Fingerplay songs are great for the classroom or at home. In fact, they are great for anytime and anywhere, because the only ‘equipment’ you need is your hands. Kids love to see their hands transformed as they perform the actions. Fingerplay activities engage the creative mind and help with fine motor skill development. And, it’s fun!
Here are five super simple fingerplay songs we think you’ll love:
5. Open Shut Them
This is a classic kids’ song that has been around for a long time. We use our version from Super Simple Songs 3 for teaching opposites. Our simplified lyrics teach opposite pairs such as open and shut, big and small, please / no, thank you, fast and slow, and loud and quiet. And you can use the classroom version to add your own combinations.
The Months Chant will help you remember the months of the year!
What better way to kick off the New Year than with a brand new video? It’s a super simple chant to help kids learn the months of the year. Perfect for back to school after the holiday break or anytime that you want to practice or review the months.
The months can be a little tricky for young learners to remember. The Months Chant from Super Simple Songs 3helps them practice the months and order with a call and response format set to an catchy beat.
When learning the months, it helps to associate each month with an activity, holiday or change in the weather. This video is based on some popular North American holidays and changes in the seasons. Here’s an explanation month-by-month: Read the rest of this entry »
One of the great things about teaching with songs is that they can be listened to over and over again. Kids love the repetition of hearing a favorite tune and each time, it seems, they learn a little more.
Repetition provides a great opportunity to focus on different aspects of a song to teach new vocabulary. You can listen to a song week after week in your lessons and focus on a different theme. Change your flashcards, play new games or use different gestures. Kids love mixing it up.
10 Little Elves
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“10 Little Elves” is a perfect song for this. It can be used to work on a variety of vocabulary themes. Of course, it is great for practicing or reviewing counting and numbers. But you can also use it to talk about toys (along with “What Do You Want For Christmas?” from Super Simple Songs 1 and “Santa’s On His Way” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas). How do elves make different toys? What are they making? What toys do you want?
Next you can focus on action verbs. Action verbs are fun to teach because they are so…well, active. Students love demonstrating or gesturing out the different words.
This song brings in five brand new action verbs (plus sleeping) that young learners might not have encountered yet. And while they may be familiar with the action involved, maybe they don’t have the language to describe it, making this song a fun new challenge.
10 Little Elves Charades
Use the “10 Little Elves” picture cards (sewing, painting, sawing, hammering, wrapping and sleeping) to review the actions and the matching words. Then, give each student a small piece of paper on which one of the action words is written. The students should not show the paper to each other.
Tell the students they are elves and they must find other elves from their group. When you say “Go,” the elves move around the room silently, doing the action on their piece of paper. The elves make groups according to their actions and stand together.
Put the picture cards at the front of the room so students who have trouble reading can match their word to the word on the picture card. (They can also ask the teacher for help.)
Sing “10 Little Elves” one more time, this time with each group singing and performing its verse.
This post was contributed by Bob Pensak, owner of “Bob’s English” in Okazaki, Japan and author of the blog “Bob’s Frog.”
I have been singing, gesturing, and performing Super Simple Songs ever since I discovered them three years ago. Since then, I have collected small ways to make the songs even more enjoyable and funny. I call these “Super Simple Hacks”.
Skeleton Dance (Super Simple Songs – Halloween) – One of my favorite songs and a popular song with my students. Especially when done in a “Freeze Dance” style. Play the song while doing the actions. Several times during the song, pause the music. The students and teacher, “Freeze”. This in itself is hilarious. Choose the right moment to “freeze”,when your face or body is in a strange position.
Super Simple Hack 1: Take an extra long pause while “freezing” and scratch your nose.
Are you Hungry? (Super Simple Songs 1) - Does this song really need a “HACK”? So much fun! Really exaggerate eating the food, make some funny faces and puff your cheeks at the end of the song when you say “I’m full” and the kids will love you.
Super Simple Hack 2: Pretend to take imaginary french fries from each student during the french fry part of the song.
Walking in the Jungle (Super Simple Songs – Animals) – A recent song from the “Animals” CD (not the Pink Floyd CD). I’m still exploring ways to do the songs. “One step, two steps, three steps forward. One step, two steps, three steps back.” For a “children’s song” it rocks!
