PRIMARY

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A topic-based lesson – the weather



Why topics?

Many books are based around topics and children respond well to a topic based approach rather than a structural one. I have chosen the topic of weather as it’s an easy one for children to understand, it is one of the topics covered at Movers’ level in the UCLES YL Exams and does not have a large amount of published supplementary activities to practise the language around it. The activities presented here represent the types of activities that you could produce for any topic and I hope will encourage you to be creative in developing fun, holistic language practice activities for your students.



Introducing the topic


In general: the best way for young students to grasp meaning is through seeing or experiencing. Pictures will clearly demonstrate the meaning of the key lexis you wish to present.



Weather; cloudy, rainy, sunny, snowy, stormy, hot and cold – these are good words to start with (with students who are able to grasp more and who have been studying English for over a year or two more words can be introduced). A lot of course books include pictures that illustrate this lexis clearly. If you can’t find any, draw simple line drawings or find photographs or pictures in magazines or on the internet. For hot and cold you could mime actions or give examples of things that are hot or cold: ice cream, fire etc.



Lexical links

In general: recycling of previously taught language is vital to ensure children do not forget it, use it in realistic contexts and also feel secure by dealing with language they already know. It also gives you more interesting scope for language use and can be used to check understanding of new language. When introducing/practising new language link it to vocabulary they already know.



Weather:  a good lexical link for weather is clothes. They can match suitable clothes for the different weather words: coat, scarf, umbrella, sunglasses, swimsuit etc

A nice game is to bring in some of these items, call out a weather word and ask students to run and pick up a suitable article for that weather. (For small classes or divide your class into groups to play this game).

To expand practice older students can write sentences like ‘When it’s snowy I wear a coat and scarf’.



Total Physical Response

In general: Young children find it impossible to sit still. We cannot stop this, but can allow for lots of movement to allow children to use their energy and feel totally involved in the lesson. Movement when linked to the target language helps children remember language as well as enjoy the activity. Simple activities like a favourite warmer I have with 5/6 year olds are easy to set up –



·         teacher and students stand in a space (chairs and tables moved to back of classroom)

·         teacher calls out a verb that children have been presented with previously and are familiar with e.g. swim, hop, fly

·         as each word is called out the teacher and children move around making appropriate actions

·         verbs can be added as children’s vocabulary grows

·         teacher can stand out of the group and just call out words as the students’ familiarity with the words grows

·         students can take turns calling out the words

·         my students love doing this at the start of every lesson – they like the security of a regular pattern to lessons and enjoy moving around and showing their understanding. At the start of the lesson it’s good to bring them all together into a group activity to foster a sense of the group and help ‘tune’ them into English. They may have come straight from another lesson or from home and not have heard English for a while.



Weather: For the key lexis choose appropriate actions. For ‘rainy’ walking hunched up pretending to hold an umbrella, for ‘windy’ walking as if blown from side to side, for ‘hot’ wiping off pretend sweat from brow etc. Play a game like that described above.





Music / Song

In general: Music, songs and chants add to the pleasure of learning and make language more easily remembered. Singing in English for many children is more natural than speaking in English. Songs are a group activity and therefore secure – you don’t need to worry about making mistakes or forgetting, and even if you don’t sing you are still listening to others.



Weather: the following is a song on the theme of weather sung to the tune of ‘London’s Burning’, the words were written by Karen Hall & Jesse Barnecutt , two eighteen year old teacher trainees I had the delight to learn from on a Gap Year course preparing them to teach English in India. Although there may not be songs already written to practise the target vocabulary, it is not so difficult to adapt / write them – and bring out the songwriter in you!


Teacher can sing the song first and do appropriate actions. Do one verse at a time (slowly) so the children have plenty of time to digest meaning and get their tongues around the words and their ears around the tune. It may take a couple of lessons for younger students to become confident/comfortable with the whole song. There will be a great feeling of success at singing the whole thing through.

·         Bringing in the items of clothing will make meaning clear.

  • The song combines music, total physical response and a nice lexical link.



