorus, march along on the spot as you sing (it is a marching-style song)
  • for the verses:
    - Option 1: hold up your hands (fists closed) and count off the numbers with your fingers as you sing (whilst still marching).
    - Option 2: print off the pets flashcards and stick around the classroom walls (in the order of the song).  As you sing, point to each animal (whilst still marching).

 

Using the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song in class

This song has a great tempo – great for marching.  It also covers three different objectives: Numbers 1-10 (review), pet vocabulary and using the verb “have” for possession / ownership.  The steps below will allow your students to practice all three objectives.

  1. Review numbers 1-10: You should have taught the Numbers 1-10 lesson at some point before this lesson. Your students will be familiar with the numbers and this is a good time to review and have some numbers fun.  Before class, write each of the numbers 1-10 on cards in marker pen (so you’ll have a card with “1″ written on it, another with “2″, and so on up to “10″).  Prepare enough sets so that each group of 3 or 4 students has a set of number cards.
    • Start by getting everyone to stand up and count in time with you the numbers 1-10, holding up fingers for each number.  Start slowly and get faster and faster.  You can even try some count downs from 10-1.
    • Next, Play “clusters”.  Say, “Get into groups of 3!”. Everyone must grab someone and try and make a group of 3 people.  Do this with lots of different numbers, although this will depend on the number of students in your class.
    • Next, put your students into groups of 3 or 4.  Give each group a set of number cards (explained above) and get each group to race putting them in the correct order.
    • With the number cards on the desk/ floor, tell your students to move them around so that they are shuffled well (but still face up).  Give everyone 10 seconds to remember where the cards are.  Now say “Turn over the cards”.  When everyone is ready say, “Ok, touch number 6″.  Everyone must touch the card they think is number 6.  Then allow them to turn the card over and check.  Continue with all the other cards.
    • Now collect up all of the number cards by having students race up and bring you different numbers.
    • Finally, have everyone stand up and sing “The Numbers Song” doing all of the actions.
  2. Teach the vocabulary for pets / animals. Before class, print off the flashcards for the animals in the song from our flashcards page.  Some of the animals your students will already know the vocab for, so rather than just hold up each picture you can play “Flashcard Reveal”: take the first flashcard and place it behind the pack of the other cards, so it is hidden from view.  Slowly push the flashcard up so that the picture is revealed, bit by bit, to the class.  Encourage everyone to shout our what they think it is until someone gets the right answer.  It is ok if students shout out the word in their language if they don’t know it – but make sure you teach the English word.  Chorus each word three times and stick onto the board.

    Once all of the cards are on the board, chorus them one more time.  Then point to one picture and elicit the word, then write it clearly under the card.

  3. Play the “Write vocab on the board race” game. Put the class into teams, so you have 2 to 4 teams in total.  Each team selects one person.  Teacher shouts out the word for one of the animals on the board and one student from each team must rush up to the board, take a marker or chalk, and write the word (anywhere on the board is ok).  The first person to write the word, spelt correctly, wins a point for his/her team.  Continue playing until everyone has had a go and all the vocab has been practiced.
  4. Teach the structures “Do you have (any) ~” and “I have ~”. If you have any photos of your pets (even from years ago) it would be fun to bring them to class – show the photos to the class and as you do use the structure “I have” to say what pets you have (e.g. “I have a pet dog”).  If not, no problem, we’ll just use the flashcards instead.  Point to a card and then point to yourself.  Say, “I have a pet (dog).  His/ Her name is ~”.  Draw a picture on the board of a house, a stick person (you) and the pet (a dog).  Point to the stick person and say “This is me”.  Then point to the house and the animal and say “This is my house”, “This is my pet dog, Momo” (for example).  Maybe do for a few of the animals (e.g. hamster, parrot) and draw them onto your picture.  The point of this is to make clear that pets are animals we have at home (and not in the zoo, etc.). Each time, ask some students “Do you have pet (dog)?” and elicit “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.  If a students says yes, ask what their pet’s name is.  Depending on the level of your students, ask some other questions about their pets, such as if they are large or small, colors, favourite food, etc,  Finally, pick out some students at random, choose an animal from the cards on the board, and ask them if they have that pet.  The elephant is there for fun … don’t be surprised if students say they have one – but look at them disbelievingly!
  5. Play “Animal Actions”. In this game students will practice the key structures and vocab.
    • If you have a large group (more than 10 students): invite 10 students to come to the font of the class and stand in a line facing the class.  Give each of them one of the flashcards but don’t let anyone see what the picture is.  They can each look at their own picture but mustn’t show it to anyone else.  The teacher starts by saying to the first student “Do you have any pets?”.  Encourage the student to say yes and then to do the action of the animal on his/her card (e.g. a cat meowing, and licking its paw, etc.).  Then say “Do you have a cat?”.  If correct the student holds up the picture so everyone can see and say “Yes, I do”.  Then invite members of the audience to ask the other students and guess what animal they have, using the correct structures.  It is great fun to see the animal impersonations and to guess what it is!
    • If you have a small group (less than 10 students).  Give everyone one of the flashcards but don’t let anyone see what the picture is.  They can each look at their own picture but mustn’t show it to anyone else.  The teacher starts by saying to the first student “Do you have any pets?”.  Encourage the student to say yes and then to do the action of the animal on his/her card (e.g. a cat meowing, and licking its paw, etc.).  Then say “Do you have a cat?”.  If correct the student holds up the picture so everyone can see and say “Yes, I do”.  Then invite other students to ask and guess what animal they have, using the correct structures.  It is great fun to see the animal impersonations and to guess what it is!
  6. Sing the “Do you have any Pets?” song.  Get everyone to stand up.  Make sure the flashcards are on the board in the order of the song, or alternatively, use the song poster.  As the song is playing, have everyone march on the spot in time with the music and do the actions described above in “Gestures and activities to use with the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song”.  Play the song 2 or 3 times until everyone has got the hang of it.
  7. Do the “Your Pets Class Survey.  Give out the survey worksheets to each student.  Model how to do the first line – by writing in their own names filling in their answers.  Then get everyone to mingle and ask as many students as they can about their pets.  For students who don’t have pets, we have added the “Which new pet would you like?” section, so they have something to answer … everyone can answer this even if they already have pets.

    When everyone has finished, tally up on the board the number of pets everyone has to find out which is the most popular pet.  Also, find out which new pet most people would like.

  8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “My Pet” or “My Dream Pet” worksheets.  A good idea is to give our the “My Pet” worksheets to students who have a pet and the “My Dream Pet” worksheets to students who don’t have any pets.  It is probably worth giving a model answer to this writing task, giving information such as the pet’s name, age, size, colors, favourite foods, etc.

 

The Easter Song!

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Easter Song!

Easter SongThe Easter Song!

Song Theme: Singing about the Easter rabbit and looking for Easter eggs
Target Vocab: Easter rabbit, hiding, chocolate eggs, Look in the ~, garden, living room, kitchen, bedroom, dining room, bathroom, everywhere, I’ve found my chocolate eggs, yummy!
Song Length: 1:13

A really fun Easter song with about searching for Easter eggs!

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Comes when I’m in bed,
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Hiding chocolate eggs.

Verse 1:
Look in the garden (garden)
Look in the living room (living room)
Look in the kitchen (kitchen)
Look everywhere!

Where are the chocolate eggs?

Chorus
 
Verse 2:
Look in the bedroom (bedroom)
Look in the dining room (dining room)
Look in the bathroom (bathroom)
Look everywhere!
 