Super Simple Hack 3: Hide small animal cards around the room. When they hear the animal sound, have the kids go find the hidden animal card.
Seven Steps (Super Simple Songs 1) - The simplest of simple songs and a classic. There are many ways to do the movements and customize the song. Check around and invent different ways.
Super Simple hack 4: Moon walk backwards like Michael Jackson holding his hat. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. WHOO! and shout like Michael.
Counting Bananas (Super Simple Songs 2) – The kids like it so much they want to do it twice. Singing and dancing while counting bananas to 20. At the end of the song, you eat an imaginary banana.
Super Simple Hack 5: Do the song twice. The second time instead of “eating” the banana at the end, pretend to stick it in your ear!
Give these five “hacks” a try. I hope to have more in the future. If you have some “hacks” that you would like to share, leave a comment or contact me.
Bob Pensak has been living and teaching English in Okazaki, Japan, for ten years. This April he started his own school “Bob’s English” with his wife and three year old son. He has been entertaining children with magic since he was 13 years old. Check out his blog, Bob’s Frog, for more teaching tips.
One way to really enhance language development in the classroom or at home is through the use of music and gestures together. There are a number of studies that indicate that both music and gestures on their own greatly assist learning (see “Songs as an aid for language acquisition“, “Gesturing makes learning last“, and “Music and movement; instrumental in language development” for a starter). From our time in the classroom, we know that songs and gestures together absolutely assist learning. Songs allow students to feel the language, and gestures and movement help them make sense of it. Kids learn more quickly and retain the knowledge longer when they sing and move together.
Here are a few tips on using gestures and movement together with songs to foster language development.
1. Use songs that start with music and movement in mind, and just follow along!
Many traditional children’s songs are not created with movement in mind. Of course, kids can benefit from dancing and moving to any song, but when using songs to help kids become more confident and competent with the language, it makes a world of difference to select songs that have the appropriate pacing, language complexity, and gesturability. You’ll often find that even some songs that are great for 6 year-olds will be discouraging for 4 year-olds because they are too fast to keep up with, or feature language that the younger learner doesn’t connect with.
When searching for songs, look for terms like “music and movement” or “interactive music”. We’re fortunate to live in a time where you can almost always listen to samples of some or all of the songs on CDs. Have a listen to some of the songs and imagine how you would move with them. If you have a hard time imagining what kind of gestures you would do the songs, your kids will very likely struggle with the songs, too. Listen for songs that, even after just one listen, allow you to easily imagine what kind of actions you would do to accompany it. With many great music and movement songs, all you need to do is put them on and follow along…no “teaching” necessary. Some of our favorite artists you might want to check out are Sue Schnitzer, Laurie Berkner, and Dr. Jean.
With our own Super Simple Songs CDs, we always try to imagine the gestures we’ll use as we write each line of each song, so that when you play a song, you can imagine pretty quickly how you can interact with it.
2. Let the children create the gestures
Using gestures helps students internalize the language. When children have a chance to create movement and gestures themselves, it makes that connection to the language even stronger. If the students are not yet familiar with a lot of the words in the song, try introducing the vocabulary with pictures, objects, or flashcards.
When using flashcards, introduce the card, say the word together, and then have the children create a gesture for that word. You might need to help, but do it together. Remember that if you are creating gestures for a song, you’ll need to make sure they are not too big or complicated because there may not be time to do them while you are singing. Keep the gestures simple and concise.
Next, review the flashcards by showing the card, naming it, and asking the kids to do the gesture. Then follow up by showing the cards and having the students name it and do the gesture. Last, do the gesture and have the students name it!
You’re all ready to sing!
3. Use online resources
Can’t think of a gesture to use with the song? Hop online. There are a lot of great resources available to help you. Start with YouTube. There just may be some classroom videos that are perfect for your situation. Just search for the song you are using.
Another great place to look for help is a sign language site. Even if you don’t use the actual signs, they will often help you think of gestures that will work with your song. We really like the site Signing Savvy.
If you are using Super Simple Songs, you can find gesture ideas for a lot of the songs on Super Simple Songs 1, 2, and 3 by visiting the song pages.
