Skidamarink a Doo, We Love You!

“Skidamarink” is our favorite Valentine’s Day song, it’s a little bit silly and very sweet. The actual word “skidamarink” doesn’t ‘mean’ anything, but it’s sure fun to say!!

Besides singing it to tell people you love them at Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day, Skidamarink can also be used to talk about times of day like morning, afternoon, evening and night time (symbolized by the moon).

When do you…?

Demonstrate the times of day gestures from Skidamarink, (download the gesture guide here) for morning, afternoon, evening and the moon. Use a cardboard clock to talk about the different times of day and what types of activities you do at those times. Ask kids about their daily and weekly activities. When do you eat breakfast? Go to school? Eat lunch? Have soccer practice? Go to English lesson? Eat dinner? Take a bath? Go to sleep?
Put the students in pairs and have a dialogue practicing with each other.

When do you….eat dinner?
I eat dinner in the evening.

When do you…eat breakfast?
I eat breakfast in the morning.

Afterwards, watch the video and sing Skidamarink together.

Let us know what you’ll be doing for Valentine’s Day this year!

Downloadable Colored Hearts Worksheet

Valentine’s Day is a great holiday for practicing or reviewing a number of vocabulary topics. We particularly like to use it for colors, shapes, counting, and emotions.

Colors are some of the first words we teach our students, and like the alphabet and numbers, it is a good idea to practice them often. In almost every lesson, we ask the kids about the color of different items; flashcards, clothing, pictures from the storytime book, and classroom objects.
Knowing the colors is a big confidence booster, which can help students feel more comfortable speaking in English.

Here are some ideas for practicing the four language skills with colors.
Download the three different Hearts worksheets from our Valentine’s Day ideas page.

Listening – Print out several sets of the colored heart cards so that two to four students are sharing them. As you say the name of each color, students point to that card.
Give each child a blank hearts worksheet and have them color a heart as you name the colors.
Afterwards, pair up students and use the cards for a game of concentration.
Speaking – Hold up a colored heart card and have students say the name of that color. Ask students to name their favorite color.
Reading – Print the colored heart worksheet and the color word cards. Have students match the name of the color with the correct card.
Writing – give each student a blank hearts worksheet. Say the name of different colors. Students write the name of the color on the cards and then color them.

Check the Super Simple Songs Valentine’s Day ideas page for more games, free worksheets and activity suggestions.

The perfect rainy day song!

Many of our songs have more than one version. Often, we have a slowed down or simplified “Learn It” version so that young learners can get to know the words at an easy pace. After they have learned the lyrics and the gestures, they can move to the regular speed version.

“Rain, Rain, Go Away!” has both a “Learn It” and a more complicated “Play With It” version. It’s the perfect rainy day song. Use it to talk about weather, especially on days that kids are stuck inside because of wet weather.

The “Play With It” version is also great for discussing family members and outdoor activities. Father, mother, brother, sister, and baby all want to go out to play, but the rain is stopping them. Download and print the “Rain, Rain, Go Away” flashcards or watch the YouTube video. What are some of the different activities that the family wants to go do? What are some things that the kids would like to go outside and do?

Practice family members by having kids draw or color pictures of families and then hold them up as they sing each verse.
Thanks to Tracey’s English School in Wakayama, Japan for this video idea!

What are your favorite rainy day activities?

Say Cheese!

A couple of times a year, most schools have a party or an event. For us, our main events are the Spring Picnic, Halloween Party, and Christmas Party. A key feature of each party is the group picture.

Getting dozens of young children (and their even younger brothers and sisters) together for picture is a little bit like herding cats. It can be challenging. So to help out with that, we made the song Say Cheese (Let’s Take A Picture). Songs are great tools for letting students (especially students with developing language skills) know what they are supposed to do. Verbal instructions can often be hard to follow and easy to tune out. But verbal instructions paired with music immediately catches students’ attention and helps them understand what is going on.

Want to get kids into a circle? Play the Make A Circle song. Want students to get their ABC books? Play the Alphabet Song. Want students to clean up? Play the Clean Up song. And if you want students to pose for a picture, play Say Cheese! (Let’s Take A Picture).

Try introducing the song in class with smaller groups. As you sing each verse, take pictures of the students with your camera phone or a digital camera. After singing the song, show the pictures to the students. They’ll love it! You can follow up by taking more pictures, and letting the students take turns snapping the photos.  Teacher Weena from the Philippines has some nice examples of this. After singing the songs in class a few times, when it comes time for all of the students to gather at a party, they’ll know exactly what to do when they hear the song playing. Just put the song on and watch the students gather to pose.

