Category: Learning Videos

Jobs and Occupations Song For Children’s English Class And Free Song Download

Learning about jobs and occupations like doctor, teacher, firefighter is an important part of English for young learners (ESL, EFL). The Dream English Jobs Song teaches us about important people we might see every day. More below the video!

Key Words: doctor, teacher, pilot, firefighter, pirate
Target Phrase: I see a teacher.

How to teach: If you have been using Dream English, many of your students may already be familiar with the phrase, “What do you see?” Use flashcards to teach the target vocabulary. MES English has great ones. Then ask your students “Who do you see?” and have them answer. You can watch the video before one time to get the students familiar with the song. Then either download the free song and sing it in class, or watch the video. Be sure to do all of the actions with the song!

This song may be a bit different than other jobs songs. I made this in order for children to be able to identify people they might see in books, or in their daily life. You can download a free mp3 of this song here. Full lyrics are in the video description on YouTube. Happy Singing!

Favorite Animal Song- A New Original Song for your Classes Young Learners of English, ESL, EFL

In this song I had a lot of fun combing a few question phrases, wild animals, and a bit of action! See below for teaching tips and vocabulary used in the song:

Target Vocabulary:
Questions: Do you have a favorite animal? Can you see the lion? Where is the lion?
Vocabulary: zebra, lion, elephant, crocodile, monkey, and tiger.
Phrases: I like zebras. It’s a lion.

The idea of this song and video is to teach the animal names in a natural way. It is a bit different than drilling the same question and answer over and over. I hope that this type of song will help students be able to have a conversation in a natural way.

Teaching Tips:
Watch the video with the students. Depending on the students age or level, you do not have to pressure them to sing along. They can watch and learn. After watching the video, you can use flash cards to make sure they learned the animal names.

Next, try asking a few questions like in the video. For example, “Do you have a favorite animal?”

Animal Matching Game:
Use small game cards to play the animals matching game. Put the cards face down, and the students have to pick up the cards and find a match.
MES-English.com has great game cards for this. Kids love this kind of game. As the students turn over the card, make sure they see either the animal name, or a phrase like “It’s a lion.”

I hope you find these ideas helpful. Be creative, have fun and your students will too! Happy Teaching!

What Do You Want To Eat? Song for Children’s English Classes, ESL, EFL

” I want a banana! ” asking for things in English is so important. If you listen to young native speakers, they are often asking for things. In this fun video we are learning the basics of how to ask for something in English. Watch, and give it a try in your classes!

Target Phrases: What do you want to eat? I want a banana.
Target vocabulary: sandwich, salad, hot dog, hamburger, banana, taco, broccoli cake, onion ice cream

Give the song a try in your classes, and then practice with different food vocabulary. You can even make a shopping game. Happy teaching!

 

New Hide and Seek Song and Video for Young English Students, ESL, EFL

I am always looking for new ways to make the young English learners (ESL, EFL) classes fun. Kids love to play Hide and Seek. It is such a fun and simple game. Children hide, and one friend tries to find them. You can play it anywhere, at home, in a park, or even in a classroom. Teaching tips below the video:

Target Vocabulary:

Where are you? 
Where is Bell? Where is Tunes? Where is Matt?
There she is. There he is.

Very useful vocabulary for the young learner. We often ask where someone is. We also often say, “There he/she is.”

Game idea:

After showing this video you can play the real hide and seek game if you have space in your classroom, or outdoors. You can also play using some flashcards, and paper cut outs of characters.

Materials: 3-5 flashcards of your choice. It could be park vocabulary (tree, slide, bush, etc.) or transportation (car, truck, airplane).
Paper cut out of a character, or even animal.

How to play: Place the flashcards on the floor and say, “Let’s play hide and seek.” Identify the flashcards, teaching the students the vocabulary on the card. For example, “tree, bush, slide.” Show the paper cut out and say, “Now Tune is going to hide.” Ask the students to close their eyes and count to 5, 10, or how long you need. Place the character under one of the cards, and ask the students to open their eyes. Next say, “Where is Tunes?” Depending on the level of the students they can just say the flashcard vocabulary like “Tree” or they could say “under the tree,” or even “behind the tree.” It is up to you to decide what vocabulary suits your students level best.

I hope this give you some ideas. Be creative, have fun, and your students will learn a lot!

 

New Animal Names Song and Matt Show # 1 Learn English Kids

Hi! I’m super excited about the new Animal Names call and response song. This song works really well with young learners of English. It is simple, and also a lot of fun! I’m also excited to introduce the new Matt Show! Have a look and more below the video:

Animal Names Song

The idea of this song is simple. Let’s say some animal names, and repeat. This song can be a lot of fun with young students in small, and large class sizes. I would recommend this song from 3 years and up. It can be a bit of a challenge to say, “L, L, L, L, L, L, Lion!”