4. Gesture select words
One of the great benefits of using songs with gestures is that it helps learners understand where the words are in a sentence. We’ve all had the experience of singing a song but later realizing we had gotten the words all wrong because the words all ran together and we misheard them. When we sing with gestures, even if we only do a gesture for one word or phrase in a sentence, understanding that one word helps us piece together the rest of the sentence.
Remember that you don’t need to try to make gestures for everything. When doing gestures with songs with very young learners, too many gestures will confuse and frustrate the students. When using songs with older learners, there will usually be too much language in the song to gesture everything. Identify key words and create gestures for those. Keep it simple!
Here are gesture suggestions for “Goodbye, Snowman” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas. You can easily use these same gestures for “Hello, Reindeer” or the sing along version. Of course, feel free to make up your own!
“Hello, Reindeer” and “Goodbye, Snowman” Gesture Guide
Christmas
Rest your right elbow on top of your left hand. Make a “C” shape with your right hand.
Happy holidays
Indicate “happy” by smiling and pointing to your cheeks.
Reindeer
With your hands open wide, put your thumbs on your forehead to indicate antlers.
Santa
Pat your big, round tummy!
Snowman
Put your hands on your hips with your elbows our wide, making one circle. Bend your knees outward, making another circle with your legs.
We wish you a Merry Christmas. (Indicate we by moving your index finger in front of you from one shoulder to the other, making a semi-circle.)
We wish you a Merry Christmas. (Christmas gesture.)
We wish you a Merry Christmas.
Let’s sing it again. (Pretend to hold a microphone.)
We know that this time of year isn’t just about giving and receiving presents, but the holidays do provide a great opportunity to talk about gifts and toys. Many children get quite excited at the idea of Santa coming for his annual visit and want to discuss the possibilities.
“What do you want for Christmas?” is a question that many children will be asked during the upcoming holiday season. So, we decided to make a very simple, active song to help kids talk about their Christmas wishes.
There are two versions of “What Do You Want For Christmas?”, the original on Super Simple Songs 1, which features train, rocket, robot and teddy bear, and “Santa’s On His Way” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas with ball, yo-yo, bike and jump rope. The Christmas CD also features a sing-along version so that you can sing about other toys as well.
In addition to talking about different types of toys, this song is a great way to introduce “I want…” You can easily extend the conversation with “I don’t want…”, “I have….” and “I don’t have….”
These are also nice, easy songs for young children to sing and act out at Christmas pageants and parent presentations.
Language Activity
Using realia, or real objects, in the classroom is a great way to keep students’ interest. Flashcards or picture cards also work well, but there’s nothing quite like being able to touch and pass around a physical object. This is the perfect opportunity to bring in actual toys for the kids to talk about.
When introducing new vocabulary or doing a review, we like to build excitement and interest by being very mysterious. Rather than just showing students the objects or flashcards, we slowly reveal them, perhaps putting them in an envelope, bag, or hiding them around the room.
Mystery Box
One of our favorite ways of introducing new items is with the Mystery Box. It’s easy to make a Mystery Box and it may quickly become one of your favorite teaching tools. Once students recognize the song and The Box, they will be very excited when they see it, there’s always something good inside!
You can make a Mystery Box out of any box. Just wrap it or decorate it with question marks, letters of the alphabet, seasonal pictures, or whatever you like. Just looking at the box itself can be a whole activity.
Play the “Mystery Box” song from Super Simple Songs 2 and point to the box. Ask students what they think is inside. You can give hints and have them guess. Look inside and act very surprised, intrigued, and excited to build the tension. Slowly pull out one item, in this case, a toy, and have students identify it.
Look it over together, demonstrate how to use it and make up a gesture for it. Pass it around so everyone can take a closer look. Then move on to the next item.
After you have taken all the items out of the Mystery Box, you can use the objects to play games or use with a song.
Here’s a video from MILK English in South Korea. You can see just how fun a Mystery Box can be!
Do you have more tips for using a Mystery Box in the classroom? Please share them below!
Do you need a fun activity this holiday season that the kids are sure to love? Make shaving foam Santas!
All you need are some cans of shaving foam, red food coloring and tables to work on.
