Ok, you might call this strange…to be so excited about carrots….but…

I got my first organic vegetable box from Warabemura tonight. And living in a city like Tokyo, my vegetables usually come nice and clean, wrapped up in plastic bags, after a long journey from some other country and probably coated with a nice layer of pesticide. So, to get come carrots that were just picked yesterday from organic fields in Gifu got me pretty excited.

The box also had onions, spinach, cabbage, gobo, broccoli, potatoes, another green that is similar to spinach but not sure what it’s called in English, and some unidentified green that I’m still trying to figure out what to do with. Who knew so much was in season in March!

I wish I could say we had a song on Super Simple Songs for St. Patrick’s Day, because if any day deserved a fun song that everyone could sing, this would be it…but we don’t. I think there is “green” in one of the color songs on Super Simple Songs One…but don’t quote me on that….we’re in the 12th month of classes so the color songs came and went 11 months ago.

As a kid, it was my dream to learn to play the bagpipes. I wanted it more than anything…for about a year. I don’t know why I never did it. Maybe it was the whole kilt thing.

This shot from the Tokyo St. Patrick’s Day parade today got me thinking I should have just put on the kilt and learned to play the thing.

But that bagpipe dream was soon replaced by a short-lived dream to learn to play the sousaphone. I wasn’t sure about that one today.

Maybe if he had had a green mohawk?

But anyway, long story short….I think I’ve decided that I want to learn to play the bagpipes again.

But that could just be the Guinness talking….

With the help of our friend Sujeong, Super Simple Songs can now be purchased in Korea.

Sujeong is the founder and Director of the Arts in Education, International Center (A.I.E) and MILK English (Moving, Imagining, Laughing Kids) and we’re very excited to be working with her to help make Super Simple Songs available in Korea.

So if you’re in Korea, please take a look at her site and all of the wonderful work she’s doing!

This is an activity I pull out once in a while that gets plenty of “one more time pleaseeeeee!” from the students. And the great thing about it is that it can tire out even the genkiest of classes before you need to sit down for some quiet work.

There are a few ways you can do this:

Numbers

Write the numbers 1-10 (or 1-20) on the board with your students. You write, they write, a combination of both, etc. Select a number and erase it or cover it with a frog. Then tell the students we’re going to pretend to be frogs. Everybody crouches down and gets ready to jump. Then, go through the numbers again, pointing to each one. When you come to a frog, everyone jumps up and back down. Then continue on through the rest of the numbers. Next you can erase another number, have a student choose or have a student erase. It gets silly and a lot of fun by the end when you have 6 or 7 frogs or more.

Other ways you could do it….

ABCs in groups of 9 or so.

Phonics/sight words.

Vocabulary review with flashcards.

Days of the week.

Months of the year.

I made a pdf file with some jumping frogs. Feel free to download and use it.

Jumping Frogs Printable

Found this at the veggie shop today and have no idea what it is or what to do with it. But it looked so neat I had to buy it.

Anyone know what it is?

This month’s topic at school is transportation. It’s always a fun topic because kids love trains, planes and automobiles more than just about anything else.

Here are some musical bits I made a couple of years ago. We use them in our classes to get up and move around and pretend to be driving, flying, riding, etc.

Feel free to download and share them!

Car
Bicycle
Train
Rocket
Airplane
Helicopter

I received a reply to my chopsticks post from the Teku Teku Daimyo blog.

It’s a great video that really puts things into perspective….752 pairs of disposable chopsticks are thrown away every SECOND!

I hope you’ll take a second to watch it…

In Japan, Setsubun is celebrated on the 3rd of February. It’s a celebration of the division of seasons but it usually refers to the spring division. Spring setsubun is around the same time as the Lunar New Year and in the past it was thought of as a new year celebration. The practice of cleansing the evils of the past year and scaring off the evils of the coming year is still done today, especially with school children. Beans are thrown (mamemaki) to symbolize this.

Usually they are thrown at a person wearing an “oni” (demon) mask. At school, often a staff member will wear a mask and visit each of the rooms and the children will throw beans at them.

At Knock Knock English, we have our own version of Setsubun we do in class every year leading up to the holiday. Ed Emberley’s “Go Away Big Green Monster” works great for this. We tried beans once but it was all a bit too messy! So, in recent years we’ve settled on these cute little fluffy pompom balls.

They’re great to review some counting, colors, etc before you begin the activity.