Where are the chocolate eggs?
 
Chorus
 
Verse 3:
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!
Chocolate eggs!
 

 

Gestures and activities to use with “The Easter Song”

The actions for this song are very simple, fun and energetic – lots of hopping around like a rabbit!

Everyone stands up for the song:

  • For the chorus, everyone hops around the classroom like a rabbit
  • For the verses, pretend to be looking for Easter eggs (gesture with palm of hand over eyes)

 

Using “The Easter Song” in class

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

 

Where are you Going? song

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Where are you Going?

Where are you Going? songWhere are you Going?

Song Theme: Asking and answering about where you are going.
Target Vocab: Where are you going (right now)?, I’m going to ~, school, the park, the shops, the beach, my friend’s house, the station, the zoo, home.
Song Length: 0:54

A song about going to different places in your neighborhood using the present continuous tense.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Where are you going right now?

Verse 1:
I’m going to school,
I’m going to the park,
I’m going to the shops,
I’m going to the beach.

Chorus:
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Where are you going right now?

Verse 2:
I’m going to my friend’s house,
I’m going to the station,
I’m going to the zoo,
I’m going home.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Where are you Going?” song

The gestures are very simple and fun:

  • during the chorus everyone does the ‘question gesture’ (both palms up, looking quizzical) whilst swaying in time with the music.
  • during the verses everyone either walks around the classroom or walks on the spot – in time with the music.

 

Using the “Where are you Going?” song in class

This is a nice easy song which introduces students to different places in their town.  NOTE: You should do the “How did you get here today?” song and lesson before this lesson as the transportation vocab taught for that song will be used in this lesson during the “Where are you Going? Board Game”.

  1. Play the “Snake Follow” game. This lesson starts in a really fun way.  Get everyone to line up behind the teacher.  Get everyone to shout “Where are you going?” and on that prompt the teacher shouts back “Over here!” – then start walking to a different part of the classroom, with everyone following in a line behind you (like a snake).  Keep doing this as you snake your way around the classroom at different speeds.  Other students can also have a go at being the head of the snake.
  2. Introduce the vocab. Before class prepare the flashcards for the different places in the song:

    school, the park, the shops, my friend’s house, the station, the zoo
    home
    the beach

    Hold up each flashcard and elicit / teach the word.  Have students pass each flashcard around the class with each student saying the word as s/he passes the card.

  3. Play “Flashcard Slam” and “Missing Flashcard”. First play “Flashcard Slam” – lay all the flashcards, picture up, on the floor and get everyone to sit around the cards in a circle (for large groups, have a few sets of flashcards so you can do this in groups).  Teacher says “Touch the station!” and everyone must quickly slam their hand down on the correct card.  Play this until every card has been practiced.  Then play “Missing Flashcard” – with the cards all laid out on the floor, tell everyone to close their eyes.  Then the teacher takes away one card.  Say “Open your eyes” and everyone must shout out the missing card.  Continue to play with other missing cards until all vocab has been practiced.
  4. Play “I’m going to… “. You’ll need two sets of the places flashcards for this game, which practices the key structures “Where are you going?” and “I’m going to …”.  Get everyone to close their eyes as you place each card from the first set around the room (e.g. place the zoo card in the corner, the park card under a desk, etc.).  Next, tell everyone to open their eyes.  Give a card (e.g. zoo) from the second set to a student.  Have the following conversation (model):

    Teacher: “Where are you going?”
    Student: “I’m going to the zoo”
    Teacher: “Ok then.  Goodbye”
    Student: “Goodbye”

    The student must then search for the zoo flashcard. When s/he finds it s/he can return to you for another card.  As the first student is searching, give another card (e.g. the beach) to another student and have the same conversation.  Eventually, you will have students searching all over the place and returning for another card – it’ll be a bit hectic but great fun – plus the key structures are being practiced.

    ———-
    NOTE: Extension to the “I’m going to…” game:
    If you have already taught the “Transport & Travel” lesson you can add an extra element to the short conversation as a review, as shown below:

    Teacher: “Where are you going?”
    Student: “I’m going to the zoo”
    Teacher: “How are you going there?”
    Student: “I’m going (e.g. by bus, by car, by bicycle, by rocket, on foot, etc.)”
    Teacher: “Ok then.  Goodbye”
    Student: “Goodbye”

    The student then searches for the card acting out the transport (e.g. steering the wheel of a car, zooming like a rocket, etc.).  Each time the student searches s/he must use a new means of transport.
    ———-

  5. Sing the “Where are you Going?” song. Put the places flashcards on the board in the order of the song (or put up the song poster).  Get everyone to stand up and show them the gestures (see above).  Then run through the song a few times.
  6. Play the “Where are you Going?” board game. This is a great board game to play in groups of 2-4 players.  Put the class onto groups and give out the boards and game cards (you’ll need to print and cut out before the lesson).  If you can blow up the size of the game board to A3 when you copy (if not, A4 size is fine). Each group needs a die and each player a small counter (pen tops, etc., will do.).  Then explain the rules and model how to play the game (the rules are on the worksheet).  Then let everyone play.  As they are playing, walk around and help out and make sure the structures are being used.
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Where are you Going? Write” worksheet.

 

The Family Song

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Family Song

The Family SongThe Family Song

Song Theme: Saying different members of the family.
Target Vocab: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, family, hello, how are you?, I’m fine thank you, See you soon.
Song Length: 2:30

A really nice song for very young learners with family finger puppet play.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Hello father, Hello father,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 2:
Hello mother, Hello mother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 3:
Hello brother, Hello brother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 4:
Hello sister, Hello sister,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 5:
Hello grandfather, Hello grandfather,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 6:
Hello grandmother, Hello grandmother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 7:
Hello family, Hello family,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

 

Gestures and activities to use with “The Family Song”

For this song students use finger puppets (download and cut out the puppets):

  • before the song, help everyone to put on the puppets – there are 6 puppets altogether, 3 on each hand.
  • as the song plays, students wiggle the puppet for that particular verse (e.g. in Verse 1 it is “father”) and sing along.
  • for the last verse (family) students wiggle all of their finger puppets

 

Using “The Family Song” in class

This is an easy song which introduces students to the words for different family members. This is a great song and lesson to teach little ones as they completely understand the concept of family.

NOTE: if possible, ask the parents before class to arrange for their kids to bring in family photos – parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, themselves.  Also, bring in a few family photos of your own.

  1. Do “Teacher’s Family Photos Time” activity. If you can bring in photos of your family, this is a great activity to do.  Also try to encourage your students to bring in photos of their family – you’ll need to arrange this with the parents before the lesson.  If you can’t bring in photos, see the alternative below.

    Draw 7 squares on the top of your board in a row (see image below). Hold up a photo of yourself and ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit that it is you, stick the photo inside the middle square and write your name under the photo.  Next take out another photo (e.g. your father) and again ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit and teach the family vocab and stick the photo in one of the squares and write the word (e.g. “father”) under the photo.  Do for all of the following: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother – you may not have some of these family members, but for the sake of this lesson, use photos of friends, etc., and pretend they are your brother, grandmother, etc.

    Board layout for family photos 1

    Your students will really enjoy seeing your family photos and will probably ask questions – feel free to extend the information you give on your family members, especially if it reviews previous lessons, such as ages and jobs.  Also, you can practice/review describing vocab (e.g. blond hair, big eyes, etc.).