The song:



The sun is shining

The sun is shining

Get your sun hat

Get your sun hat

It’s hot

It’s hot

Weather weather weather weather



It’s raining

It’s raining

Get your brolly

Get your brolly

I’m wet

I’m wet

Weather weather weather weather



It’s snowing

It’s snowing

Get your scarf on

Get your scarf on

I’m cold

I’m cold

Weather weather weather weather



Thunderstorm, thunderstorm

Go inside

Go inside

I’m scared

I’m scared

Weather weather weather weather



It’s windy

It’s windy

Hold your hat on

Hold your hat on

Blown away

Blown away

Weather weather weather weather





Grammar

In general: young children pick up language in chunks and are unable to analyse language from a grammatical perspective. For example children will be able to understand the idea of the past tense once they have had stories told/read to them that use narrative past tenses. Grammar will be picked up rather than learnt.  Focus should be on ensuring that meaning is always paramount.



Weather: the topic lends itself nicely to contrasting is/was. Children can look out of the classroom window and see the weather and will understand ‘it’s sunny today’ which can then be contrasted with yesterday’s weather – ‘it was rainy yesterday’.



Routines

In general: Children need routines

·         To feel secure

·         To ensure lots of exposure to and practice of language



Weather: After the children have been initially introduced to weather vocabulary, at the beginning of every lesson ask the children ‘what’s the weather like today?’ and praise their responses. Children may say ‘snowy’ on a hot sunny day not because they have forgotten the meaning but to make a joke – don’t correct too quickly. Making jokes in a foreign language is a sure sign that they are acquiring the language and enjoying using it – hurrah!

Have flashcards with a picture of and word for the weather conditions to stick onto the board or wall to reinforce the language.



Games

In general: children love playing games, especially ones that involve problem solving.  A Pelmanism, or ‘pairs’, is a simple and effective way to practise language meaningfully in a fun way. Take a set of vocabulary e.g. seven animals, make a set of fourteen cards, on seven write the names of the animals and on seven draw or stick on pictures of those animals. All the cards are spread upside down on a table or floor and muddled up. The object of the game is to find a match. Each player picks up two cards, looking at them and showing them to other players. If they match (name of animal and picture of the same animal) they keep them, if they don’t they must put them back exactly where they found them and the other players must try to remember where they are. Children pick the cards up in order until all the cards have been matched. The winner has the most pairs.

While playing the game children must read the key vocabulary, understand meaning and also attempt to remember the location of the cards.

In my experience children usually say the words out loud as they read them and often help each other to find the match. It’s a popular and enjoyable activity that helps students remember and practise vocabulary. A lot of different vocabulary can be practised this way. I have even produced a game for jobs that I used with teenagers and adults and they all enjoyed it too.



Weather: Prepare cards with weather words and matching pictures and play the game.



Cross-curricular

In general:  Often in teaching English to children we find that we cover topics that are taught in the mother tongue. This is very helpful in both directions. By presenting new language that students are already familiar with as concepts in their own language through other lessons, children have little problem understanding meaning and concentrate on dealing with the English. By using cross-curricular topics we support the learning of those subjects.





Weather: this topic lends itself well to learning about / revising some basic ideas about world geography. Children can begin by using the lexis to describe their country – hot and sunny in the summer, rainy in the winter etc, and move on to talk about the weather in other countries/regions like the North Pole, the Sahara desert. A big map of the world is pinned to a wall and children write sunny/hot/windy etc on little stickers and then stick them onto countries they know about. It also helps to teach the English names for countries.

This approach could lead into a nice wall display project: children collect pictures of countries (the pyramids of Egypt, Thai beaches, Alpine mountains etc) from magazines, newspapers, the internet or draw their own and paste them onto big sheets of paper and write labels for each picture using the weather vocabulary and any other words they know to describe those countries. This allows an opportunity for children with higher language levels to use language they know – and makes the classroom look bright and interesting. Also other students visiting the classroom will have opportunities to learn from the display.



Story

In general: children love stories and they are a wonderful way to practise/reinforce language and allow children to pick up new language in a meaningful context. There are many wonderful storybooks with colourful pictures to be found, but we don’t always have the appropriate book to practise the language that has recently been presented in a lesson. So we may need to create a story. A few helpers in the classroom are a good idea for every teacher of English to children – a teddy bear, glove puppets etc make great helpers



Weather: An interactive story

Introduce ‘teddy’ to the students.

Teacher, holding teddy and making appropriate movements and facial gestures and using slightly exaggerated intonation tells the story:



‘ Here’s Mr Teddy. He’s going for a walk in the park. It’s a lovely sunny day and he’s very …...  pause and encourage children to offer the missing word or phrase… yes, he’s hot, so he needs to wear his….yes, his shorts and t-shirt. He wants to eat a…… yes, an ice cream etc etc’.



