ESL Songs for Kids

I came upon this thread in the ESL Headquarters discussion forums about what are some good songs and CDs for young ESL/EFL students.  I won't rehash my lengthy post in that thread, but I did want to share a couple of iTunes i-mixes I made.  There are a lot of great children's artists who don't write with ESL students in mind, but still have several songs that work great in ESL/EFL classrooms.  Thankfully, in today's world, you don't have to buy the full CD to get the one or two songs you want, we can download individual songs.

So, here are a couple of i-mixes of songs for children's ESL/EFL classes featuring tracks from artists like Dan Zanes, Laurie Berkner, Milkshake, etc.  (You'll need to have iTunes installed to open these links.)

Great Songs for Children's ESL/EFL (U.S. iTunes)
易しい英語のうた (iTunes Japan)

One thing I've found is that the features which make a song great for young ESL learners (fair amount of repetition, clear enunciation, moderately paced lyrics which can be understood through gestures and dance) also make these songs ideal for any emerging speakers, such as native-English speaking babies and toddlers and children with special needs (children with autism, learning disabilities, etc.).  So if you are looking for some fun, active songs to enjoy with emerging speakers of any stripe, give these a shot.