kids songs – Page 2 – Dream English Teaching Tips Blog

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:

Spelling Game: Let’s learn how to spell Lion. If you make a mistake, watch out for the dinosaur!
Ask Tunes: Let’s ask Tunes a question. In this episode I ask Tunes, “What’s your favorite animal?”
Quiz Time: What animals do you see?
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!

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:

What instrument was Mommy playing in the video? (Piano)
Can you show me your baby finger?
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!

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 Big, Small, Fast, and Slow to Young Learners of English in a Fun Way

Fun should be at the heart of your English class, right? Well, there should be times when we get serious, but I try to have as much fun as possible with young English learners (ESL, EFL). I often start the classes with a simple warm-up song or two and opposites are great for this! More below the video:

Big and Small

It is really easy to teach the concept of big and small with our bodies. Simply make your body big and say in a loud voice “big!” then make your body small and say, “small.” You can see examples of me doing this in the video above. Next, you could point to some images and ask the students, “Is it big, or is it small?” I like to use easy to recognize images like elephants and mice.

Fast and Slow

In the same way that we used our bodies for big and small, we can teach fast and slow. Run quickly in place and say “fast!” then move your body very slowly and say “slow.” It is fun to go back and forth between fast and slow, students love this!

These are just simple ideas to get you started. Have fun with it! In the video above there are three songs teaching these target words. So practice with your students, watch the videos, and sing along. The students will learn the concepts in no time!

New Family Finger Halloween Action Song for ESL EFL Class

If you have not noticed already, I love action songs. I am an active person, and I truly believe that getting students moving in a classroom of young learners of a foreign language is really important! More below the video:

With that in mind, I made the Dream English style version of the popular nursery rhyme Family Finger Halloween version. Learn the Halloween vocabulary ghost, mummy, black cat, monster, and pumpkin in this fun song. Plus, do the actions: fly, walk, hop, run, spin. These kinds of songs are great for the beginning of class when our students have a lot of energy to get out. Make sure you have your students stand up and sing the song. Have them hold out their hand and shake it during the ” Here I am, here I am, how do you do?” part. The more action, the better. Here we go!

5 Fun Tips for Teaching Halloween to ESL and EFL Students

Halloween can be really fun in the classroom! We always enjoy teaching the fun Halloween characters and vocabulary to our young learners of English. Here are 5 great ideas to get you started with your Halloween classes. More to come later!

Teach the character names first-Start the first class of the Halloween season teaching all of the character names like bat, ghost, witch and more. For a link to a flashcard set of Halloween characters and matching chant audio of character names and songs to teach them go here.
Use flashcards to teach the character names, and then play fun games. I recommend the simple tower game, this game is a bit of a challenge no matter what the age group, and has the element of surprise if the tower falls, so kids love it. Learn more about the Tower Game here.
After students become familiar with the character vocabulary, choose some target language for the month. For Halloween, I love the “What do you see? I see a bat.” as a useful target phrase. Check out the “What Do You See?” Halloween song and matching free printable flashcards here.
Sing lots of songs! I always spend the first 10-15 minutes of my classes singing songs with my students. These are great for warm-up, vocabulary practice, and the active movement is great for students. I recommend the new “Halloween Walk” Halloween song to get started. Check that out here.
After introducing one Halloween song, try a few more that are appropriate for your students age and level. Check out all of the Free to listen to and download Dream English Halloween Songs here.

I hope these fun Halloween classroom ideas will help get you started! The Dream English songs are used in both young learner classrooms of English, and special needs classrooms. Give some a try, and happy singing!

Halloween Songs For Kids Learning English and Special Needs

Halloween can be so much fun in the classroom! I like to make October a super fun month and incorporate as many games, and songs as possible in the classes. Recently I’ve found that if I spend the first 20 minutes of class time singing songs, dancing, and playing active games then the rest of the class goes much smoother. This is especially important for younger students learning English from Ages 2-8 years olds.

With that in mind, I have gotten back to creating songs with more actions. Here is an example of a new song that incorporates the following actions: walking, jumping, running, ducking, and knocking. Plus the song has favorite Halloween characters like a bat, ghost, and witch. Have a look at the song here: Halloween Walk Song

I recommend this song as a fun way to get into the Halloween spirit in your classroom! There are many more Halloween songs and teaching ideas at Dream English Halloween. So have a look and Happy Halloween!