    Alternative: If you can’t bring in family photos: instead of using your family photos, cut out pictures of people from magazines and pretend they are your family members. Younger kids will generally believe you (and may even be quite impressed!).

  2. Do “Students’ Family Photos Time” activity. If your students have brought in photos of themselves and their families, this is a great activity to do. If not, go to step 3.

    On the board, under the row of 7 photos of your family you are going to place photos from each of the students’ families. First, hold up the photos of the students in your class and elicit who they are – each time, stick their photo in the middle column and write their names underneath.

    Next, you are going to play a guessing game – hold up a photo of one of your student’s family members (e.g. Hugo’s sister) and get everyone to guess whose family the person belongs to.  Elicit family vocab (e.g. “It’s Hugo’s sister“) and place the photo on the board in the correct place (e.g., for Hugo’s sister, it would go in the row of Hugo’s photo and in the sister column).

    Board layout for family photos 2

    Keep holding up randomly selected photos of your students’ family members and placing on the board until your board is full of family photos. 

  3. Make “My Family Tree” Posters. Give out a piece of colored construction paper / card to each student.  They are each going to make a family tree poster of their family.  Begin by demonstrating the activity – with a green and brown crayon draw a large tree, filling up the whole piece of paper.  At the top write in large letters “My family”.  Then, either stick your photos family photos onto the tree or draw pictures of your family (grandparents at the top, next your parents and you and your siblings at the bottom).  Finally, under each family member photo/picture write the vocab (grandfather, mother, etc.).

    Now get your students to do the same.  If they brought in photos they can use them on their poster – if not, encourage them to draw pictures of their family members.  Students can copy the words from your poster (display it clearly).

    Finally, have each student pin their poster to the walls of the classroom.  Ask each student questions (e.g. Is that you mother?  What is your brother’s name?  How old is your sister?).

    NOTE: Depending on the level of your students you can have them write more information about their family members on the poster (e.g. names, ages, jobs, etc.). Students can even draw pictures of their pets.

  4. Make and play with Finger Puppets. For the song we are going to use finger puppets (craft sheet here).  Before class, print and cut out the finger puppets. We have color and black & white versions of the craft sheet – if using the black & white version, have your students color in the puppets before starting the song. Then attach the puppets to each students’ fingers by taping the straps around the finger – 3 puppets on each hand.

    Next, check everyone understands which puppet is which – say “Everybody wiggle grandfather” – make sure you are wearing your finger puppets as well so you can demonstrate.  Go through each puppet, wiggling fingers.  Then play a quick game: say “Wiggle the sister” and everyone has to quickly wiggle the right one.  Do for a few rounds until everyone has got the hang of it.

  5. Sing “The Family Song”. Play the song and sing along – wiggling the correct puppet for each verse (e.g. verse 1 is “father”).  If everyone enjoyed the song, play it once more.
  6. Play “Finger Puppet Conversations”. By now, everyone should have the idea of the structures from the song, so we are going to have some fun role-plays with the finger puppets.  First model with one student.  Hold up one finger puppet (e.g. mother) and get the other student to hold up one finger (e.g. grandfather).  Role-play a fun conversation, for example:

    T: Hello grandfather.
    S: Hello mother.
    T: How are you?
    S: I’m fine, thank you.  How are you?
    T: I’m fine, thank you. See you soon.
    S: See you soon.

    Then you can change finger puppets and do the conversation again.  Depending on level, you can also throw in a few more questions, such as, “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?”, “Where do you live?”, etc.

    Now the class can role-play.  Put everyone into pairs and set a timer to one minute.  Shout “Start!” and the pairs should role-play with different puppets until the timer goes off.  Then shout “Change partners!” and everyone finds a new partner for another one-minute conversation.  Keep going for a few rounds.

  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “My Family” worksheet.

 

What Sports do you Play?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: What Sports do you Play?

What Sports do you Play? songWhat Sports do you Play?

Song Theme: Talking about playing different sports.
Target Vocab: sports, play, soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton.
Song Length: 1:16

A lively song about playing sports.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 1:
I play *soccer (soccer!),
I play tennis (tennis!),
I play golf (golf!),
I play basketball (basketball!).

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 2:
I play baseball (baseball!),
I play volleyball (volleyball!),
I play rugby (rugby!),
I play badminton (badminton!).

* In the British version of the song the word “football” is sung instead of “soccer”.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song

The gestures revolve around the actions for the different sports in the song:

- During the chorus have everyone sing and clap along.

- For the verses have everyone do the actions as they sing:

  • soccer/football: kick an imaginary ball
  • tennis: hit an imaginary tennis ball with an imaginary racket
  • golf: swing an imaginary gold club
  • basketball: bounce an imaginary basketball
  • baseball: swing an imaginary baseball bat
  • volleyball: smash an imaginary ball with your hand
  • rugby: throw an imaginary rugby ball to the side
  • badminton: smash an imaginary shuttlecock with an imaginary racket

 

Using the “What Sports do you Play?” song in class

This is a lively song which introduces the phrases “What sports do you play” and “I play ~”.  During the lesson you’ll have a lot of fun playing different sports.

  1. Introduce and play sports. As the lesson is sports themed we are going to do lots of fun sports activities.  Make sure all of the desks and chairs are moved to the side of the classroom.

    - You’ll need the following sports flashcards: soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton
    - You’ll also need lots of review flashcards from previous lessons
    - You’ll need the following equipment: balloons, bean bag balls or small soft balls, a waste paper basket or a cardboard box, a length of rope

    Start by dividing the class up into teams (for small classes 2 teams, larger classes up to 4 teams).  Get each team to come up with a team name and then elicit the team names and write across the top of the board (this will become the score board).  During this part of the lesson students will compete in a number of sports and win points for their team.

    Soccer/Football: First, stick the soccer/football flashcard onto the bottom of the board and say “What sport is this?”.  Elicit “Soccer” or “Football”.  Then say, “I like playing soccer (or football)”.  Do you like playing soccer (or football)?”.  Hopefully this will elicit some positive responses.  Then stand up and say “Ok, let’s play soccer (or football)!”.

    Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  At the other end of the classroom make a small goal (use two chairs or cushions for goal posts).  Place a balloon a few meters in front of the goal – far enough so that when kicked makes it possible to score but not too easy.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot.  If correct, let them run up and kick the balloon.  A goal earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores (we are not finished yet!).