Say Cheese! ^_^

Learn the four seasons with Row Row Row Your Boat

When talking about the seasons, it can help to have side by side illustrations so that kids can follow along throughout the course of a year. What marks the changes of the seasons? How are the seasons where you live?

Row Row Row Your Boat

Have you seen our video for Row Row Row Your Boat? This is a classic children’s tune, often sung in a round as on this version. The illustrations by Alberto Cerriteño, are a great for discussing a variety of topics, including the weather and seasons.

To use this video as part of a weather related lesson, first discuss the four seasons and what types of weather we experience in each. Then watch the video and have students point out what they see to indicate the changes as the squirrel and rabbit float merrily down the stream. Point out things like birds singing, new leaves, sunny weather, trees with full foliage, leaves changing colors and falling and, of course, snow.

For older or adult students, you can talk about the corresponding changes in the couple as they go through the different stages of life together. But with younger learners, it’s a great opportunity to see a year’s worth of weather in just a couple of minutes.

Learn the months of the year. What comes next?

Learning the months needs lots of repetition, so be sure to practice them often. In addition to watching The Month’s Chant video, here are some activity ideas for the home or classroom.

Jump the Months

Type and print a flashcard for each month. Include a picture that represents something that happens during that month, for example a holiday, celebration or a change in the season. If possible, laminate them so they will last longer. Spread the flashcards on the floor and have students help you put them in the correct order. Next, stand in a line next to January and jump to February, March, etc. Listen to The Months Chant and jump to each month in order.

Next, mix up the cards so that students have to jump back and forth to the next month.
If you have a large class, have two students come to the front of the class to jump while the other students help them.

Months Clapping Game

This game works great for 2 to 6 students, if your class is larger than that, split them into smaller groups. Have students sit in a circle. Each student puts their left hand palm up and their right hand palm down resting on the hand of the student next to them. Start by saying “January” and clapping the hand of the student to your right. That student will say the next month as they clap the hand of the student next to them. Continue around the circle saying all of the months of the year in order. Repeat several times.

To add some challenge to the game, every time a student says “December”, the next student should try to move their hand before it can be clapped. If the student moves their hand before the student who said “December” can clap it, the student who said “December” is out and the circle gets smaller. Start from January again. If the student who says “December” is able to clap the hand of the next student, that next student is out.  Keep playing until there is only one student left.

You can use this quick and easy game to practice any sequential vocabulary such as the letters of the alphabet, days of the week and counting.

Make a Calendar

What better way to practice the months than to make a calendar of the upcoming year? Include special events, holidays and birthdays for each month. When is the last day of school? The first day? How about the 100th day of school? You can have students draw pictures to represent things that happen during each month. Hang it on the wall and use it to talk about the days, months and holidays.

Do you have other teaching ideas for learning the months of the year? Share them below in the comments!

Put those fingers together!

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.

4. Rock, Scissors, Paper

Based on a song popularly used in Japanese kindergartens, “Rock, Scissors, Paper” from Super Simple Songs 2 is great for using your imagination to come up with all kinds of fun combinations. This song also helps teach left and right. Using just the three symbols of rock (fist), scissors (two fingers extended) or paper (hand open with fingers extended), make various foods, animals and other common objects.

3. Wheels on the Bus

This song can be sung over and over. As with all of these favorite fingerplay songs, there are many versions out there. “Wheels on the Bus” is extra fun with so many verses. This song can be done as a fingerplay, or, if space is available, act it out with chairs, a bus driver and passengers, like in this video from Ms. Lucky in Hong Kong.

2. Five Little Monkeys

Those monkeys are at it again, jumping on the bed and refusing to go to sleep. Kids can relate to this song, and are sure to giggle at the idea. We had to update our hand actions though. Growing up, we learned to dial the doctor, but nowadays, most kids have never seen a rotary phone. They punch in the numbers on a cell phone!

1. Eensey Weensey Spider

Some people say “itsy bitsy”, some people say “incy wincy”, but no matter how you say it, hands down (pardon the pun), our favorite fingerplay song is the “Eensey Weensey Spider.” This song is a staple in classrooms and homes worldwide. Besides learning about the spider, practice weather words like rain and sun.

