Fun, very simple songs

Prior to opening up our children's English school in Tokyo, I spent a good deal of time searching for the best music for our students...very young beginners learning English for the first time.  We used some great songs from the Wee Sing series, Hap Palmer, Greg and Steve, etc.  But to find songs lyrically simple enough for a children's EFL setting, we were buying CDs and only being able to use one, maybe two songs from each CD.

Then I found Genki English.  Richard Graham was a teacher in the JET program in Japan, and started creating songs to help his students learn basic conversation (What's your name?, How are you?, How old are you?, etc.).  Teachers in the JET program often roam from class to class, visiting several different schools, and sometimes only visiting certain English classes once a month.  So, for them, it's essential that they keep things simple but leave the kids with a positive impression.   All the songs are lyrically simple, and easy to create gestures for.  Anyone looking for some fun songs for an EFL/ESL kids' setting, definitely give his site a look.   At our school, we've got several Genki English songs in our rotation, and the kids always start moving as soon as the songs come on.  I can't say that we use all the songs, but there are at least 3 songs per album that we use in our classes.  I'm sure younger native English speakers, especially kindergarten/1st graders, would have fun with many of the songs as well. 

One other thing I like about the Genki English songs...Richard is not what you would call a great singer, but he goes for it!  I like that because his passion really comes through and it doesn't sound condescending, which I think is sometimes a problem with kids's music.  And the fact that he's belting out these songs means, well, anyone can sing them.  I don't mean that to sound like a backhanded compliment.  He obviously puts a great amount of work into his songs. I'm in the same boat as a singer, but I'm always comforted knowing that if I can sing it, so can my kids!