    Tennis: Next, place the tennis flashcard on the board and elicit it.  This time we are going to play “Head Tennis” with balloons.  Pair up 2 students from opposing teams and have them stand facing each other.  They then have to head the ball between each other – the last player to head the balloon wins (for younger students, patting the balloon is fine).  The winner has to then answer a question to win a point for their team (e.g. What’s your name? How old are you?, etc.).  Play until everyone has had a go, then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Golf: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard.   This time we are going to play “Pencil Golf”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up in the middle of the classroom with a pencil each. Give each pair a small bean bag ball or soft ball.  Players take turns to hit the ball towards the opposite wall – therefore each student will compete to hit the ball in a different direction – however, as they are only using pencils the balls won’t travel far each hit!  Give a time limit of 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, the student from each pair who is closest to his/her wall is the winner.  Now, the winner will have say the correct vocab word for a review flashcard to win a point for their team.  Then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Basketball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Shoot the Basket”.  You’ll need a waste paper basket or just a cardboard box. Also, take a piece of paper and screw it up into a ball. Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  Put the basket at the other end of the classroom.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot at the basket with the screwed up paper ball.  If correct, let him/her take a shot.  A successful shot earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Baseball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Baseball”.  Have each team line up – everyone is a batter and the teacher is the pitcher.  Stand in front of the first student in the line and ask a question (e.g. Where do you live?,  What is your favorite food?, etc.).  If the student answers correctly pat the balloon towards the student.  S/he has to hold their hands together and swing and hit the balloon (like a baseball swing).  A successful hit wins a point.  Any hit that bounces against a classroom wall wins an extra point for a home run! Play until at least each student has had a chance to bat.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Volleyball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Volleyball”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up with a length of rope separating them (you can lie the rope right across the classroom and have students stand either side as they play). Give each pair a balloon.  They pat the balloon to each other and try to stop it hitting the floor – whoever let’s it drop loses a point.  Let everyone play for a few minutes, then ask who the winner of each game is.  To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Rugby: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Rugby Balloon Pass”. In rugby you have to pass the ball backwards, so we are going to play a game passing a balloon backwards.  Get each team to line up, each student behind the other.  Give the player at the front of each team’s line a balloon.  S/he must pass the balloon backwards to his team-mate over the head.  The next player passes behind to his/her team-mate between the legs, and so on, over the head and between the legs.  Each team must race against each other.  The team that gets the balloon to the last player wins a point. You can play this game a few times. Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Badminton: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Badminton Keep Ups”. Put students in pairs from opposing teams.  Give each student a screwed up paper ball.  Each student has to compete against his/her partner to pat the ball up the most times before the ball hits the ground.  Allow everyone about 2 minutes and then find out who managed to keep the ball up the most from each pair. To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Finally, get everyone to sit down and tally the final scores to find out which team is the winner.  The winning team will get a special prize at the end (see point 6 below)!

  2. Teach structures “What sports do you play?”, “I play ~”, “I don’t play~”. You should now have 8 sports flashcards on the board.  Model the structures: point at the first card and say “I play soccer/football” – while nodding you head.  Then go to the next flashcard and say “I don’t play tennis” shaking your head.  Go through all the cards saying what you do and don’t play.

    Now model with some students.  Ask one student “What sports do you play?” and help him/her go through the 8 sports saying what s/he does and doesn’t play.  Do this with a couple more students so everyone gets the idea.  Now in pairs, students ask and answer the question.  Change pairs a few times until everyone has had plenty of practice.

  3. Sing “What Sports do you Play?”. Get everyone to stand up and sing along to the song whilst they do the gestures (see the ‘Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song’ above).  Either use the flashcards on the board to prompt the order of the sports in the song or use our song poster.  Sing the song through a couple of times.
  4. Teach sports verbs and equipment vocab. On the board write: “To play soccer (or football) you have to __________ a soccer ball (or football).  Elicit the missing verb and write “kick” in the blank.  Before class, cut out the words from this “Sports Vocab Cut Outs” worksheet – enough for each group of students.  In pairs, the students have to match the words (e.g. golf – hit – golf ball).  As students are matching the words go around the class checking and asking questions.
  5. Do the “Let’s Play Sports!” worksheet. This worksheet practices the vocab from the last point.  Give each student a worksheet and circulate as everyone fills in the blanks.
  6. Special prize for the winning team. The winning team from the sports competition at the beginning of the lesson can end the class by choosing one of the 8 sports for everyone to play again (no review flashcards necessary this time!).
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Sports Match up” or “Can you play …?” worksheet.

 


Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables

Mr. Farmer's Vegetables SongMr. Farmer’s Vegetables

Song Theme: Talking about different vegetables.
Target Vocab: farmer, farm, growing, carrots, potatoes, cabbages, onions, pumpkins, corn, radish, lettuce.
Song Length: 1:36

An upbeat song about a farmer growing vegetables on his farm.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh,  Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 1:
I am growing carrots, carrots,
I am growing potatoes, potatoes,
I am growing cabbages, cabbages,
I am growing onions, onions.

Chorus:
Oh, Mr. farmer, what are you growing?
On your farm, on your farm.
Oh,  Mr. farmer, tell us what you’re growing,
On your farm, on your farm.

Verse 2:
I am growing pumpkins, pumpkins,
I am growing corn, corn,
I am growing radish, radish,
I am growing lettuce, lettuce.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song

Before playing the song, put flashcards of the vegetables all around the walls of the classroom (in the same order of the song). Then start the song and do the following gestures:

- During the chorus have everyone do the cowboy dance – thumbs in belt hoops and kicking your legs out in time with the music.

- For the verses point to each of the vegetable flashcards on the wall.

 

Using the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song in class

This is a fun, cowboy-style song which introduces some common vegetables. Students will make a vegetable basket craft and practice saying their likes and dislikes.

  1. Play “Find the Vegetables”. If possible, before class buy one of each of the following vegetables (and other kinds if you like): a carrot, a potato, a cabbage, an onion, a pumpkin, corn (on the cob if possible), a radish, a lettuce.  If you can’t bring vegetables into class, other options are: plastic fruit (sometimes available at dollar shops and toy shops), vegetable flashcards, vegetable photos cut out of free supermarket magazines.  Also, bring in a basket for the vegetables.

    Before your students enter your classroom hide the vegetables all around the room – in draws, behind books, under things, etc.  Once you are ready to begin the main part of your lesson, have everyone sit down and say to your students “Let’s look for some vegetables!”.  Then stand up and demonstrate that you are searching for something.  Find one of the vegetables and show your thrill in doing so.  Take it over to the basket and drop it in saying “Put it in the basket”.  Then get everyone to hunt around the room until all of the vegetables have been found and placed in the basket.

  2. Teach vegetable vocabulary. Hold up the first vegetable and chorus the word three times (e.g. “carrot, carrot, carrot”).  Then pass the vegetable around the class, each student saying the name as they pass it.  Do this for all of the vegetables.
  3. Play “The Missing Vegetable” and “Blindfold Touch”.  Line all the vegetables up on a desk.  Say “Close your eyes” and get everyone to cover and close their eyes.  Take away one of the vegetables and hide it behind your back – everyone must open their eyes and shout out the missing vegetable. Play this until all of the vegetable vocabulary has been practised.

    Keep the vegetables lined up on the desk.  Take out a blindfold and model the activity – put on the blindfold then touch and feel one of the vegetables.  Look confused and say the wrong word (e.g. touch a cabbage and say “Is it a carrot?”).  Get the students to help you until you guess correctly.  Then blindfold one student, turn him/her around 3 times and help him/her to go to the desk and touch/feel one vegetable and say what it is.  Give all of the students a go.

  4. Play “Musical Pass the Vegetables”. Sit everyone in a circle, put on some music, and have everyone pass all of the vegetables around the circle (in the same direction).  So the music will be playing and all of your vegetables will be going around the circle.  Suddenly stop the music – the students holding the vegetables must shout out the name of the vegetable they are holding.  The last person to shout out the correct word is out (and also remove their vegetable).  Keep playing, with each round the last person going out.  This should end with just 2 students passing one vegetable back and forth. It’s a really fun game!
  5. Sing “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables”. Prepare for the song by taking out the flashcards of the vegetables.  Show each one in the order of the song (so carrot first, potato next, etc.) and stick each one on the walls of the classroom.  Try and get it so that the cards are evenly distributed around the walls (still in the order of the song) so you will have to turn 360 degrees to look at all of the cards.  Alternatively, you can use the song poster.  Get everyone to stand up and dance, sing and point to the vegetables (as described in “Gestures and activities to use with the “Mr. Farmer’s Vegetables” song” above). You can play the song 2 or three times.
  6. Do the “Vegetable Basket Craft. Use the following craft sheets:

    Before class, print off enough craft sheets for each student as well as yourself and cut out the basket and vegetable pictures. Give the cut-outs to each student and then get everyone to follow you as you color in the vegetables and the basket – as you are doing this chat with your students, asking questions such as “What color shall we use for the potato?”, “Do you like cabbage?”, “What’s your favourite vegetable?”, etc.  When everything has been colored in, glue the baskets to construction paper and get students to put in their vegetables (have students say the names of the vegetables as they do so).