The content of the story will depend on how much English the children know and how enthusiastically they offer suggestions.

If they offer suggestions in the mother tongue, the teacher can accept them and repeat them in English, giving the children the opportunity to repeat them.

It’s a chance for children to be imaginative and creative and work together to produce a story.






Beginning Reading and Writing

 

For children around 4 –7 years old learning English as a second or foreign language, especially those whose Mother Tongue alphabet is not Roman.


When to start


Start reading and writing with 4 – 7 year olds (or older, if they are just starting to learn English). Young children are wonderful processors of new information and in my experience can learn to read and write quickly, if well motivated. They must enjoy the process and be in a positive, fun, success-oriented learning environment.



Before introducing letters


Consider how children learn their mother tongue.

Begin by teaching children to recognise, understand and produce the spoken word through games, songs and stories. Allow them to hear plenty of English from you, so try to maximise your English and minimise Mother Tongue in the classroom (you can also use videos, tapes, songs etc) so they become accustomed to the sounds of English. Encourage them to speak English by repeating you, joining in chants and songs and responding to simple questions. This foundation is vital to make meaningful links to the sound system of English. Learning sounds and letters without understanding any words is a purely mechanical and potentially off-putting experience for them. Young children will quickly learn English words if you introduce them with a picture that clearly shows the meaning or you can point to the object in the classroom e.g. chair, door, window.



Introducing letters


It is possible to introduce letters after only a few hours of English classes as long as the children have already been introduced to English vocabulary – they understand the meaning of words and are able to recognise the word when it is spoken. Doing a little regularly and incorporating reading and writing into every lesson is a good idea. It gives the lesson variety and students are not overloaded.



A sample lesson plan (60 minutes)



Warmer – a TPR (Total Physical Response) action game. Call out action words like swim, jump, hop while doing the actions and get the children to copy the actions moving around the classroom as they are listening to the words

This type of activity ensures that children are learning/practising the words meaningfully and by being physically involved they are enjoying the game which makes the words more memorable. Getting children to move around in the lesson helps them to use up the energy they have or energise and focus them if they are sluggish or distracted.
Revise new language from previous lesson. e.g. children have to point at appropriate objects in the room as you call out the names.

Children do pick up new words quickly, but they also forget quickly, so it’s a good idea to keep revising and recycling vocabulary. When they are able to remember the words, they will feel a sense of success and be motivated to learn more.
*Introduce 7 letters phonically
* Practise the new letters along with others they have already learnt
Introduce a new song or chant and practise

Or introduce new vocabulary and practise


It is possible to have a lot of input in every lesson. Don’t underestimate what children can learn and give them plenty of opportunities to pick up new language.

Story


This is a great way to practise and/or introduce language meaningfully

A quiet game / task based on the story like colouring


Allow for quiet activities to allow children to process the language, have a rest, and for you to monitor them and have one to one dialogues with them about what they are doing. For example if they are drawing a picture which includes target vocabulary of animals, you can say ‘that’s a lovely blue tiger or ‘what a funny dog’ etc: allowing them to hear the target language in a personalised context.
A round-up activity



* Activities will be explained in detail below



A phonic approach is far more useful initially than learning the names of the letters. ‘Knowing’ the alphabet, as in reciting the names of the letters in the correct order, is not useful if the children aren’t able to match the sound with the written letter.


Introducing the letters:

Prepare 26 flash cards, each one with a letter of the alphabet in lower case (it is also possible to buy ready-made letter flashcards, as well as cards that show common letter combinations such as ‘ow’, ‘ee’, ‘ea’ etc).

Show the letters one at a time (not all at once, introduce around 7 each time) and say the sound the letter makes. For the letter ‘c’ use the /k/ sound as this will be more useful initially.

Let the children hear the sound and encourage them to repeat it.

Practise by:

a. holding up a letter and asking ‘Is this a /b/?’ or ‘What is this?’

b. pinning the letters on the board and asking children to run up one at a time and ‘slap’ the letter you call out (phonically). You can use plastic fly swats for this.

c. asking the children if they know any words that begin with this sound. This is great for using what they already know and making the strong connection between words, letters and sounds.

