Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

The Bath Song

We've been getting requests from teachers using the Super Simple Songs CDs for more teaching tips, so we, the kindly folks at Knock Knock English, have entered the YouTube arena ourselves!  Here's a short clip introducing The Bath Song from the first Super Simple Songs CD.

We're going to be adding clips for all or most of the songs little by little, so any feedback on what would make these clips most useful for teachers and parents would be greatly appreciated!  Mahalo!

"Simple, but not simplistic"

Monty Harper has a guest this month on his podcast, Mr. Billy, with whom he collaborated on the very sweet night-night song, "Goodnight Sun". They have a really interesting discussion about how much goes into what many people think is a simple endeavor...creating a kids song. Monty tells a great story about spending the better part of a day working on two lines from the song until he got it right. Monty always shares great insight into the creation of his songs, including samples of early demos. In this case, you get to hear the difference between the original demo version and the finished version which includes an unexpected minor chord change...sorry Monty, I think you did lead Mr. Billy astray on that one :-) .

Get the podcast here, and don't forget to fill out Monty's survey for a chance to win a free CD.

Take a little walk

Don't forget Nancy Stewart's always excellent, always free children's song of the month.  This month's tune, Take a walk around the room is a great for "go and find" activities, which we use in our classes a lot.  Be careful though...young kids are VERY excited to go and find the letter or color or shape you call out, and there can be some Three Stooges-esque knocking of heads if you don't set some rules.

Head, Thorax, Abdomen

QUICK!  Describe the characteristics of an insect.  Time's up!!!

If you need some help, check out Nancy Stewart's FREE children's song of the month...The Gift (Insect Song).  Listen to the song twice and you'll have it down for good.

Really Rosie

Clea at smALL AGES shares some thoughts on the great Carole King/Maurice Sendak collaboration Really Rosie, including some tracks for you to sample.   Great, great songs...have a listen.  I love Pierre, the story of boy who learns to care after being swallowed by a lion.

There once was a boy named Pierre
Who only would say, "I don't care".

I imagine if Sendak wrote this story 30 years later (it was released in 1962), it would have been entitled Trevor,  and his mantra would have been "yeah, whatever." 

Signs, signs, everywhere signs!

It's amazing how much confidence children can gain in their reading ability through "reading" signs...and gaining confidence in being able to read is a huge part of the battle.  One way you can help your children/students to read is by making your own book of signs/logos.  Take pictures of all the familiar signs you see around town...the stop sign, the one-way sign, the sign for the street you live on, etc.  Also, collect logos from bags of stores you frequent such as McDonalds or your local grocery store, or cut words out of your cereal boxes.  Or just get online and find pictures of signs and logos your child will recognize quickly (it's much more fun to go on a sign hunt though!)

Paste all of your pictures in a notebook (or better yet creatively design a book with contstruction paper, sparkles, the works) and write the word for each sign in big letters.  Now you are ready to "read" with your child.  At first, they may just recognize the shape or colors of the signs/logos, but they can read this book to you!  Little by little you can start covering up the signs and just have them read the words.  It's a lot of fun and teaches them about the signs and stores in their neighborhood, all while developing reading skills and confidence. 

The Potato Pals series of readers we use with our 4-6 year-old students makes great use of this principle...every sentence has a "memoricon" associated with it so that kids can quickly "read" books on their own, even before they are recognizing the words.  From there, it doesn't take much to have them focus on the words and we find many of our students telling us to cover the pictures because they want to read without hints. 

Signs are powerful helpers in what can be a VERY intimidating activity (reading) for young kids.  Next time you walk outside, notice the signs around you and think of ways you can use them to help teach your children/students.  Be aware that reading is more than simply sounding out words, but involves using a number of clues to help understand meaning, and that the reading of signs should be praised and recognized as an important first step.

Here's a great Electric Company song/video that helps kids to read using signs.  Enjoy!

Update: Unfortunately the video I linked to was removed...so here's another Electric Company clip using signage...not as good as the last one but still fun use of signs.

One last thing...promise.  Watching this video I see the old Walk/Don't Walk signs and it makes me wonder...were those really so difficult to understand?  Did we really need to switch to the symbols? Just wondering...seems like giving up.  Admittedly, I was young, but I don't recall ever seeing someone have trouble at the crosswalk reading the signs!  Bring 'em back!