    An alternative is to print off just one large basket and get everyone to put their colored vegetables into the “class basket”.

  7. Play “Let’s make Vegetable Soup”. To finish off the lesson we are going make some imaginary vegetable soup.  You need a large cooking pot, ladle and some plastic/paper bowls and spoons.

    Say “I’m hungry.  Let’s make some soup!” (while rubbing your empty stomach).  Take out the large pot and say “Let’s cook vegetable soup!  We need some vegetables”. Model by taking one of your vegetable cut-outs from your craft basket – say “Yummy, I like (radish)” and put it into the pot and stir.  Then say, “Hmm. We need some more vegetables”.  Invite each student to take some of their vegetables from their craft basket and put into the pot, saying “Yummy, I like ~”.  Keep stirring – you can also invite students to give the soup a stir.

    Finally, say “The soup is ready!”.  Get everyone to hold out their bowls and ladle in some imaginary soup.  If some students refuse, this is fine – try and get them to say “I don’t like vegetable soup”.  Then say “Let’s eat!”.  Make lots of slurping noises and say things like “Yummy!” and “Delicious!” and encourage everyone else to do the same.  You can even offer seconds!  Finish off by getting everyone to retrieve their vegetable cut-outs from the pot and put back into their baskets.

  8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Vegetable Basket” worksheet.

 

New Song: Where Do You Live?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Where Do You Live?

Where do you Live? songWhere Do You Live?

Song Theme: Talking about where animals and people live.
Target Vocab: Where do you live?, I live (in/on)…, fish, cow, bear, camel, bat, duck, goat, hippo, sea, farm, forest, desert, cave, lake, mountain, river, city, town, village, countryside.
Song Length: 2:23

A fun, lively song which practices asking where animals and people live.  It also highlights different geological and living areas.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
Where do you live?
Where do you live?
Where, oh where, oh
Where do you live?

Verse 1:
I am a fish, I live in the sea.
I am a cow, I live on a farm.
I am a bear, I live in a forest.
I am a camel, I live in a desert.

Chorus

Verse 2:
I am a bat, and I live in a cave.
I am a duck, I live on a lake.
I am a goat, I live on a mountain.
I am a hippo and I live in a river.

Chorus

Verse 3:
I live, I live, I live in a city.
I live, I live, I live in a town.
I live, I live, I live in a village.
I live, I live, I live in the countryside.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “Where Do You Live?” song

During the song, student can either dance and do gestures, or complete a listening task worksheet:

  • For gestures: students dance to the song and act as the animals in the song.
  • For the listening worksheet: give a copy of the Where do you Live? Song Worksheet to everyone.  Chorus the vocab and explain that everyone has to listen to the song to complete the sentences.  Play the song 2-3 times until everyone has completed the worksheets.  If your students enjoy the song, play once more with everyone dancing and doing animal gestures.

 

Using the “Where Do You Live?” song in class

This is a really lively, catchy song. It practices the structures of “Where do you live?” and “I live …”, introduces animals and places vocabulary and shows how to use the prepositions “in” and “on” for places.

  1. Review animal vocabulary – play “What animal am I?”: The song covers two different vocabulary areas: animals and places.  At this stage your students should have covered some animal vocab so this can be a review of many of those animals.  Before class print out the animal flashcards for fish, cow, bear, camel, bat, duck, goat, hippo.  Also add any other animals your students have studied in previous lessons.

    Start by modeling: look at a flashcard but don’t show anyone.  Then act out that animal (also doing sounds), for example, walking on all fours saying “moooo!” (for cow).  Students can put their hands up if they know the answer.  Select a student – if he/she answers correctly he/she can do the next animal – show a flashcard and have them do the action.  Again, the student who answers correctly can do the next animal.  Continue until all the animals have been guessed.

    Finally, stick the flashcards on the board.  Put everyone in pairs to take turns in acting out and guessing the animals.

  2. Teach the vocabulary for places. Remove any animal flashcards from the board that are not in the song and then arrange the remaining animal flashcards in a column from the left-top of the board to the left-bottom (see image below).  Make sure the animals are NOT in the order of the song if you are going to do the listening worksheet (as they will be listening for the correct order).

    Next take the places flashcards and stick them randomly onto the right-side of the board.  You are creating a matching activity on the board – students will need to match the places to where the animals live.

    Start with the first animal (e.g. a cow) and say “Hmm.  Where does a cow live?”.  Gesture to the places pictures on the right.  Point to the “sea” flashcard and say, “Does a cow live in the sea?”.  Make it obvious that this is a crazy idea.  Try pointing to a few more places flashcards until everyone has told you the correct card (a farm).  Hold the farm flashcard up and chorus it 3 times.  Place the farm flashcard next to the cow flashcard and write next to them, “A cow lives on a farm” and chorus 3 times.

    Then, select a student to come to the board and stick the correct place flashcard next to the 2nd animal.  If correct, praise the student and ask him/her to sit back down.  Chorus the place 3 times, write the sentence on the board and chorus that 3 times.  Continue until all the animals have places flashcards next to them.

    Board layout:

    board

    You should still have 4 places flashcards remaining on the right-side of the board: city, town, village, countryside.

    Under the last animal flashcard draw a stick man.  Say, “I” and point to yourself.  Point to each of the remaining places flashcards and chorus them.  Stick all 4 next to the stick man and write 4 sentences (I live in a city, I live in a town, I live in a village, I live in the countryside).  Chorus all four sentences.  Then, say where you live (e.g. pointing at the town flashcard say “I live in a town”).  Then go around the class, asking student where they live and having them all use the correct structure.  Help out with the meanings of these words (e.g. a city is very, very big, a village is small, etc. – you can use place names familiar to your students, such as “Tokyo is a city”).

    Now that you have all of the vocab and structures on the board, let’s practice.  Put all students in pairs.  Student A says an animal (or the word “I”) randomly, and their partner has to say the sentence (reading from the board).  For example:

    Student A: “A goat.
    Student B: “A goat lives on a mountain.

    Get students to swap roles after each sentence.  After a few minutes, explain that the students are going to test each other.  Pairs sit facing each other – one student with his/her back to the board.  The other student says an animal and listens to their partner saying the full sentence (he/she should help and correct if necessary).  Make sure all students have a go at being tested.

  3. Play the “Flashcards Race” game. You will need 2 sets of the animals and places flashcards.  Have everyone stand up and divide the class up into two teams – get each team to line up on either side of the classroom. Take the 2 sets of flashcards and shuffle each set.  Scatter one set on the floor, face down, on the right-side of the classroom and do the same with the other set on the left-side of the classroom.