Prepare the area by covering the tables in plastic covering (garbage sacks work well) or use place mats.
Be sure to go over some basic rules with the children before you start. Hands to yourself and don’t rub your eyes! After everyone agrees, you’ll be all ready to start the activity.
First, spray some shaving foam on the mat and make a big fluffy beard. Then, make the outline of his face and add some hair. You can use buttons to make his eyes, nose, and mouth, or just use shaving foam. Last, make his hat and put a fluffy white ball on top. Mix in one or two drops of red food coloring to make the hat red. It’s Santa!
After finishing, you can smooth out all of the shaving foam and practice writing letters. Show the students the S picture card, name the card, and then show them how to write the letter in the shaving cream with your finger. Let the students try. Continue with the rest of the letters from SANTA. After you have gone though all of the letters, try again…this time without showing the picture cards.
You can practice other letters of the alphabet, shapes or different holiday vocabulary like snowmen, stars, and Christmas trees.
When you are finished, get ready for clean up. Have some towels ready or get lined up to go to the sink. Shaving cream cleans up very easily, but be sure everyone washes their hands when the activity is finished.
Don’t forget to take pictures! Kids will love seeing their shaving foam Santa after he is all cleaned up.
Finish the lesson by singing “S-A-N-T-A” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas.
The holidays are an excellent time to have a parent performance. Students love preparing to show what they’ve learned and parents appreciate seeing how much their kids are enjoying their lessons. One of the easiest ways to do this is to have them sing songs. Parents will be impressed as students sing along and gesture with the music, all in English!
It doesn’t have to be elaborate or too complicated. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Parent Observation Day
One easy way for parents to see the progress their children are making is to invite them into the classroom to observe a lesson. You can even have parents participate by having them take part in the games, songs and other activities.
Don’t be worried or surprised if student’s change their behavior with their parents around. Sometimes they are nervous or self conscious. Let the parents know ahead of time that this is common. In addition to seeing some of what the students have learned, this is a good chance for parents to see how you structure your lessons.
Parent Demonstration Lesson
If students attend school during the daytime while parents are at work, you can hold a special session on a Saturday or a weekday evening. Invite parents and students to come for a short program. Thank everyone for coming and then do a few activities from a typical lesson. Sing a Hello Song followed by an active song or two. Follow this with a language activity or game that uses familiar vocabulary. If you stick with activities that students already know and enjoy, it will allow them to relax and show what they know with pride.
Pageant
Holiday pageants take a fair amount of preparation, but it gives students and parents something to look forward to and work towards for several weeks. Invite parents to the school, or another location if your school is too small, and have groups of students sing one or two songs each. You can ask parents to dress the students in a certain color of clothing, (all in primary colors, red shirts or in black and white, for example), or you can make costumes at the school, like a reindeer antler craft, or Santa hats for everyone. Visit our Christmas Party Ideas Page for some suggested songs for different age levels.
Here is a video from Mexico with students performing “Santa’s On His Way” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas using real toys. They even ride the bikes!
Don’t forget to sing “Goodbye, Snowman” together at the end. It’s the perfect way to end any holiday program or party!
Plays
Try making an original play to perform based on a song! Students are assigned to act out different parts of song. You can use props such as costumes, picture cards or make scenery. Practice in class so that everyone is ready for the big day. Val from Argentina always puts together great performances with her students. Here’s a great one using “Do You Like Brocolli Ice Cream?” from Super Simple Songs 3.
With a little creativity and planning, you can easily create a parent performance that is fun and memorable for everyone.
Are you doing a performance or program this year? Please share your videos with us, we love to see them!
No matter how old your students are, from very young to elementary age, counting and numbers are always a topic worth reviewing. You can easily add a quick counting activity as part of any lesson. Use a song (“Count and Move” from Super Simple Songs 2 is the perfect active song to review numbers and get some wiggles out!), or count objects in a storytime book.
Or spend a week incorporating more focused counting activities by combining a song, worksheet and game. Here are a few ideas using materials from the Super Simple Songs – Christmas enhanced CD.