Knock Knock News

I haven't been able to post as much I'd like the past month or so because we've had a lot of projects going on at our school, Knock Knock English. Hence the heavy doses of youtube, the lazy bloggers' new best friend. Hope you are enjoying the clips.

Our second CD, Super Simple Songs 2 is available at iTunes now (direct link). Please check it out if you have toddlers in your life. It's ideal for following up on and reinforcing some of the basic skills they are learning in pre-school and kindergarten...counting, weather, shapes, body awareness, etc. And the songs are at a level where even emerging speakers will take pride in being able to sing them.

If you already have the CD, please take a moment to write a short review for us at iTunes or CDBaby. We'd really appreciate it.

In other Super Simple Song news, we've got a website up. We're still building and adding and probably always will be, but if you are interested in some activity ideas to accompany our Super Simple Songs, you'll find them at www.supersimplesongs.com.

A big thanks to everyone who has downloaded our podcast,　こどもと英語で話そう！. We've had over 1,000 subscribers in the first few weeks and it's been a lot of fun making them. Again, it's primarily for Japanese speakers interested in learning some simple English expressions to use with their children, but English speakers can pick up some simple Japanese as well. You can subscribe through iTunes here. Our fifth episode will be out in a couple days and it focuses on simple expressions you can use when your child needs to use the bathroom. If you ever wondered how to say pee-pee and poo-poo in Japanese (come on, you know you did), your lucky day is almost here.

Our school manager, Ayako (that's her on the podcasts), has a new blog out for those of you who read Japanese. 日本語を読める方、あやこのブログをぜひcheckしてください。

And finally, a big thanks to all of our students and their parents. We've had a great first term. Thanks for all your efforts and making classes such a blast!

Have a great weekend!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

This week and next, I'm reading the Bill Martin/Eric Carle classic Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do Dou See? in some of my classes.  It's amazing how quickly even some very young non-native English speakers respond to and "learn" this book.  Eric Carle's art is simple yet vivid, and the repetition in the words is so comforting and confidence-building.  The simplicity of the book makes it one of those classics that children can read by themselves before they can actually read words. 

We like to listen to Greg and Steve's song version of the book off of their CD Playing Favorites, which also has a nice version of Woody Guthrie's Put Your Finger in the Air (with an Obla-di, Obla-da riff) along with other classics.  Click here to hear a short sample of Greg and Steve's Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

Or listen these kids give it a shot.

Being a staple of kindergartens and primary schools around the world, there are a ton of great lesson plans, activities, and crafts available on the web to support the book.  Start with DLTK and check out Eric Carle's site.  The Virtual Vine is another good resource.

 

I'm Gonna Catch You

I wrote last month about how I feel good kids songs, especially good songs for the under 6 crowd, often have the part where.  The part where we walk like elephants, or the part where the music gets faster and faster, or the part where we sing really quietly and then really loud! 

I mentioned I felt Laurie Berkner excelled at that.  Here is a clip that demonstrates what I was trying to talk about.  Simple, repetitive lyrics with variations thrown in and fun little actions to do for each day of the week.  And the tempo change at the end tops it all off.  Some songs really fit well in the classroom, some better in the car or at home.  This one works everywhere.

Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing this song with your kids/students.

Thank You Daddy

The first official observance of Father's Day in the U.S. was in 1910 in Spokane, Washington.  Sonora Louise Smart Dodd came up with the idea while listening to a Mother's Day sermon at church in 1909.  She rounded up community support and the following year on June 19, the birthday of her revered father who raised six children on his own after his wife died during childbirth, Father's Day was observed. (Thanks to Kids Domain for the info.) 

With Father's Day a few days away, check out Nancy Stewart's very sweet song of the month, Thank You Daddy, a definite ear-worm with a chorus that even emerging speakers will enjoy singing.  You can also find some more ideas for Father's Day  Songs at Preschool Education.com.

Nancy also links to a site I use a lot when choosing gestures to use with songs we sing in class, the ASL Browser.

For more on children and signing, have a quick listen to NPR's story from a couple of weeks ago, Toddlers Find Their Voice in Sign Language.  And for some Father's Day activity ideas, start here.