    Now for the game: the first “player” from each team will have to race to find the correct cards and stick them on the board, according to your instructions.  For example, shout “The bat lives in a cave”.  The players from each team will run to their flashcards on the floor and turn them over until they find the “bat” and “cave” flashcards, then run to the board and stick them next to the sentence “A bat lives in a cave” (from point 2 above).  Make sure that they leave all the flashcards on the floor turned face down.

    Then continue with other students.  Each time, the first student to place the correct flashcards next to the correct sentence on the board wins a point for his/her team.

    Alternative #1: for fun, do silly sentences, such as “The hippo lives in a forest”.

    Alternative #2: instead of putting the cards next to the sentence on the board, erase the sentences before starting the game.  Each student then has to find the correct cards, put them on the board, and write the sentences correctly.

  4. Sing the “Where Do You Live?” song. You can either have everyone sing and dance along to the song or use our song worksheet as a listening task.  Please see the “Gestures and activities to use with the “Where Do You Live?” song” above for full instructions.
  5. Create an “Animal Habitats” wall poster.  We’ll end with a fun craft activity in which everyone creates a classroom poster.  You will need a large sheet of construction paper / card for the poster sheet (as big as possible).  Give everyone paper, colored pens, scissors and any other craft supplies you may have (e.g. glitter, cotton wool, etc.).  Give everyone a task – to draw, color and cut out an animal or place (use the ones from the song) to put on the poster.  Depending on the number of students you have you may need to give more than one picture for each student to do.  Just make sure that all 8 animals and places are being made.

    After everyone has drawn and cut our their pictures, get them to work together to glue the pictures onto the poster.  For example, the student who created the bear and the student who created the forest will have to make sure they stick their pictures together so the bear is on the forest picture.

    Finally, have the students draw speech bubbles next the pictures they have made and write inside the speech bubbles where animals live (e.g. “I am a fish.  I live in the sea”).

    Put the poster on the wall and give lots of praise as you go talk about their pictures.  In future lessons, you can use this wall poster as a review exercise.

  6. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Where do you live? Write” worksheet.

 

What Sports do you Play?

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: What Sports do you Play?

What Sports do you Play? songWhat Sports do you Play?

Song Theme: Talking about playing different sports.
Target Vocab: sports, play, soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton.
Song Length: 1:16

A lively song about playing sports.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 1:
I play *soccer (soccer!),
I play tennis (tennis!),
I play golf (golf!),
I play basketball (basketball!).

Chorus:
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?
What sports do you play?

Verse 2:
I play baseball (baseball!),
I play volleyball (volleyball!),
I play rugby (rugby!),
I play badminton (badminton!).

* In the British version of the song the word “football” is sung instead of “soccer”.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song

The gestures revolve around the actions for the different sports in the song:

- During the chorus have everyone sing and clap along.

- For the verses have everyone do the actions as they sing:

  • soccer/football: kick an imaginary ball
  • tennis: hit an imaginary tennis ball with an imaginary racket
  • golf: swing an imaginary gold club
  • basketball: bounce an imaginary basketball
  • baseball: swing an imaginary baseball bat
  • volleyball: smash an imaginary ball with your hand
  • rugby: throw an imaginary rugby ball to the side
  • badminton: smash an imaginary shuttlecock with an imaginary racket

 

Using the “What Sports do you Play?” song in class

This is a lively song which introduces the phrases “What sports do you play” and “I play ~”.  During the lesson you’ll have a lot of fun playing different sports.

  1. Introduce and play sports. As the lesson is sports themed we are going to do lots of fun sports activities.  Make sure all of the desks and chairs are moved to the side of the classroom.

    - You’ll need the following sports flashcards: soccer/football, tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, volleyball, rugby, badminton
    - You’ll also need lots of review flashcards from previous lessons
    - You’ll need the following equipment: balloons, bean bag balls or small soft balls, a waste paper basket or a cardboard box, a length of rope

    Start by dividing the class up into teams (for small classes 2 teams, larger classes up to 4 teams).  Get each team to come up with a team name and then elicit the team names and write across the top of the board (this will become the score board).  During this part of the lesson students will compete in a number of sports and win points for their team.

    Soccer/Football: First, stick the soccer/football flashcard onto the bottom of the board and say “What sport is this?”.  Elicit “Soccer” or “Football”.  Then say, “I like playing soccer (or football)”.  Do you like playing soccer (or football)?”.  Hopefully this will elicit some positive responses.  Then stand up and say “Ok, let’s play soccer (or football)!”.

    Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  At the other end of the classroom make a small goal (use two chairs or cushions for goal posts).  Place a balloon a few meters in front of the goal – far enough so that when kicked makes it possible to score but not too easy.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot.  If correct, let them run up and kick the balloon.  A goal earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores (we are not finished yet!).

    Tennis: Next, place the tennis flashcard on the board and elicit it.  This time we are going to play “Head Tennis” with balloons.  Pair up 2 students from opposing teams and have them stand facing each other.  They then have to head the ball between each other – the last player to head the balloon wins (for younger students, patting the balloon is fine).  The winner has to then answer a question to win a point for their team (e.g. What’s your name? How old are you?, etc.).  Play until everyone has had a go, then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Golf: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard.   This time we are going to play “Pencil Golf”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up in the middle of the classroom with a pencil each. Give each pair a small bean bag ball or soft ball.  Players take turns to hit the ball towards the opposite wall – therefore each student will compete to hit the ball in a different direction – however, as they are only using pencils the balls won’t travel far each hit!  Give a time limit of 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, the student from each pair who is closest to his/her wall is the winner.  Now, the winner will have say the correct vocab word for a review flashcard to win a point for their team.  Then sit everyone down and review the team scores.

    Basketball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Shoot the Basket”.  You’ll need a waste paper basket or just a cardboard box. Also, take a piece of paper and screw it up into a ball. Get everybody to stand up and form a line, each student behind the other, one line per team.  Put the basket at the other end of the classroom.  Hold up a review flashcard – the first student in the first team has to say the vocab correctly to have a shot at the basket with the screwed up paper ball.  If correct, let him/her take a shot.  A successful shot earns a point (write on the score board).  Play until at least each student has had a chance to shoot.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Baseball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Baseball”.  Have each team line up – everyone is a batter and the teacher is the pitcher.  Stand in front of the first student in the line and ask a question (e.g. Where do you live?,  What is your favorite food?, etc.).  If the student answers correctly pat the balloon towards the student.  S/he has to hold their hands together and swing and hit the balloon (like a baseball swing).  A successful hit wins a point.  Any hit that bounces against a classroom wall wins an extra point for a home run! Play until at least each student has had a chance to bat.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Volleyball: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Balloon Volleyball”.  Put students in pairs from opposing teams and have them face up with a length of rope separating them (you can lie the rope right across the classroom and have students stand either side as they play). Give each pair a balloon.  They pat the balloon to each other and try to stop it hitting the floor – whoever let’s it drop loses a point.  Let everyone play for a few minutes, then ask who the winner of each game is.  To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Rugby: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Rugby Balloon Pass”. In rugby you have to pass the ball backwards, so we are going to play a game passing a balloon backwards.  Get each team to line up, each student behind the other.  Give the player at the front of each team’s line a balloon.  S/he must pass the balloon backwards to his team-mate over the head.  The next player passes behind to his/her team-mate between the legs, and so on, over the head and between the legs.  Each team must race against each other.  The team that gets the balloon to the last player wins a point. You can play this game a few times. Then get everyone to sit down and review the team scores.