The kids throw the pompoms at the monster in the book after the second half when he is slowly disappearing. In real Setsubun activities, “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” is shouted. It means something like, “demons out! luck in!” We opt for “Go Away Monster” and it works great. Then we leave the room and come back in with a real Oni mask.

It’s nice to see little light bulbs go off as the students make the connection between this fun English activity and the traditional Setsubun activities they do in kindergarten/school.

If you’re not in Japan, celebrate Setsubun anyway! It’s a fun introduction to Japanese culture for young children. Or a great way to get over the fear of monsters under the bed! A quick google search on “Setsubun” will get you all the information you need.

So Happy Setsubun everyone. May your new year be full of luck…not demons!

Dyson vacum cleaner - $500

Roomba robot vacum cleaner - $700

Maid service - $400/month

Super Simple Songs - $14.99

hmmmm……….

Thanks to Onchankids for sharing!!

If you have a small class, here’s a quick and easy game you can play instead of musical chairs. It’s great if you don’t have chairs in your classroom or don’t want to go through the fuss of getting them out and putting them away.

I also use this sometimes when the class is a bit rowdy and I need the students to sit. Assign them a color and that’s their color for the rest of whatever activity you’re doing. (Works well for story time with an active class).

Cut six (or how ever many students you have in your classes) big circles of different colors laminated with large A3 laminate and tape them all together in a line.

It stores easily and can be pulled out for an quick and easy game of musical chairs (colors). Play some music, the students walk around the mat, and when you stop the music the students sit on any color. You can then ask the students (or have them ask each other) what color they’re sitting on.

Now, fold up one color, leaving 5. Play the music again. Repeat!

(Depending on how you fold it, you’ll get many color combinations so that you can use different colors each time if you want).

Some variations include placing vocabulary cards on the whiteboard with colors next to them and encourage the students to figure out which vocab card corresponds to the color they are sitting on. For students who are reading, you could write the colors next to the vocab cards, or write colors next to words:

i.e.

red - sunny
blue - cloudy
green - rainy
yellow - snowy
etc.

For younger children, its sometimes difficult for them to understand the concept of being “out” so you might want to just play the game without folding up colors and just play with the vocabulary or talk about colors.

You can also have the children who are “out” assist you in folding up colors, playing and stopping the music, or switching cards around on the whiteboard.

When it’s down to one color, I usually put some other object a few feet from the last color and the remaining two students have to walk around both. This avoids them stepping all over the last spot in attempt to be the winner.

It’s also very portable so if you’re out traveling to different schools, you can easily put it in your backpack and take it with you. If you have two or more, they make a great way to organize large classes into lines for relay race games. They also work well for team games. For example, if you had 20 students and 4 color mats, you could divide the class up into 4 teams and play musical chairs. When everyone sits down, you call out a color, and of the four students sitting on that color, the first one to call out the corresponding vocab/phrase, gets a point for the team.

Just ask Tanja and she’ll tell you that I’ve been debating whether or not to buy a bread machine for at least three years. Partly because there’s just no food (or smell) like fresh hot bread, and also because the list of ingredients in store-bought bread is growing longer and scarier these days.

So, I finally took the plunge yesterday. As of 10 this morning I was 4 hours and 7 minutes away from my very first loaf of bread in my brand spanking new bread machine.

About three hours in, just as it was starting to look like bread and my excitement was building, it beeped at me. Then the screen showed, “E L”. I had no idea what “E L” meant but there was no more heat and the half baked loaf of bread stopped rising up out of the pan.

So off I go in search of the Japanese manual, and find some reference to a screen showing, “E L” at the very bottom of the last page. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.

This is the conversation with my friend who translated the meaning of “E L”

Friend: “It means its broken”
Me: “What do you mean, broken?”
Friend: “Just broken”
Me: “Just broken?”
Friend: “Unh-just broken”
Me: “It can’t be, I just bought it, and its in the middle of baking my bread and since when did machines tell you they’re broken? If its functioning enough to tell me its broken, I’d think it would be able to finish making the bread!”
Friend: “It just says its broken and you have to call this number”

*sigh*

I call. But of course its a holiday, so no answer there. Not sure what to do with the half-baked loaf of bread stuck in there. Who knows, maybe I’ll need it as proof of the faulty machine.

So three years later, I have the bread machine, but no bread. I guess this means there won’t be any fresh baked bread for Christmas either.

*sigh*

That’s me in the red coat and white beard. (But don’t tell that to anyone under 6).

It’s that time of year. For the average teacher in Japan, its consumed with getting ready for Christmas parties, bonenkai’s (end of year company parties), finding flights home, buying last minute Christmas presents…and the list goes on.