Internalising the letters

Especially if the children’s own language has a different alphabet it is important that they become familiar with the shapes of letters and can begin manipulating them. The following holistic (they require using the body and space rather than pencil and paper) activities help to give children a strong imprint of the shape of letters in their mind’s eye. It is also a good idea to have tasks that do not require the use of a pencil or pen. When children are beginning using these it’s hard work – they have to grip the pencil properly which is hard and moving it across the page is physically challenging (try writing with the hand you don’t normally write with to get a sense of the challenge).



Body letters


Ask children to make themselves into the shape of given letters. ‘make yourself an ‘s’ etc’

Children contort their bodies into what they think the letter looks like.



You can model this easily by showing them an ‘x’ by standing with your feet apart and your arms in the air and wide apart. Or you can show a ‘T’ by standing with your feet together and your arms stretched out to the sides. It doesn’t actually matter what the children look like – the point is the mental process they go through – imagining the shape of the word and attempting to move into that shape.



Or ask children to make a letter and the whole class has to try to recognise what the letter is.



Tracing letters

Ask students to shut their eyes and with your finger trace a letter on their hand or back. They must tell you what this is. They can play the game in pairs. There may be giggles from the ticklish in the class, but the activity requires them to ‘see’ the letter in their mind’s eye and it’s great fun, too.



Air writing

Before writing letters on paper, get all the students to stand up and stand at the front of the class with your back to them. Using your writing hand draw a big letter in the air saying its sound at the same time. Get the kids to stand up and copy you, moving their arms to form the letter in the air.



Letter sculptures

Give out plasticene (fun clay) to all the children (cooked spaghetti and pipe cleaners work too). Ask the children to make certain letters (or words). They have to concentrate of the shape of the letter and its proportions.



The children can choose their own letter and make a big one out of plasticene or card, then stick it on a large piece of card. Give out magazines and newspapers and let the children look and find either words or pictures of things that begin with the same letter. They cut these out and create a collage with their big letter. Decorate the classroom with these posters.



You can also give out paper plates with one of the following on – shaving foam, flour, icing sugar, sand.. Children ‘write’ on the plates.


Recognition games

 Games are motivating and help make language memorable, so try to think of lots of fun ways to practise the new letters and sounds that you are introducing to the children.


Run and point

Pin up the letters that you have introduced to the class so far on the walls around the classroom at a height the children can reach. Nominate one students and say ‘Juan, run and point to /s/’. The child must look around and find the correct letter and run up to it and touch it or point to it. (Model the activity so that the children are clear about what they have to do).

You could then turn this into a race. Divide the class into two groups. They stand in two lines at the front of the class or down the centre of the room (it’s great if you can move furniture to the sides of the room). The children at the front of each line are the runners. You say the sound of the letter and the one to reach and touch it first is the winner. They then go to the back of the line and the next two children are the runners for the next letter. It is fine if other children in the team help the runner – it’s not a test but a means of helping children learn the sound-letter link.



What begins with /b/?

Ask the question with all the letters the children have been introduced to. They can tell you any words they know that begin with that sound. This is great for them to make their own connections between the letter and the sound. You may be surprised at how many words they know – even ones you haven’t introduced in class.



Hold up the letter

Get the children to make cards with the letters they know. Call out a sound and the children have to hold up the corresponding letter. This game allows all the children to join in and to focus on processing the sound-letter link without having to produce any language.



Recognising the letters

Produce handouts like this:



n                                  h h n m

o                                  a o d g




Children have to recognise which is the same letter and simply circle it or maybe colour over it. The letters are actually very similar in shape, so it’s important that children can differentiate between them.

Copying

There are many good books that allow children to practise writing letters and words. They simply copy by following the arrows that show them which way their pen/pencil must move. After having done the air, body, plasticene activities it is good to move onto paper and allow the children lots of practice with holding a pencil and making the shapes. It is not easy to begin with and they need lots of practice to control their hand and follow the shape of the letter. In my experience children enjoy the task and concentrate hard on producing their letters.



Words

It is a short journey from letters to words.


Introducing words

Show pictures and words together and sound out the phonics.

e.g. /c/ /a/ /t/ = cat

Move you finger under each letter as you sound it. Remember not all languages are written in the same direction. Encourage the children to read with you.