    Badminton: Same as above with eliciting the flashcard. This time we are going to play “Badminton Keep Ups”. Put students in pairs from opposing teams.  Give each student a screwed up paper ball.  Each student has to compete against his/her partner to pat the ball up the most times before the ball hits the ground.  Allow everyone about 2 minutes and then find out who managed to keep the ball up the most from each pair. To win a point for their team they must answer a review flashcard correctly.  Finally, get everyone to sit down and tally the final scores to find out which team is the winner.  The winning team will get a special prize at the end (see point 6 below)!

  2. Teach structures “What sports do you play?”, “I play ~”, “I don’t play~”. You should now have 8 sports flashcards on the board.  Model the structures: point at the first card and say “I play soccer/football” – while nodding you head.  Then go to the next flashcard and say “I don’t play tennis” shaking your head.  Go through all the cards saying what you do and don’t play.

    Now model with some students.  Ask one student “What sports do you play?” and help him/her go through the 8 sports saying what s/he does and doesn’t play.  Do this with a couple more students so everyone gets the idea.  Now in pairs, students ask and answer the question.  Change pairs a few times until everyone has had plenty of practice.

  3. Sing “What Sports do you Play?”. Get everyone to stand up and sing along to the song whilst they do the gestures (see the ‘Gestures and activities to use with the “What Sports do you Play?” song’ above).  Either use the flashcards on the board to prompt the order of the sports in the song or use our song poster.  Sing the song through a couple of times.
  4. Teach sports verbs and equipment vocab. On the board write: “To play soccer (or football) you have to __________ a soccer ball (or football).  Elicit the missing verb and write “kick” in the blank.  Before class, cut out the words from this “Sports Vocab Cut Outs” worksheet – enough for each group of students.  In pairs, the students have to match the words (e.g. golf – hit – golf ball).  As students are matching the words go around the class checking and asking questions.
  5. Do the “Let’s Play Sports!” worksheet. This worksheet practices the vocab from the last point.  Give each student a worksheet and circulate as everyone fills in the blanks.
  6. Special prize for the winning team. The winning team from the sports competition at the beginning of the lesson can end the class by choosing one of the 8 sports for everyone to play again (no review flashcards necessary this time!).
  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Sports Match up” or “Can you play …?” worksheet.

 

New Song: The Nature Song

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Nature Song

The Nature SongThe Nature Song

Song Theme: Talking about our world.
Target Vocab: sky, land, sun, moon, stars, mountain, sea, river, cloud, rainbow, lakes, fields, forest.
Song Length: 1:40

A nice and easy song to sing about our world.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Sun, moon, stars
Sun, moon, stars
Sun, moon, stars
In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 2:
Mountain, sea, river
Mountain, sea, river
Mountain, sea, river
On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

Verse 3:
Cloud, rainbow, sun
Cloud, rainbow, sun
Cloud, rainbow, sun
In the sky.

Sky, sky, sky, sky.

Verse 4:
Lakes, fields, forest
Lakes, fields, forest
Lakes, fields, forest
On the land.

Land, land, land, land.

 

Gestures and activities to use with the “The Nature Song”

The gestures in this song are very simple – even very little ones will be able to join in.

  • For verses 1 and 3: these verses are about the sky, so have everyone sway their arms in the air in time with the music as they sing.
  • For verses 2 and 4: these verses are about the land, so have everyone sway their arms low down near the ground in time with the music as they sing.

 

Using the “The Nature Song” in class

This is such nice song to sing – it works very very with even the youngest students. It introduces some important vocab about the world around us.

  1. Review and teach the colors vocab and sing The Rainbow Song: This lesson practices color vocabulary so make sure you have taught the colors lesson and The Rainbow Song before this one.  Prepare the following pieces colored paper (origami paper works great) before class:
    • (review vocab) red, yellow, pink, green, purple, orange, blue
    • (new vocab) brown, white, black

    Start by holding up the red piece of paper and elicit the color.  Chorus the word and then let some students touch the paper as they say the word.  Do this for all the review colors in the order of The Rainbow Song.  Now, lay the colors on the floor and have everyone sit on the floor in front of you facing the colors.  Play the song and sing along, pointing at each color as it is sung.

    Finally, hold up each of the new vocab colored papers (brown, white, black), chorus and pass around the class – with students saying each word as they pass the paper.

  2. Play “Color Touch”. Walk around the room and stick the pieces of colored paper to the walls as you walk around.  Say each color word as you stick them onto the walls and make sure they are at a level your students can reach.  Now model the game: say “Touch green!” and show everyone how you look around the walls for the green paper, then run and touch it.  Encourage your students to do the same. Now have everyone stand up in the middle of the room.  Say different colors as your students run around touching the colors.
  3. Play “Draw colored lines”. Get a big piece of blank paper (A3 or bigger if possible).  Have everyone sit in a circle around the paper with their crayons.  Say, “Everyone draw a (blue) line”, and model taking out a blue crayon, drawing a nice blue line on the paper and then putting the crayon back into your pencil case.  Get everyone to follow suit.  Continue with all the colors.  In the end you will have a nice abstract piece of artwork!
  4. Teach new vocab “sky” and “land”. Before class, find a picture in a book or magazine which shows a scene with the sky and land.  Using this picture, point to the sky and chorus “sky” 3 times.  Then say “Let’s touch the sky!” and jump as high as you can and mime touching the sky.  Get everyone to copy you.  Then point to the land in the picture and chorus “land” 3 times.  Say “Let’s touch the land!” and crouch down and touch the ground, with everyone else following along.  Next, line everyone up and shout out instructions “Touch the sky!”, “Touch the land!” with everyone jumping and crouching down.  Make a game of it by going quickly but sometimes calling out sky or land twice in a row.
  5. Teach new “nature” vocab. Now we have two defined categories (sky and land) we are going to provide some new words for those categories.  Before class, prepare two large A4 envelopes (color one green for land and one blue for sky) and flashcards for sun, moon, stars, mountain, sea, river, cloud, rainbow, lakes, fields, forest.  Pin both of the envelopes to the wall, opened, with the green one low down on the wall (to represent land) and the blue one higher up (to represent sky).

    Next, show the first flashcard (e.g. sun).  Ask what it is (elicit if required) and chorus.  Also, elicit the color.  Then ask if it belongs in the sky or on the land.  Finally, give the card to a student to put into the right envelope.  For example:

    Teacher: What’s this?
    Students: ???
    Teacher: It’s a sun.  Repeat, sun.
    Students: sun.
    (chorus 2 more times)
    Teacher: What color is the sun?
    Students: Yellow!
    Teacher: Good job!  Yes, yellow.  And does the sun belong in the sky (pointing at the blue envelope) or on the land (pointing at the green envelope)?
    Students: The sky!
    Teacher: Yes, great!  Emi, please put the sun in the sky envelope (student takes the flashcard and puts into the blue envelope).

    Continue with all of the flashcards.

  6. Play “Slow Motion” and “Jump on it” with flashcards.  Now that all of the flashcards are in the correct envelopes, we’ll test to see if everyone can remember the words by playing a guessing game.  Take one of the envelopes and slowly start pulling one flashcard out, bit by bit.  Encourage your students to guess and shout out what they think it is until it is guessed correctly.  The person who guesses first gets a high-five from the teacher!  Do this with all of the flashcards in both envelopes.

