Category: Teaching Tips

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!

 

Teaching Colors with the What Color Is It? Song Free MP3 Download

Hi, Friends! I hope wherever you are in the world you are feeling positive today! Today I added the “What Color Is It?” Song as a free download on Dream English.com. This is a song that I use almost every day in my classes. I use it as an action song to get the students up and moving around the room. Young learners love to be active, and this song is a big help. If you are not familiar with the song, have a look at the video:

To go to the page with the free MP3 download of the “What Color is it?” song click here.

Why I love this song

Learning colors is an important basic part of any English course for young learners. This song teaches eleven main colors. It also teaches the question, “What color is it?” and how to answer, “It’s red.”

Students can sing the song and watch the video, or get active! I play the song in the classes, actually I play it and sing on guitar, but you can use the mp3 download. Ask your students to go around the room and touch or pick up objects with the colors they sing in the song. The second half of the song repeats the colors and gets faster. This is really fun for students!

Super Teaching Tip!

Have your students sing along, and when they get to the color and touch it have them say, “here!” when they touch the color. As a teacher, be encouraging. Say, “Great job, Sally! Nice work, Billy!” Give it a try! Happy singing and color finding! -Matt

New Walk in The Woods Action Song for Teaching Children English

It is really important to have fun in the classroom when teaching children English. One way to do this is with emotions. Quickly changing emotions from happy to sad, or not scared to scared can be a fun way of teaching. More below the video….

Walk In The Woods Song

The target language in this video includes animals (owl, fox, bear), nature (woods) and the use of “not” (I’m not scared.) You can pre-teach this vocabulary, or just go ahead and watch the video and have the children follow along. If they are already familiar with the target language, the students should be able to follow along quickly!

Get Moving!

I recommend having your students stand to watch this video. Get them moving and following along with the actions. This will get them more involved, and they will remember the words not only by singing, but with their bodies. Remember: Movement is very important!

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics of the song:

Let’s go for a walk in the woods
Let’s go for a walk in the woods
I’m not scared, no, no
I’m not scared, no, no
Stop! What’s that sound?
An owl? Shhh! Be very, very quiet
(repeat with fox and bear)

So that is the walking in the woods song, give it a try in your classes! For extra excitement, can you think of a game idea for the song? You could have students act out the different characters in the song and sing along. Happy Singing!

Family Finger Songs – Teaching Different Ideas to Young Learners

Many of you may know the popular children’s song Family Finger. I have made some new versions using different vocabulary. I like this song, because it teaches other vocabulary such as, “Where are you?” I also use these songs to teach actions like dig, mix, and more. More below the video:

How To Use This Song in your Classes

This song can be used as a warm-up song or in the middle of your classes as a song break time. You can begin by teaching the Construction Vehicle names, then the actions. Then watch the video and have your students do the actions and sing along. Here are the full lyrics:

Excavator finger, excavator finger where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Let’s dig like an excavator

Bulldozer finger, bulldozer finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Let’s push like a bulldozer

Road roller finger, road roller finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Let’s roll like a road roller

Dump truck finger, Dump truck finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Let’s drive the dump truck.

Concrete mixer finger, concrete mixer finger, where are you?
Here I am, here I am. How do you do?
Let’s mix like a concrete mixer.

So give it a try and get moving in your class! Here we go!

 

Walking in The Snow Action Song for Young Learners

It is time to get excited to take our students English to the next level!  If you have been following Dream English for awhile, you know we have covered many topics, and vocabulary items in our lesson plan songs. Now, it is time get exciting and mix it up! More below the video:

Themed Songs

I am beginning to write songs based around themes and ideas, like in the above video, ” Walking in the Snow.” This song covers many things with verbs (walking), emotions and feelings (scared), question phrases (what are those footprints in the snow?), plus some animal names. Let’s have a look at the full lyrics:

I’m walking in the snow
I’m walking in the snow
I’m a little bit scared because
I don’t know
What are those footprints in the snow?
I hear something, Ahhh!
It’s a cute little kitty
(repeat above with cute little puppy, cute little bird, and polar bear)

As you can see, there is a lot to be learned in this song. I also hope that it is a lot of fun for your students! So let’s get singing, and adventurous with our use of vocabulary. Here we go!

