Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

Hair Song

No...not Aquarius from the musical from the musical Hair. 

I wanted to introduce you to a cute little song about going to a hair salon performed by one of our favorite youTube contributors.  The Hair Song is the 100th video (YAY!) from Febie, a kindergarten English teacher in Taiwan. 

Febie has posted videos featuring simple gestures and dances to tons of classic children's songs.  Her channel is a great resourse for teachers looking for some song ideas for class, and kids really enjoy watching and singing along to her always cheerful presentations.  Definitely worth checking out. 

The Pinocchio Song

For Super Simple Songs 3, we wanted to do a non-secular version of Father Abraham that was easy for young kids to sing and relate to.  Father Abraham is a very fun kids' song I used to sing in Sunday school.  Throughout the song, you progressively add motions to your dance after each verse until, by the end of the song, every part of your body is moving.  Some people call it the  Christian Hokey Pokey (Here's a clip of some kids singing Father Abraham.) 

The lyrics go:

Father Abraham, had many sons.
Many sons had Father Abraham.
I am one of them.
And so are you.
So let's all praise the Lord
Right arm (or hand)
Repeat verse
Right arm.  Left arm.
Repeat verse.
Right arm.  Left arm.  Right leg.  Etc.

It's great fun, but the lyrics are pretty tough for very young learners.  We wanted to keep the fun and craziness of the dance, but simplify the lyrics.  We also wanted a character that children around the world could identify with.  So we made a new song called "The Pinocchio".   The lyrics go:

Everybody in.
Everybody out.
Everybody turn around.
Everybody shout.  (HEY!)
Everybody ready.  Here we go.
Let's do the Pinocchio.
Right arm.
Repeat verse.
Right arm.  Left arm.
Repeat verse. 
Right arm.  Left arm.  Right leg.  Etc.

The song has been a big hit with our students, and now we've gotten some great responses from all over.  Here's a video of some my students at Knock Knock English, as well as some videos from Daddy Ross Preschool in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Tiny Tots Japan in Tokyo, Japan; and MILK Engilsh in Seoul Korea.  Thanks to everyone for the videos!

Pirate Songs

Kids have always loved pirates, but have they ever been more popular than now?  Last month, I was talking about hopes, wishes, and goals with my 3rd-4th grade students.  "I want to go to Hawaii."  "I want to be a doctor." "I want to try skiing." Etc.

We were talking about who we would like to meet.  I was expecting a fair amount of sports stars, singers, and movie stars, but the most popular answer, by far, was, "I want to meet Captain Jack Sparrow!" 

September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Check out my post from last year for some ideas on how to celebrate it with your kids.  If you're looking for some Pirate-related songs, I really like Eric Herman's Blackbeard, Bluebeard and Redbeard. 

And of course, there is this wonderful video for Captain Bogg and Salty's Pieces of 8ight.

If you're looking for a fun, pirate-themed game for younger learners, try this one from Genki English. 

And if you are looking for some friendly pirate-themed stylings (canvases, t-shirts, free screen-savers), check out my friends at Jeeto.

Happy Talk-Like-A-Pirate Day!

Fishies song

I'm a really big fan of Nancy Stewart and her songs for kids.  Every month she releases a timely, free, downloadable song for young children at her website.  Sometimes the songs are little much linguistically for my kids, but the music is always so attractive and Nancy has a wonderfully calming voice.

June's song of the month is great for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and young ESL/EFL students.  It's very simple, teaches some basic concepts (colors, size, numbers), and the repetition makes it easy for children to begin singing it very quickly.  It's called "Fishies" and she includes a pdf file with some simple fish patterns to use while singing the song.

Nancy's songs of the month are free, but if you don't want to bother going through and downloading them all, she has them available for purchase on CD as well.

Using Music in the Classroom

Music is an amazing tool for teaching languages, especially to children. Good songs will bounce around in a learner's head long after their lesson is over. Young learners pick up vocabulary, grammatical structures, and the rhythm of the language simply by doing what they already love to do...sing.             

In addition, music can serve a variety of functions in your classroom, at home, or even in the car. Music can set a mood. Music can signal a transition from one activity to another (for both the teacher and the student). Music can be a bonding experience. Here are some of the ways I use music in our classrooms here at Knock Knock English.
   

Play music as background music right from the start of the lesson.    

Just as you take care to make your learning environment visually appealing and stimulating, you should also note the effect that music has on the atmosphere in the classroom. Entering a classroom can be intimidating for people of any age. For children learning a foreign language, it can be particularly daunting. Music can really help to make your classroom warm and inviting.

You can read the rest of this piece here.

Adwords, Bad Words

See that? How the title rhymes?  Clever huh?  Spent hours on that.

Well, I tried a little experiment adding Google Ads to this blog in the hopes it would cover my monthly blogging expenses (Typepad ain't free).  I figured there would be a lot of ads for kids music, resources for teachers, etc., and I was fine with that.

Then I saw some of the ads that were being displayed.  Medicine for arthritic shoulders and knees, cures for stinky feet, remedies for headaches, and the worst, an ad for a love doctor who promises to teach you how to get people down on their knees begging to be with you.  Huh?  What do these have to do with Children's Music and Early Childhood Education?

Then Tanja (she of the really cool new blog banner...check it out) reminded me of the title of my blog.  Seems I was getting a lot of ads related to things like heads, shoulders, knees, and toes.   Ugh.

So the Google Ads experiment is on hold for now.  If you're looking for relief for your aching joints, you'll have to check somewhere else ;-)