Month: March 2017

Teaching Family Members and Instruments with the Family Finger Song

I love mixing different topics in one song. It is a great way to increase students vocabulary, and help young learners remember new words in a fun way! The Family Finger song with instruments is my latest attempt at making a fun mix. Teaching tips, full song lyrics and more below the video:

How To Teach:

Before I teach a song, I always introduce and review the vocabulary.  For this song the main vocabulary is Daddy, Mommy, Brother, Sister, Baby, Guitar, Piano, Recorder, Drums. You can teach the vocabulary by showing flashcards, or pictures from a book or textbook. Make sure the students understand the meaning of the words.

Next, I like to teach the actions of the song. For example, ” I am playing the piano.” Say the words, and do the actions. Here are the full lyrics of the song:

Daddy finger, Daddy finger where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
I’m playing the guitar

Mommy finger, Mommy finger, where are you? 
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
I’m playing the piano.

Brother finger, Brother finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
I’m playing the electric guitar.

Sister finger, Sister finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
I’m playing the recorder

Baby finger, Baby finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
I’m playing the drums

Next, watch the video, ask your students to sing along and do the actions!

After the video:

I like to ask my students a few questions after watching the video. Here are some sample questions you could ask:

  1. What instrument was Mommy playing in the video? (Piano)
  2. Can you show me your baby finger?
  3. In what room was brother playing the electric guitar? (bedroom)

Be creative and come up with new game and lesson ideas on your own using the Family Finger Song. You can do it! You are a great teacher! Happy teaching! 

Teaching Places and Vehicles with the New It’s a Beautiful Day Song

I think it is important to introduce fun and memorable ideas when teaching young learners of English (ESL, EFL). I created a new song to teach places (library, playground, restaurant, and supermarket) with a fun twist of getting splashed by vehicles. Check out the video here, more teaching tips below:

Teaching Tips

Before playing the video for your students, use flash cards, or pictures to introduce the vocabulary in the video. Here are all the vocabulary words needed to teach:
Places: Library, Playground, Restaurant, Supermarket
Vehicles: Fire Truck, Bus, Banana Car, Bulldozer
You can use flashcards you already have, or look around the web to source your cards, I recommend MES English for great flashcards for teaching kids English.

Introduce the vocabulary on the flashcards, and the action of walking. Here are the full lyrics of the song if you want to pre-teach all the lyrics:

It’s a beautiful day
I’m on my way
I’m walking to the playground

Look, it’s the library
the library
I got splashed by a fire truck
Oh, no!
(repeat with other vocabulary above)

Now you are ready to play the video, and sing-along with your students. I would make the students stand up, if possible, and do the actions. They can really get into it and act like they are getting splashed, too!

The idea of these types of songs are that they are a fun natural way to learn English. Give it a try, and happy singing!