Teaching “I’m not….” to Young Learners with a Fun Action Song

In my new video and song, one of the lyrics is “I’m not scared.” This is a great phrase for kids to learn for their confidence, but it can also be easily changed to “I’m not hungry,” or “I’m not sad.” Very useful phrases in English! Have a look at the video, and read more below.

Teaching “I am” Phrases

So, how do we get students to use “not” effectively? First, we have to teach phrases with “I am.” For example, “I’m hungry, I’m happy, I’m sleepy.” If your students are not familiar with these phrases, check out the Feelings Song Here. 

Once your students are comfortable with the “I am” phrases, you could teach them the “I’m not scared” vocabulary from the above video. Then, show them the video. One effective way to show the difference is to say, “I’m scared” and act scared. Then, say “I’m  not scared, ” and act like that. Again, have a look at the video for how I act when I sing, “I’m not scared.”

Put it Together

Now that your students know the “I am” and the “I’m not….” ask them questions like, “Are you hungry?” The student should either answer, “I’m hungry,” or “I’m not hungry.” Go through the other feelings in the same way: happy, sad, sleepy, scared. You may have to do some modeling as a teacher to make sure your students understand the meaning.

Great job! You made it to the end of this blog post. Have a great day teaching!

 

Wild Animal Finger Family Song for Teaching English to Young Learners

I love songs that combine many different elements. The Finger Family song has vocabulary (animal names), question words (where?), and in my version it has actions!  More below the video:

How to teach the song

Start by introducing the animal names using flashcards, or other pictures. In this song we have a cheetah, a dolphin, a lion, a rabbit, and a crocodile. Next, teach the actions of the song : run, swim, roar, hop, and chomp (like  bite).

Next, put your hand to your eyes like you are looking for something and say, “Where?” You can use your students names, if you like. For example, ” Bob, where are you?” Now you have introduced all of the vocabulary in the video. Give the song a try and encourage your students to sing along. It might take a few tries before the students can sing, so be patient and sing along as well so the students can model after you.

Why singing is so important in English Class

Singing is a great way to practice pronunciation, rhythm, and sentence structure in English. Also, the repetitive nature of songs helps the students internalize the language of the song. Internalizing language leads to automatic use, or fluency. This is the goal! Let’s get our kids singing fluently in English. We can do it!

What’s In Your Bag? Classroom Items Song, Video and Game

School supplies are very important vocabulary for young learners of English (ESL, EFL).  It makes it much easier for a student to get a pencil from their bag, if they know what it is! So I have made a new, and a bit silly, video to introduce the vocabulary:

The video introduces the question, “What’s in your bag?” and an answer, “It’s my pencil, ” and other items like notebook, ruler, and eraser.

Tips for watching a video with students

This might go without saying, but I always watch the video with my students, do all of the actions and sing all the way through. Students will model after you, so even if you are putting on a video, it is not a time to sit and relax in class. (sorry!) These videos are designed with a second half that increases the speed of the song. This is great for fluency practice, and really getting your students to internalize the vocabulary!

What’s in your bag? Game

Materials: Bags (either students, or supply some kind of paper, or cloth bag). Students school supplies (pencil, eraser, ruler, etc.)

Ask the students to put one item in their bag, and make a partner. The students take turns asking and answering, like this:

Student 1: What’s in your bag?

Student 2: It’s my pencil. What’s in your bag?

Student 1: It’s my eraser.

Then, the students can play Rock, Scissors, Paper and move onto a new pair. Simple, but fun.

These are just a few ideas of my own.  I encourage you to be a creative teacher, and try out new game and classroom ideas to get the best out of your students!