Here’s Jeremy-sensei doing our version of the “Eensey Weensey Spider.”

Remember that you can turn any of your favorite movement and music songs into fingerplay activities. For example, we love singing Walking Walking while moving around the room, but it’s a nice change of pace to sit and do it with our fingers from time to time. Give it a try!
What are your favorite fingerplays?

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 3 helps 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:

January – winter and snowy weather are here!
February – celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th with hearts.
March – even though it’s an Irish holiday, many people in the U.S. celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th. Clover leaves and the color green are traditional symbols of this holiday.
April – in North America, we have a saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” Spring is in the air and rain is common.
May – summer flowers mark the return of warm weather.
June – brings the end of the school year and lots of time for outdoor activities, like kite flying.
July – the United States celebrates Independence Day on the Fourth of July with picnics and fireworks.
August – the perfect time to go to the beach!
September – get ready for back-to-school with your ABC book.
October – Halloween is coming! October 31st is the big day.
November – the seasons change again as the leaves turn colors and fall from the trees.
December – the holiday season is here and music is everywhere!

What are some holidays or seasonal changes in your country? When you introduce the months, try identifying the monthly events with your young learners, and then create simple picture cards that include the month and an event, holiday, or seasonal change to go along with us. Feel free to share with us in the comments below.

For reading practice, give young learners 12 small pieces of paper with the months written on them, and have them put them in order as they listen to the song. To help, you can start by first giving them pieces of paper with numbers on them (January – 1, February – 2, etc.), and then later distribute pieces of paper without the numbers.

Now watch the video and chant along!

Red hat, white beard...

We created a special holiday version featuring our favorite jolly man in red, Santa. The familiar tune makes it easy for them to learn right away. Combine this with the excitement of Santa’s impending visit, and you’ve got a great song for the Christmas season.

What other songs can you make using B-I-N-G-O as the theme?

From all of us at Super Simple Learning, we wish you a Merry Christmas!

♪ Decorate the Christmas tree ♪

We love traditional Christmas songs. However, young learners and emerging speakers often get frustrated and tune out when learning some Christmas classics because the songs are either too fast or too difficult. On our Christmas CD, we decided to take a few classic Christmas carols and make them simple.

Making a song simple does not mean dumbing it down. Sometimes it just means adjusting the pace so younger learners can keep up and do gestures. Sometimes it means simplifying the language to make it more comprehensible. And sometime it means actually adding more language that is meaningful and useful for young learners. As learners grow older and develop greater language and motor skills, they can “graduate” to the more traditional versions with confidence.

Jingle Bells (Learn & Sing)

“Jingle Bells” is one of the most popular of all the Christmas songs. With sleigh rides and bells, this song is sure to be a hit. But traditional versions are often too fast for young learners. We’ve created a special version to introduce this song to them. The first part of the song is a call and response format, so that children can get to know the words slowly. The second part of the song encourages singing along at a normal speed. You’ll be amazed how quickly kids will pick up this song and you’ll all be merrily singing it in no time.

Decorate The Christmas Tree (based on “Deck The Halls”)

“Deck the Halls” is such a beautiful melody and the song feels like Christmas. But lyrics like “boughs of holly”, “Don we now our gay apparel”, “Troll the ancient yule tide carol” go way over young learners heads. On the Super Simple version (“Decorate The Christmas Tree”), we use the same melody to introduce a whole bunch really useful vocabulary and expressions that are easy to learn with gestures. This song is full of rich holiday language and collocations: “decorate the Christmas tree”, “hang the stockings” “make a snowball” “wrap the presents” “kiss beneath the misletoe”, etc. It’s a lot of fun to act out, and the call and response format makes it easy for young learners to follow along even though there is so much language. Plus, we love singing “Fa la la la la, la la la la” ^_^.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

“We Wish You A Merry Christmas” is another classic with a great melody that includes lyrics that young learners often tune out from. The Super Simple ”We Wish You A Merry Christmas”, keeps the classic chorus and then makes the rest of the song into a fun and simple action verb song. Practice clapping, stomping, jumping, whispering and singing loudly.

Always remember that kids naturally love singing, and if they are expressing disinterest in singing songs you are teaching them, often it’s because the songs are not at their level. Making some small adjustments can really help!
To learn more about these songs and for more super simple Christmas ideas, visit our Christmas page ^_^ .