    Next, spread the flashcards, face up, over the floor and get everyone to stand up.  Shout out “Jump on the (mountain)”.  The first student to jump on the correct flashcard wins a point.

  7. Sing “The Nature Song”.  The first time you play the song, put up The Nature Song song poster on the board.  Quickly elicit the vocab.  Play the song and sing along, touching the objects on the song poster as you sing.  Get everyone to sing along and do the “sky” and “land” gestures, as described above in “Gestures and activities to use with the “The Nature Song” above.  Play 2 or 3 times.
  8. Do an “Our World” wall poster.  We’ll finish with a nice craft activity.  Before class, prepare the materials: a large sheet of black or blue construction paper/card with a circle large cut out of green construction paper/card glued in the middle of it (enough sheets for each group of 3 or 4 students).  The black/blue paper is the sky whilst the green circle is the Earth.  Give out these sheets and have each group have fun drawing objects from the song in the sky on the Earth.  You can also get a bit more creative, such as:
    • sticking on blue wool for rivers
    • glitter for stars
    • cotton wool for clouds
    • blue paint seas and lakes
    • green felt for fields
    • etc.

    When everyone has finished, pin up the posters to the walls and go around the class asking questions and giving lots of praise.

  9. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “Our World Draw” worksheet.  It is worthwhile modelling this worksheet, especially if your students are not able to read.  Quickly demonstrate drawing the objects on the land and in the sky.

 

The Family Song

$
0
0

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: The Family Song

The Family SongThe Family Song

Song Theme: Saying different members of the family.
Target Vocab: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, family, hello, how are you?, I’m fine thank you, See you soon.
Song Length: 2:30

A really nice song for very young learners with family finger puppet play.

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Hello father, Hello father,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 2:
Hello mother, Hello mother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 3:
Hello brother, Hello brother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 4:
Hello sister, Hello sister,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 5:
Hello grandfather, Hello grandfather,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 6:
Hello grandmother, Hello grandmother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 7:
Hello family, Hello family,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

 

Gestures and activities to use with “The Family Song”

For this song students use finger puppets (download and cut out the puppets):

  • before the song, help everyone to put on the puppets – there are 6 puppets altogether, 3 on each hand.
  • as the song plays, students wiggle the puppet for that particular verse (e.g. in Verse 1 it is “father”) and sing along.
  • for the last verse (family) students wiggle all of their finger puppets

 

Using “The Family Song” in class

This is an easy song which introduces students to the words for different family members. This is a great song and lesson to teach little ones as they completely understand the concept of family.

NOTE: if possible, ask the parents before class to arrange for their kids to bring in family photos – parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, themselves.  Also, bring in a few family photos of your own.

  1. Do “Teacher’s Family Photos Time” activity. If you can bring in photos of your family, this is a great activity to do.  Also try to encourage your students to bring in photos of their family – you’ll need to arrange this with the parents before the lesson.  If you can’t bring in photos, see the alternative below.

    Draw 7 squares on the top of your board in a row (see image below). Hold up a photo of yourself and ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit that it is you, stick the photo inside the middle square and write your name under the photo.  Next take out another photo (e.g. your father) and again ask “Who is this?”.  Elicit and teach the family vocab and stick the photo in one of the squares and write the word (e.g. “father”) under the photo.  Do for all of the following: father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother – you may not have some of these family members, but for the sake of this lesson, use photos of friends, etc., and pretend they are your brother, grandmother, etc.

    Board layout for family photos 1

    Your students will really enjoy seeing your family photos and will probably ask questions – feel free to extend the information you give on your family members, especially if it reviews previous lessons, such as ages and jobs.  Also, you can practice/review describing vocab (e.g. blond hair, big eyes, etc.).

    Alternative: If you can’t bring in family photos: instead of using your family photos, cut out pictures of people from magazines and pretend they are your family members. Younger kids will generally believe you (and may even be quite impressed!).

  2. Do “Students’ Family Photos Time” activity. If your students have brought in photos of themselves and their families, this is a great activity to do. If not, go to step 3.

    On the board, under the row of 7 photos of your family you are going to place photos from each of the students’ families. First, hold up the photos of the students in your class and elicit who they are – each time, stick their photo in the middle column and write their names underneath.

    Next, you are going to play a guessing game – hold up a photo of one of your student’s family members (e.g. Hugo’s sister) and get everyone to guess whose family the person belongs to.  Elicit family vocab (e.g. “It’s Hugo’s sister“) and place the photo on the board in the correct place (e.g., for Hugo’s sister, it would go in the row of Hugo’s photo and in the sister column).

    Board layout for family photos 2

    Keep holding up randomly selected photos of your students’ family members and placing on the board until your board is full of family photos. 

  3. Make “My Family Tree” Posters. Give out a piece of colored construction paper / card to each student.  They are each going to make a family tree poster of their family.  Begin by demonstrating the activity – with a green and brown crayon draw a large tree, filling up the whole piece of paper.  At the top write in large letters “My family”.  Then, either stick your photos family photos onto the tree or draw pictures of your family (grandparents at the top, next your parents and you and your siblings at the bottom).  Finally, under each family member photo/picture write the vocab (grandfather, mother, etc.).

    Now get your students to do the same.  If they brought in photos they can use them on their poster – if not, encourage them to draw pictures of their family members.  Students can copy the words from your poster (display it clearly).

    Finally, have each student pin their poster to the walls of the classroom.  Ask each student questions (e.g. Is that you mother?  What is your brother’s name?  How old is your sister?).

    NOTE: Depending on the level of your students you can have them write more information about their family members on the poster (e.g. names, ages, jobs, etc.). Students can even draw pictures of their pets.

  4. Make and play with Finger Puppets. For the song we are going to use finger puppets (craft sheet here).  Before class, print and cut out the finger puppets. We have color and black & white versions of the craft sheet – if using the black & white version, have your students color in the puppets before starting the song. Then attach the puppets to each students’ fingers by taping the straps around the finger – 3 puppets on each hand.

    Next, check everyone understands which puppet is which – say “Everybody wiggle grandfather” – make sure you are wearing your finger puppets as well so you can demonstrate.  Go through each puppet, wiggling fingers.  Then play a quick game: say “Wiggle the sister” and everyone has to quickly wiggle the right one.  Do for a few rounds until everyone has got the hang of it.

  5. Sing “The Family Song”. Play the song and sing along – wiggling the correct puppet for each verse (e.g. verse 1 is “father”).  If everyone enjoyed the song, play it once more.
  6. Play “Finger Puppet Conversations”. By now, everyone should have the idea of the structures from the song, so we are going to have some fun role-plays with the finger puppets.  First model with one student.  Hold up one finger puppet (e.g. mother) and get the other student to hold up one finger (e.g. grandfather).  Role-play a fun conversation, for example:

    T: Hello grandfather.
    S: Hello mother.
    T: How are you?
    S: I’m fine, thank you.  How are you?
    T: I’m fine, thank you. See you soon.
    S: See you soon.

    Then you can change finger puppets and do the conversation again.  Depending on level, you can also throw in a few more questions, such as, “What’s your name?”, “How old are you?”, “Where do you live?”, etc.

    Now the class can role-play.  Put everyone into pairs and set a timer to one minute.  Shout “Start!” and the pairs should role-play with different puppets until the timer goes off.  Then shout “Change partners!” and everyone finds a new partner for another one-minute conversation.  Keep going for a few rounds.

  7. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “My Family” worksheet.

 

Viewing all 53 articles
Browse latest View live


Latest Images