“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!
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.
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.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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.
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