Author: Matt

The blog of Matt from Dream English with teaching tips and more

New Video: Sing, Draw, and Write # 3: Vehicles Learn English Kids

The Sing, Draw, and Write series is a fun way to get your students and children interacting with the video. Get a crayon and paper ready and let’s draw and write along! More how to to teach below the video:

Song Lyrics:

Where is the car? Where is the car? Here!
We see the car. We see the car. car!
Where is the truck? Where is the truck? Here!
We see the truck. We see the truck. truck!
Where is the motorcycle? Where is the motorcycle? Here!
We see the motorcycle. We see the motorcycle. motorcycle!
Where is the train? Where is the train? Here!
We see the train. We see the train. train!

Key words: where, here, we

How to Teach:

  1.  Pre-teach the vocabulary and lyrics to the song so that students can try to sing along, or at least be familiar with the vocabulary.
  2. Watch the video one time through with students. Encourage them to point to the vehicle when Matt sings, “Where is the car?” and for other vehicles
  3. Watch Matt draw the car, and have the students try to draw their own car. They can be creative, color the car, and have fun. Anyone can probably draw better than Matt. : )
  4.  After singing the song faster the second time, watch Matt write car on the paper. Have your students write the word car on their paper.

Check out the first two videos in the Series on YouTube:

Sing, Draw, and Write # 1 : Where is the Lion?
Sing, Draw, and Write # 2 : Where is the Tiger?

Listen to a podcast on how to use the video in your class:


I hope this helps you get the most out of this video. Can you think of other ways to be creative with this video? Maybe ask your students to draw all of the vehicles and then make a play where they act out the video. Give it a try! Happy Teaching! – Matt

Dream English School Show – Casablanca, Morocco, December 2, 2019

It was my first time visiting Morocco, and I was very excited to do my first Dream English show in Africa! I have been fortunate to do Dream English shows in Thailand, Japan, USA, France, Italy, Spain, and now Morocco! More below the photo.

Dream English-Morocco

The students were fantastic and sang the Dream English songs so well. I was invited by teacher Hind at the EIC – Almaz school in Casablanca. She uses many of my songs like Good Morning Song, Shake It Out, and more in her classes.

The Show

The show took place in a beautiful auditorium in the school. There were 9 kindergarten classes, the smiles from the children filled the seats. For many of the songs the students joined me on stage singing and dancing. We had a blast!

Here are the Dream English songs we sang at the show:

1. Good Morning Song
2. Hello Song
3. Let’s Count 1 to 10
4. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
5. The Weather Song (The Sun Comes Up)
6. BINGO Song ( with guitar)
7. Days of the Week Song (with guitar)
8. Baby Shark
9. Colors Action Song
10. Shake it Out
11. Wake Up Song
12. Goodbye Song

(Free downloads of most of these songs can be found here.)

Classroom Visits

The next morning I visited all 9 classrooms and we sang some more songs together, and I had a chance to ask some basic questions to many of the students. The English level of the students was excellent, and it was a pleasure to meet them all. They were all also very kind and gave me many nice handmade gifts (see photo).

students and photo - EIC

Thank you to teacher Hind, the administration and staff of the school for having me. Also a big thanks to the students for singing with me. It was a dream come true to do a show in Morocco!

Dream English School Show – Brescia, Italy, October 16, 2019

It was such a pleasure to visit northern Italy and do a performance with great students! The students sang so well, and were enthusiastic for the whole show! More below the photo:

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(Photo: Matt and students singing Shake it Out)

The Show

There were about 30 students at this show, which made it fun and easy to interact with everyone. We could make a circle, and sing in a circle. We did this for a few songs.  The teachers and students were very helpful and enthusiastic, which made for a very fun show!

Here are the Dream English songs we sang at the show:

1. Let’s Count 1 to 10
2. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
3. The Weather Song (The Sun Comes Up)
4. ABC Song ( with guitar)
5. Days of the Week Song (with guitar)
6. Baby Shark
7. Colors Action Song
8. Shake it Out
9. Do You Have a Pet?
10. BINGO (with guitar)
11. Goodbye Song

After the show I was invited to see how the students practice Dream English songs in the classroom. It was amazing to see my videos on a large smartboard. We even sang the Weather Song and the Goodbye Song watching the YouTube Videos together. It was a blast!

I had so much fun at this school. A big thank you to teacher Linda, the other teachers at the school, and of course the wonderful students for an amazing morning!

