If you’re playing competitive games with young learners, always have a pair of these handy.
There’s no better way to make everyone laugh and forget about winning and losing!
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What an amazing tool the internet is. Over the past several years, we’ve been able to communicate and share ideas with teachers all over the world. One of those teachers, Val in Argentina, gave us SO many ideas for fun ways to use songs in the classroom. Our students LOVE the video Val made with her students for “Ten in the Bed“.
Now it’s probably one of the most popular songs in our classes. The students really, really love this activity. Give it a try! And don’t forget to check out Val’s videos for tons of great ideas.
Hey Val…You’re cake!
What should you do if English isn’t your first language, but you would like to raise your children to speak English fluently? Should you use English at home? What if your child expresses frustration at having to communicate in English?
That’s the focus of a discussion taking place at the Super Simple Learning Facebook Discussion Page. Come on over and let us know what you think!
Teaching can be incredibly rewarding, and sometimes very tiring. It’s important every once in a while to remind yourself why you do what you do. For me, it can be summed up by a passage from Michael Lewis’s excellent book, The Lexical Approach.
“…language is important and … language teaching is useful and valuable. A foreign language can be a valuable personal asset, liberating financially, culturally and emotionally. Helping people acquire such an asset is a worthwhile occupation.”
If you are a language teacher, take a moment every day to think about how valuable knowing a foreign language will be for your students. Proficiency in a foreign language creates more friendship opportunities, more professional opportunities, more educational opportunities, more travel opportunities… more opportunities!
Always remember that what you do may end up having a bigger influence on your students’ lives than you can ever imagine.
- Devon
Here are some super simple Valentine’s Activity Sheets. Click to follow the link to the Skidamarink page and download from there.
Tags: activity sheet, kids, valentine's, worksheets
Valentine’s day is approaching so we thought we’d highlight our favorite song to sing during this time of year….Skidamarink. Skidamarink was made popular by the Canadian children’s group, Sharon Louis and Bram in the 1980s. That and their Elephant Show theme song are definitely high on my list of songs I remember well from my childhood. Many people ask, “What does Skidamarink mean?” The answer is….nothing! It’s a nonsense word that just happens to be a lot of fun for kids to sing. The song itself was the grand finale song of the 1910 Broadway musical, “The Echo”.
Most versions of Skidamarink are quite fast and not very useful for ESL classrooms. We’ve slowed it down a bit but its still just as fun. The gestures are silly and keep kids interested in the song no matter what the speed.
Here is a video of the song from our YouTube channel, followed by the lyrics and some activity ideas.
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!
Language Focus: “I love you”, “morning”, “afternoon”, “evening”.
Classroom Benefits: Skidamarink is a very sweet song and great for teaching around Valentine’s Day. The gestures and silly lyrics are fun enough that they will keep the attention of older learners and captivate younger learners even if they can’t follow along completely.
It’s a great song for Parent/Child classes. Parent and child can face each other and sing! And it’s a nice choice around Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparent’s Day, and any day children may want to share a little love.
Lyrics and actions:
Skidamarink a dinka dink. (Put your right elbow in your left hand and wiggle your fingers.)
Skidamarink a doo. (Put your left elbow in your right hand and wiggle your fingers.)
I love you. (Point to yourself, hug yourself, and point to the other people in your group.)
Skidamarink a dinka dink. (Repeat actions.)
Skidamarink a doo.
I love you.
I love you in the morning. (Make a big circle over your head with your arms, like the sun. Bend over to one side.)
And in the afternoon. (Stand up straight with your arms above you.)
I love you in the evening. (Bend over to the other side.)
And underneath the moon. (Release your arms and make another big circle, like the moon, over your head.)
Skidamarink a dinka dink.
Skidamarink a doo.
I love you.
(Repeat)
Activity ideas:
This song continues on with just music so you can make up your own silly lyrics. For example, change it to, “Skidamarink a dink a dink, Skidamarink a dee, I love ME!! or “Skidamarink a dink a dink, Skidamarink a daa, I love Pizaaaaa!”
Skidamarink is a great performance song! If the setting permits, beforehand have the children cut out lots of tiny pink and red hearts. Put them into heart-shaped pockets hanging around their necks. Wear these during the performance. At the end of the song, the children sprinkle the hearts over their parents or in front of them. (Be sure to have a broom handy!)
All teachers should have some “go-to” songs in their teacher toolbox. A “go-to” song is a song that you can go to in almost any situation, with any group.
The Pinocchio is one of those songs. You can use it with very young children or older kids, small groups or large groups, in a classroom or at a party, with beginning English speakers or native speakers, for learning specific language or just for having fun. Birte, a teacher of young learners in Iceland, shares this video of kindergartners having fun with The Pinocchio.
Birte has more videos on her website dedicated to music with young children. Even if you don’t speak Icelandic, you can still learn from the pictures and videos she has posted. Thanks, Birte!
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