Category: children’s english

New Video: Open Shut Them Song

Open Shut Them has become a favorite warm-up song for my children’s English classes (ESL, EFL). It is fun, simple, and has plenty of actions. More below the video!

How to Teach

I start out teaching this song by doing the actions of opening and shutting my hands as you can watch in the video. Then I teach clap and the body parts in the song: head, knees, and nose.

Next, I slowly go through the actions and lyrics of the song with my students. At first, go slow and you do not have to force your students to sing along. They will sing when ready. From the beginning, encourage your students to do the actions. Full lyrics below!

Open Shut Them Lyrics

Here we go!
Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your head
Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your knees
Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your nose

One more time, faster!
Oh boy! Here we go!

Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your head
Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your knees
Open shut them, open shut them
Give a little clap, clap, clap
Open shut them, open shut them
Put them on your nose
Great Job!

Listen to Open Shut Them

You can use the above YouTube video in your classes, or stream Open Shut them on the following services:

Stream Open Shut Them:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music

Search Dream English Kids on any of these streaming services to find the song!

I hope this is helpful. Give it a try in your classes. Happy Singing!

New Video: Five Little Monkeys – Repeat After Matt!

I’m super excited to share my new song and video “Five Little Monkeys” repeat after me version. More below the video!

I created this song specifically for young English learners.
Have your students repeat after me and do the actions.
They’ll be singing in English right away!

Action English Album

Cover-Action-English-Edit2

The song is from my new album “Action English”
10 new songs to get your students moving and singing in English!

Available now on Spotify and Apple Music.
Search “Dream English Kids” or follow the links below:

Download printable lyrics to the Action English Songs:

Happy Singing!
Matt 😀

 

New Dinosaur Action Song for Children

New Dinosaur Action Song and Video! Run away from the dinosaurs, stomp your feet, chomp, and learn how to spell DINOSAUR. Full lyrics below video:

Lyrics:

Run, run away, run, run away

Dinosaurs have big feet to stomp, stomp, stomp
Dinosaurs have big teeth to chomp, chomp, chomp

If you see a dinosaur… If you see a dinosaur…
Run, run away, run, run away

Dinosaurs have big tails to swish, swish, swish
Dinosaurs have big mouths to roar, roar, roar

If you see a dinosaur… If you see a dinosaur…
Run, run away, run, run away

D, I, N, O, S, A, U, R D, I, N, O, S, A, U, R
dinosaur, dinosaur!
Run, run away, run, run away

New My Name Is Song For Children to Practice English

Teaching young English learners (ESL, EFL) how to say “My name is…” can be a challenge. This video uses modeling and repetition to help your students:

I wrote in an earlier blog post about using modeling to help young English learners  how to say “My name is …” in English. Check out that post here. 

I hope this song helps your students on their way to basic conversation skills in English!

Visit the Free Downloads page to download many free songs for your classroom. Click here!

New Feelings Song Video: I’m Happy! Song for Children’s English Class

Feelings vocabulary is important in the young learners classroom (ESL, EFL). This simple feelings song teaches 8 emotions. More below the video:

Lyrics:

Sometimes I’m happy, happy
sad, sad
sleepy, sleepy
angry, angry
Sometimes I’m hot, hot
cold, cold,
hungry, hungry,
thirsty, thirsty
(repeat)
But now I’m happy, happy…

Give the song a try and practice the question and answer:

Student 1: How are you feeling?

Student 2: I’m happy!

New Podcast: How to Teach New Songs and Engage Your Young Learners

In this episode I talk about my method for introducing new songs in your children’s English class. This is an excerpt from my Instagram live talk with @teachermiriam_ follow her on Instagram for great teacher tips!

Please check out my new “10 Steps to Teach English to Young Learners” book on Amazon.

Here is a direct link for the book: https://amzn.to/3ncHuVn

Thanks for listening and happy teaching! -Matt

Follow Dream English on Instagram: @dreamenglishkids

Top 5 Ways to Use Songs in the Children’s English Classroom

Songs can be used in many fun ways in English class (ESL, EFL). I love music, so I make it a centerpiece of my classes. For me, the more songs the better. Here we go!

    1. Before Class Time: Get your students ready for the class before it starts by playing songs in English. This can be a playlist of songs that you are singing in your class, or something else nice to listen to.
    2. Warm-Up Songs: I always sing a song with my students as part of the warm-up. Keep the warm-up songs simple and introduce the language as part of the warm-up. A great warm=-up song example is “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.”
    3. Topic Songs: You can use songs to help teach the vocabulary and phrases that you are learning in the class. For example, if you are learning the weather try the “Weather Song/Sun Comes Up.” It introduces the weather and asks, “How’s the weather?”

4. Fun Time: Sometimes we need a bit of a break from drilling and games and songs can be a lot of fun! Choose a student favorite or some action song to get the kids moving. For example, try “Shake It Out” a student favorite!

5. Goodbye Song: I always end the class with a Goodbye Song. This lets the students know that the class is over. For some reason, the students sing this song very enthusiastically! Check out the Dream English Goodbye Song here.

These are some of my favorite uses of children’s English songs in the classroom. What are your favorite uses of songs? Let us know with a comment on our Dream English Facebook or Instagram Page!

New Teaching Tips Podcast Episode: Lesson Plan Archive # 1

In this new series I will talk you through a lesson that I taught to young learners. Today’s lesson is a preschool lesson students age 5-6, 30 minutes once a week class. Listen here or on Apple Podcasts search: Dream English Teaching Tips Podcast.

Below are the links to the materials I talked about in the lesson:

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Song

https://www.dreamenglish.com/kidsongbodyparts

I Like Apples Book

http://kidsenglishbooks.com/ilikeapples

I Like Apples Song

https://www.dreamenglish.com/fruit

Goodbye Song

https://www.dreamenglish.com/goodbye

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