The Matt Show

The idea of the Matt show is simple, to reinforce the vocabulary and concepts in the song at the beginning of each video. After all, in a class we wouldn’t just sing a song, and then that is the end of the class. We would play games, and practice the vocabulary in different ways.

Different Ways to Learn

In the first episode of the Matt Show we have the following segments:

  1. Spelling Game: Let’s learn how to spell Lion. If you make a mistake, watch out for the dinosaur!
  2. Ask Tunes: Let’s ask Tunes a question. In this episode I ask Tunes, “What’s your favorite animal?”
  3. Quiz Time: What animals do you see?
  4. What did we learn today? A review of the things we learned in the song and video.

I hope you and your students find the new song and show ideas fun and helpful. Remember, teaching English is easy, if you make sure to be clear with what you are presenting, kids will just get it! Happy Teaching!

Food! Top 10 Teaching Food Vocabulary Ideas to Young Learners of English

Food, Glorious, Food! A line from the great musical Oliver. Teaching young ESL and EFL learners about Food is a fun topic. We all have our favorite food, for me it is pizza, not to mention favorite fruit, and ice cream flavors. In the new Food Family Finger video, we learn the names of five popular food items, and how to ask for them in English. More below the video:

Top 10 Teaching Food Vocabulary Ideas

  1. Use flash cards, toy food, or draw pictures to teach children food names in English. MES English has some great flash cards here.
  2. Personalize the class! Ask the students, “What is your favorite food?” Beginners can answer with just the name of the food, and more advanced students can answer in a sentence like, “ I like pizza.”
  3. Use flash cards, or food props, and have a “restaurant”. Lay out the food on a table, and have the students take turns asking for food by using phrases like, “I want a salad.” Make sure they say “Thank you” after the teacher gives the student the pretend food. Watch the video above to practice this vocabulary.
  4. Craft Time: Have students draw pictures of their favorite meal! Including dessert and drink. If the students do not know the name in English, be sure to teach them. Have the students share in English about their meal to the class.
  5. Watch a Dream English Kids Video about Food, here are a few popular ones: Food Song Learn 15 Food Items Fruit Song Learn 12 Fruit
  6. Play a Shopping game. Similar to the Restaurant game (see # 3), but this time students gather, or ask for items, and use pretend money to buy the items. A teacher can be the cashier and say things like, “That will be three dollars.” Or have the students take turns. You can easily make pretend money and food for the game out of paper. Put the food items around the room like a real supermarket.
  7. Read books about food. Some of my favorites are: The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and I Like Apples from my other site KidsEnglishBooks.com
  8. Ask students what they ate for lunch. Again, if they do not know the vocabulary in English be sure to teach them. Use the phrase, “What did you eat for lunch today?” You could also ask about breakfast if your class is in the morning.
  9. Sing a song about Food! Check out I Like Apples, it is a free download here.
  10. If you are a teacher that eats lunch or snacks with your students, be sure to talk about and ask questions about the food they are eating. For example, “What are you eating? Is it yummy? What color is your apple?”

I hope these ideas help you get off to a great start teaching about Food to young learners of English. I am sure you have many ideas of your own that are great as well. Happy teaching!

Learn Rooms of the House with a New Song!

Students can learn the rooms of the house pretty easily. With that in mind, I made a Rooms of the House Song with some actions, like cooking, and reading. This combination of themes makes for a lot of fun in the classroom! How to teach and more below the video:

UPDATE: Download a FREE MP3 of this song, click here!

How To Teach:

Before showing a video I like to introduce the vocabulary with flashcards. MES English has some great Rooms of the House flashcards that contain all of the vocabulary in this song. Get them here at MES-English.com

You could also have some fun with your students and draw the rooms on a white board. Ask the students to draw objects that they might see in the room.

Next, pre-teach the actions: cooking, reading, playing guitar, eating, brushing teeth. Your students might already be familiar with a lot of this vocabulary. Then, watch the video, and have the students try to do the actions and sing-along. Here are the lyrics just in case you want to pre-teach those as well:

Rooms of the House Song Lyrics:

I’m cooking some food in the kitchen. 
I’m reading a book in the living room.
I’m playing my guitar in the bedroom.

Please be quiet! I’m trying to sleep.
Ok! After my guitar solo!

I’m eating dinner in the dining room.
I’m brushing my teeth in the bathroom.
I’m playing my guitar in the bedroom.

Please be quiet! I’m trying to sleep.
Ok! After my guitar solo!

Game idea: Ask your students to take turns acting out the gestures of cooking, or reading, and have the students take turns guessing. For an extra challenge, ask your students to choose a room flashcard where they are doing the action, and have the students answer like this, ” You are reading a book in the living room.”

I hope this helps you with some ideas to get started with your own awesome Rooms of the House lesson! Happy Teaching!

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!