Word building

Word tiles – get the children to make 26 letter tiles out of cardboard (old cereal boxes will do) by simply cutting out small squares and writing each letter on them.    a 

Each child has their letters spread out in front of them. Call out a word they have learnt e.g. cat and the first one to find the right tiles and put them in order must put their hand up. This encourages quick eye movement over the letters, recognition and letter combining.

Races – for fun you could challenge the children working in pairs or threes (to encourage cooperation and peer teaching) to make as many words as possible in a specified time.

As each child has their own letters, they can play with them at home or if they finish an activity early and see how many words they can make. Later they can move into building short sentences.



Work sheets

You can produce easy worksheets like this:



c_t                      d_g                      p_n



Children fill in the gaps. If you can add a picture of the word too: it will make it all the more meaningful.



atc =                   gdo =                           npe =



Children unjumble the letters to make the word. You could also do this on the board with children coming up and doing the activity one at a time.



Word searches

These are good for children to recognise words within a jumble of other words. It makes them concentrate and ‘see’ words on the page.

Children have to circle or colour the key words in the grid.





REMEMBER:



  • Start early
  • Make it fun
  • Make it holistic
  • Encourage life-long skills





Teaching Vocabulary




to children (5 – 11 year olds – though of course you will be able to adapt the activities for younger or older students)

 Words are the building blocks of language and having a good supply of them is very important for students right from the beginning of their English learning.

With young students vocabulary learning is relatively easy as the words they need (the words they would use in their mother tongue too) are concrete – things they can see, touch, taste, play with etc; so it easy for the meaning of the words to be made apparent without resorting to translation or complicated explanations. How better to teach the word ‘apple’ than to show the children an apple or a picture of an apple?

The sooner students are able to communicate ideas in English, the more motivated they will be, so giving them a bank of vocabulary to draw on is necessary – starting with nouns and adjectives.

Although children seem to learn new words very quickly, they will also forget quickly, so it is very important to give them lots of practice of vocabulary to help them remember.



Presenting new vocabulary




At the presentation stage it is vital that the meaning of new words is clear. I am a great advocate of avoiding mother tongue in the English classroom. Translation is unnecessary and indirect and also creates a dependence in students that is later hard to cure.



To present concrete vocabulary: a staged approach

e.g. Fruit

1.      bring in a bag of different fruit – six to eight items at a time is plenty

2.      pick up one fruit and say the word clearly a number of times, encourage the students to repeat the word

3.      go through all the words in this way

4.      return regularly to a word they have already been introduced to and check they have remembered it e.g. pick up a banana and say ‘an apple?’ or ‘is this an apple?’, students should be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ appropriately before you move on to check the vocabulary further

5.      to further check that students have connected the new word to the meaning ask students individually ‘show me the banana’ etc. they will get actively involved in recognising the target word and indicating the object which it describes



With vocabulary like animals pictures can be used.

With verbs actions can be used – walk, sit, swim, hop etc and students encouraged to respond to the words with the appropriate actions – this is a great game.



Once children have been introduced to the alphabet and have started reading and writing words, after the introduction of the meaning and sound of new words, introduce the written form. Make flashcards with words on them, read them aloud with the students and get them to match the words to the objects or pictures.



Pronunciation/Drilling

Students must hear correct models of the target vocabulary in order to copy the pronunciation and to recognise the words later. They should also have plenty of practice of saying the words in order to get the pronunciation right and also to help memorisation. Choral repetition of words is useful but can become meaningless. To keep focussed on meaning, try choral repetition with ‘meaning’. Model and then get the children to repeat the words

·         normally

·         happily

·         sadly

·         in a surprised way

·         slowly

·         fast



When children repeat the words they have to do so conveying these emotions. Try it with the word chocolate. Children enjoy doing this and they do the activity meaningfully.



The other good thing about songs and chants is that the words are part of connected speech at a reasonably fast speed, so that weak forms and sound linking occur naturally. e.g. ‘knees and toes’ if said at the speed of the song have a natural link of the ‘s’ in knees and the ‘a’ in and, also the ‘a’ in and becomes a schwa and not a long sound.



Another fun way of getting children’s tongues around English sounds are tongue twisters:

e.g.

Yellow lorry, yellow lorry

Sally sells sea shells on the sea shore



Practice Activities



·         Pizzas

For food vocabulary and fun

Give each student a paper plate and ask them to design their favourite pizza by drawing the things they most like onto it. You can show them your own example with e.g. cheese, tomato, ham, pineapple and chocolate!