Dream English School Show – Rome, Italy October 24, 2019

I had a lot of fun singing with the great students at a primary school in Rome, Italy! There were about 200 students, and we did three shows for the different age groups. Read more below the photo.

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(Photo: Matt and students singing the Weather Song)

The Show

We split the students into three age groups with about 70 students per show. The first group were 6-7 years old, the second group 7-8, and the last group 8-9. Each show was a bit over 20 minutes, and the energy was amazing for each group!

I was so inspired by the students singing, dancing, and enthusiasm that it helped me to perform. It was exciting for all of us!

Here are the Dream English songs we sang at the show:

1. Let’s Count 1 to 10
2. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
3. The Weather Song (The Sun Comes Up)
4. ABC Song ( with guitar)
5. Days of the Week Song (with guitar)
6. Baby Shark
7. Colors Action Song
8. Goodbye Song

One of my favorite parts of the show is singing the Days of the Week song with students. I always invite a few students up to the front to sing and do the actions, while I play guitar. It is amazing to hear all of the children singing a song that I wrote.

Thank you to teacher Isabella, the other teachers, and all of the students at the show for making this a wonderful afternoon of music and fun!

Dream English School Show – Paris, France Show # 1

One of the best parts of Dream English for me is meeting teachers and students around the world. I have been fortunate to do Dream English Shows in Thailand, Japan, Spain, U.S.A, and now France!

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The Speak N’ Play English school just outside of Paris, France was my first show in France. I was invited by the school owner, Eliza. She is very nice, and a great teacher! If you have children in the area who are looking to learn English, I highly recommend Speak N’ Play.

Show And Songs

There were about twenty students, a nice number and I could really interact with all of the students. It was my first time meeting these students, so I started out by doing simple warm-ups. I used repeat after me action warm-ups like this, “clap your hands, clap, clap. wash your hands, wash, wash.”
It was important for me that the students feel relaxed before starting into the songs.

Song List:

We did the following Dream English songs at the show:

1. Let’s Count 1 to 10
2. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
3. The Weather Song (The Sun Comes Up)
4. ABC Song ( with guitar)
5. BINGO (with guitar)
6. Baby Shark
7. Colors Action Song
8. Goodbye Song

The students were great. They had a lot of energy and were focused throughout the show. I had a lot of fun singing with the students, and their teacher Eliza.

A big thank you to Eliza for inviting me. Until next time! Goodbye, see you, thank you!

What Time Is It? Song for Teaching Children Time In English

What time is it? It’s time to play guitar!

I made this video a few years back, but still find it fun and useful for children’s English class. Sing the song and do the actions!

Actions help children remember vocabulary. For more on this concept look up TPR (Total Physical Response). And movement is fun!

Watch the full video here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0Yq_rztquuU

Back to Basics: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes is a great warm-up song for English Class

One of my favorite ways to start a new English class for young learners (ESL, EFL) is to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes. The song is fun, simple, and active. After this song, the class can sit down and settle down for a fun class.

Recommended Ages: 3-7 Years old
Target Vocabulary: Body Parts

Give the song a try in your class! You can also download a free MP3 of the song here.  Happy singing!

New Video: Let’s Count to 100 by 1s Chant for Learning Numbers

I review numbers every class with my young learners, and this video is a fun and simple way to count from 1 to 100 by 1s in your young learner English classes! More below the video!

You can also review numbers in class using flashcards, or object, or fingers. After reviewing the numbers, I always like to do a quick quiz with my students. I show a few numbers and ask, “What number?” Children can learn numbers quickly and a numbers quiz is a fun activity to give children confidence in their English learning adventure!

You can download the audio only for this chant for free! Click here to go to the webpage with the chant! You will also see an action version of this chant on that page. Try it when your students need some excercise!

 

My First 100 Words in English Chant – Learn One Hundred Words

My new video is a chant video with one hundred words. I made this video because I feel that children can learn so much so quickly in English class (ESL, EFL) so why not give them one hundred words to learn. I have been showing the video in my classes with great success. I say one hundred words in four minutes. The topics covered are: Animals, Food, Vehicles, Numbers, Jobs, Colors, Family, Clothing, Body Parts, and Actions. See below the video for Teachers tips!

Teachers Tips

  1. Before the video starts, show the thumbnail to your students and see how many words they already know.
  2. Encourage the students to repeat after me while watching the video.
  3. After watching the video, ask your students what words that they can remember from the video.

As always, I encourage you to come up with your own ideas to make this song and video a useful learning tool for your classroom. Visit the Dream English Kids Youtube channel to watch this video and many more!