10 Little Elves
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Need a fun way to incorporate numbers with an active song and a familiar tune? Try “10 Little Elves.” It has some challenging new vocabulary, making it great for older students. Talk about active verbs such as sewing, painting, sawing, hammering, wrapping, and sleeping. You can discuss toys and practice demonstrating how to make them. Do activity sheet 9-6 to review the actions and practice counting.
Finish by singing the song as you perform the gestures. During the chorus, have students hold up their fingers and count together.
Jingle Bells
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“Jingle Bells” is a classic holiday song that is often heard at this time of year. The call and response format of this version makes the song fun and easy for young learners. Bring bells to class so the students can jingle along!
Two, four, six, eight...how many horses?
Several of the worksheets on the enhanced CD focus on counting. How many bells? How many horses? Students can work just on counting, writing the numbers, or spelling.
For a fun new challenge for older students, try activity sheet 2-7 and practice counting by 2s! Students love the new way to count and quickly catch on. The worksheet provides a great visual for this concept.
Clapping Game
Sit in a circle with one hand palm up and one hand palm facing down. Alternate so that you can ‘clap’ the hand of the person next to you. Start by lightly clapping the hand of the child next to you as you say the number “1.” The child says “2” as he claps the hand of the student next to him. Continue around the circle, counting up as you go. How high can you count? Once students catch on, you can make it more challenging by counting by twos, threes, fives or tens.
You can also use this game to practice other sequential topics like the alphabet, days of the week or months of the year.
Countdown to Christmas!
How many days to Christmas? Print out the calendar activity sheets 1-6 or 1-7 and fill in the blanks. Then count the number of days together. This is a great activity to do throughout the weeks leading to the big day!
Ah…winter. As the seasons change, it’s a great time to discuss the weather. In some places, like here in Tokyo for example, the weather during the winter can vary dramatically from week to week and even day to day. When your students come to class, asking them “How’s the weather?” will help them become familiar with words for what’s going on outside.
Our favorite way to introduce new vocabulary is with a song. “How’s The Weather?” from Super Simple Songs 2 teaches four basic types of weather: sunny, rainy, cloudy and snowy. With easy to learn gestures and free downloadable picture cards, this song is the perfect way to start a lesson on weather. Check out this great video from some students in Korea:
Snowmen and snowflakes are also great ways to discuss the weather. There are many crafts and games that you can do with them! Here are just a couple of ideas.
Snowflake and Snowman Craft Ideas
Make Paper Snowflakes
Pass out small square pieces of paper. Show the students how to fold the paper into a triangle. Fold the triangle once more into a smaller triangle. Next, draw some small triangles along each edge of the folded paper. Cut out the triangles, and then unfold the paper. You have a snowflake! (Tip: experiment a little with making snowflakes before class. For younger students, you’ll want to keep the patterns very simple. For older students, encourage them to cut a variety of shapes.) Have the students hold their snowflakes up high and let them go. It’s snowing! Sing “Little Snowflake” from Super Simple Songs – Christmas with your snowflakes falling, falling, falling to the ground.
*As with any activity involving scissors, supervise closely.
Easy Snow
Make lots of snow very easily by tearing up sheets of white scratch paper. Put all of the pieces in a cup or bowl and hold it up high. Make it snow by turning the cup over and letting the “snowflakes” fall to the ground. Put all of the snowflakes back into the cup and make it snow again.
Finger Painting
Use white paint and colored paper to paint a winter scene. No need for paintbrushes, just use your fingers! Make snowflakes, snowmen, or whatever you want! For easy clean up, cover tables with plastic (garbage bags or plastic sheeting work well) and have kids wear aprons. Be sure to review rules before starting: no touching each other, be careful with the paint, etc. When you let them know what is expected, kids are generally very respectful when doing such a special activity.
Cotton Ball Snow
Use cotton, like in this video from MILK English in South Korea. You can practice body parts as well by having students put the cotton balls on their nose, head, arm, leg, nose, etc.
Follow your craft up with worksheet 5-8 from the Super Simple Songs – Christmas CD. Color, cut and paste the little snowman into four different scenes. Ask students about the weather and the seasons as you figure out which pictures match each other. Uh-oh, what happens to the snowman when the sun comes out?
Bob Pensak has been living and teaching English in Okazaki, Japan, for ten years. This April he started his own school “
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