If they are pre-writers, they can tell you and each other what is on their pizza. If they are able to, they write the words of the ingredients next to them on the pizza. The ‘pizzas’ can be displayed on the classroom walls or can be used for a restuarant role play.



·         I went to market

For older students with a bigger bank of vocabulary.

For all vocabulary, alphabet awareness and fun.

Get students into a circle.

Start by saying: ‘I went to market and I bought an apple’.

The student to your right must repeat what you said and add another thing beginning with B.

Keep going until the last student has to remember 26 things bought in market!



·         Hangman / parachutes

A quick and effective way of getting students to revise spelling of previously introduced words. A great warmer at the start of a lesson.

Think of a word students learnt last lesson e.g. mountain

Draw a picture of a person hanging onto a parachute. Draw eight dashes on the board – one for each letter of the word



 - - - - - - - -



One at a time students guess which letters may be in the word. If they are correct the letter is added to the word:

’N’ = _ _ _ n _ _ _ n

If they guess incorrectly, the teacher rubs out one of the parachute strings.

Students can guess the whole word at any time. But the teacher wins if all the parachute strings have gone before the word is guessed. Be generous with your strings!





·         Bingo



To practise word recognition

Collate a list of 20+ words the students know well – they can recognise them in their written and spoken form and know the meanings. Either write the words on the board or hand out a list of the words to the students. Students must choose any 9 of the words and write them onto a piece of paper that looks like this:




tiger


blue

pen

pizza


ten

orange

chair


book

girl



Teacher chooses words form the list at random and reads them aloud. If the student has the word on their paper they cross it out. As soon as a student has crossed out three words in a line – up, down or diagonally – they shout Bingo! And they are the winner.





·         Label the classroom



Children learn from everything around them and need constant reinforcement of language. A fun way of reinforcing the written form of the words for classroom objects like door, board, window etc is to label them.

-          Write the words on card and as you teach the words stick them to the appropriate object

-          Or get students to label the objects themselves

-          One lesson jumble them up and get students to label them appropriately



·         Word search



Great for recognising written form. Helps concentration and is a real challenge. This is a grid containing ten sports words:





















B
U
Y
N
X
A
Z
H
F
U
W
F
X
K
G
H
O
Z
F
E
Z
H
L
K
X
Z
I
A
M
N
O
K
X
A
L
Y
B
X
J
S
G
I
K
R
I
C
J
Y
I
Q
L
L
A
B
E
S
A
B
B
L
K
F
T
U
N
I
R
V
J
I
M
D
K
S
C
E
V
S
O
W
G
D
R
J
B
E
Y
W
N
Y
Y
Q
O
B
V
C
C
U
U
U
M
I
J
A
C
S
J
I
U
U
L
S
H
C
V
M
O
L
Q
O
S
E
D
G
G
I
L
H
Z
M
L
P
V
S
E
S
Z
O
D
N
N
A
A
I
E
L
D
R
S
J
F
L
G
N
Y
G
X
N
B
S
K
I
I
N
G
F
G
E
X
R
Z
G
M
A
T
Y
R
I
C
F
V
T
G
O
P
J
O
C
T
V
O
R
I
J
I
K
V
H
Q
J
J
O
D
U
J
R
O
S
Z
N
K
B
M
J
V
Y
I
N
U
J
P
I
F
Q
K




BASEBALL
BOXING
CYCLING
FOOTBALL
GOLF
HOCKEY
JUDO
SKIING
SWIMMING
TENNIS


















Songs with primary students

Why do songs with this age group?

  • Children like songs
  • Songs can be integrated into language learning -  listening, singing and doing activities around the songs
  • In many cultures songs are used to introduce or practise mother tongue with young children, so this is a medium that children are very comfortable with
  • Songs are memorable
  • Songs often include a lot of repetition that helps to make language memorable
  • Songs contain chunks of language that children can remember and use
  • Because songs must be sung at a reasonably fast speed they encourage natural phonological features like linking and weak forms
  • Children will be actively involved in their learning, even at a very young age, rather than passive
  • Children have energy and want to make noise and songs will channel these natural inclinations positively
  • Parents will enjoy hearing their children singing in English
  • Singing is a happy and stress-free activity that will add to a positive classroom learning environment


What songs should we choose for the classroom?

Choose songs that

  • Contain simple, easily understood lyrics
  • Link with a topic or vocabulary that you are studying in class
  • Are repetitive
  • Children can easily do actions to (to help emphasise meaning)


Sample lessons that focuses on a song: Heads, shoulders, knees and toes

This song can be done with pre-readers as well as readers.

Lesson Plan A is for pre-readers (under six year olds)

1.        Introduce and practise the vocabulary:
Say ‘head’ clearly pointing to yours and get children to repeat, do same for all words. Repeat a number of times.
Don’t point now, but say word clearly and encourage children to point to appropriate part of the body
2.        Check meaning:
Point to head and say ‘shoulders’ and ask ‘yes or no?’ Do same for other parts, sometimes being correct and sometimes not.
Point to part of the body and encourage children to say the word.
3. Go through song slowly with the movements, first modelling for children to see what they need to do and then encouraging children to join in. Pick up the speed of the song as children become more confident.                                                                                                                  
  1. Play a game based on the key vocabulary like this – it includes basic colour vocabulary that children should already know
Hand out a simple picture of a person that can easily be coloured in.
Ensure children have coloured pens or pencils. Model the activity, so children know what they have to do – say ‘the mouth is blue’ and hold up the picture and colour the mouth blue. Play the game by giving similar instructions. Give the children plenty of time to find the right part of the picture and right colour and do the colouring. If the children are confident, encourage them to give you or their classmates similar instructions.
  1. Sing the song again at the end of the lesson.
  2. Begin the next lesson with a check of the vocabulary and sing the sing again. Children will enjoy singing a song they already know, but do not assume they will all remember it and the vocabulary. Young children learn quickly and forget quickly if they don’t practice.


Lesson plan B for readers (over six year olds)

Begin the lesson as above, concentrating on the meaning and the sound of the words first.

After singing the song, the following activities can be added to the lesson:

  1. Show pictures of the parts of the body with the words clearly written beneath. Say the words while pointing to the words.
  2. Give out pictures of the parts of the body and separate pieces of paper with the words on and children must match them. This can be done in groups of two or three. If the group is bigger some children may not actually participate and be left out.
  3. Ask the children to draw a person (themselves or maybe you!) and to label the body with the words they have learnt. They may know some other parts of the body that they can add – you may have to help with spelling.
  4. A great game to practise the vocabulary – divide the class into teams – ideally nine members in each team. Choose a confident and outgoing child from each team to stand or sit at the front of the class and be THE BODY. Other members of the team each get a sticker with a word of a part of the body written on it. Each team stands behind a line away from the front of the class. One at a time a team member has to run to the front and put the sticker on the appropriate part of THE BODY. It is a race and the first team to correctly label their BODY are the winners. If the children now other parts of the body, you can also use these words – it can get very funny if they know the word ‘bottom’.
  5. Another good way to practise the vocabulary is to do a picture dictation. e.g. teacher says: this is a monster. He has two heads and four eyes etc. Children have to draw the monster according to the teacher’s description. Ensure you use only vocabulary the children have come across before – this can include numbers, colours, sizes and shapes e.g. The monster has four, small, blue, triangular ears.
  6. Going back to the song – children with a larger vocabulary for parts of the body can be encouraged to write a new verse for the song using other parts of the body and then perform them to each other using the correct actions.



Listen and DO Activities


Old Macdonald – Jumping up

This activity can be very energetic, but great fun.
Pre-Readers:
§  Choose animals the children know or pre-teach the animals for the song – ducks, pigs, horses, sheep etc
§  Hand out a picture of each animal to all children in the class
§  Check that they know the English word for their animal
§  When they hear the word in the song, they must jump up and hold the picture up
Readers – instead of pictures, write the words on cards and the children must hold these up

If you have the song: ‘I can sing Rainbow’, you can also do this activity with colours. In fact this activity can de adapted for any very simple song e.g. ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by the Beatles, which only contains eleven different words!


Order the Lyrics
Choose the song you want children to listen to. A nice song for this is ‘Wonderful world’ by Louis Armstrong, which has a lot of concrete vocabulary e.g. trees of green.
Write out the lyrics and cut up the individual lines.
The children listen and put the lines into the correct order.
They do not need to know every word: this is a good activity for recognising the words they do know and building confidence in dealing with unknown words (also good for older students).

Drawing
Following on form the activity above, children can choose their favourite line of the song and draw a picture to illustrate it.