Something so easy to forget at this time of year (in Japan or anywhere) is to stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and give.

The Salvation Army is probably one of the most worthwhile causes you can give to at this time of year, and much to my surprise, they were outside Shinjuku station today. The pot looks a little different, the uniforms not quite familiar, but the end goal is the same–helping those in need.

I come from a town that struggles to survive at times, as do the people in it. The Salvation Army has always been there as the last resort. When all else fails, and people don’t know where to turn next, they end up at the Salvation Army where they are welcomed with open arms, and given a lift to get back on their feet.

I don’t know much about the work the Salvation Army does in Japan but I have faith they do something extraordinary for those who need it.

So, if you pass them by, don’t forget to give. It’s good for the soul.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

The search for tempeh finally ended tonight. A student’s mom found some for me. And the best part is, it’s at the supermarket just around the corner…hiding with the nattou. That might be why I couldn’t find it anywhere–I tend to avoid the nattou section.

Here’s what I did with it for dinner tonight…and it was GOOOOOOOOOD!

I’m officially in love with tempeh. Thanks M&A’s mom!!!

One of my favorite activities I do with young children (2-3 y/o) is that simple game that everybody’s uncle used to play with them when they were a kid. Simply take an object (beanbags work well) and hide it behind your back in one of your hands and have the students guess which one.

Even the youngest children will make an effort at saying, “this one” in activities where there is some reward at the end. In this case the reward being finding the object.

You can build on the activity by using several objects of different colors and make it a color activity or use stuffed animals and make it an animal vocab activity.

I always try and make it obvious which hand I put it in, at least a few times, to build up some confidence in the activity.

Then have the studens try and ask the question, “Which one?” to each other. They almost never fail to switch it to the other hand though. Yes, even two year olds have a sense of humor!

Matt from Dream English has a free Christmas song download on his website at the moment. It’s a great classroom version of Jingle Bells.

While you’re there, check out his Dream English Vol. 1 CD. His stuff is very catchy and perfect for little ones learning English. His sound is very nice-relaxing and calming.

Makes me smile every time I hear it!

I’ve been making a lot of changes to my diet recently. The biggest one has been cutting out animal products and doing more cooking with whole foods (more on that in a later post). I think I’ve cooked more in the past three weeks than I have in my entire life.

Yesterday, I had to do a little cleaning in the kitchen to make room for some things. One drawer in particular had become the place where I put all of the plastic spoons, disposable chopsticks (waribashi), etc that the convenience store clerk manages to get into my bag every time without fail. I was a bit shocked to see just how big my waribashi collection was. I’ve always been annoyed by the amount of packaging and waste I see every day but I’ve taken part in it mostly because its just easier to ignore it than cause a fuss.

But my little stash of chopsticks prompted me to do some research today and here is what I found out about the evils of waribashi:

Number of waribashi thrown in the trash every day in Japan: 30,000,000.

Number of waribashi thrown in the trash every year in Japan: 11,000,000,000

Number of waribashi thrown in the trash worldwide every year: 20,000,000,000

That’s 220 billion pairs of waribashi in the trash in the past 20 years in Japan alone. In other words, a lot of trees.

Unfortunately waribashi don’t come from magic waribashi trees. They don’t even come from the forests of Japan. They come from the precious trees of the rain forests of Brazil and the forests of Canada–forests that are so vital to our chances of ever slowing global warming. And its only the tip of the ice burg–plastic spoons, knives, forks, paper plates, paper cups… It’s mind boggling to think about the amount of garbage that lands in the trash every year that is completely unnecessary.

So, from this Dec.4, that eerily still feels like spring, I vow to be vigilant and never let a pair of waribashi get into my bag again. It’s small but it’s a start. It’s better than nothing. And if nobody does their part, things will never change, and soon Dec. 4 will feel like summer and snow will be something only seen in pictures.

But we will have plenty of waribashi.

I keep meaning to post this picture because its become one of my favorites. I took it from my grandmother’s backyard when I was home this summer. Recently wind farms are popping up all over the island and I was pretty excited about seeing this one near her house. I’m not sure why I’m so fascinated by them but I do know I took far too many pictures of them this summer.

The fact that the first week of November in Tokyo was still warm enough for shorts and tees has me very worried, so the more of these the better if you ask me.

A present from a student’s grandmother.It’s a kind of indoor coat/robe worn in the winter. I’ve never met her grandmother, but she MADE this for me.MADE!WOW!Thank you Nagi’s grandmother!!! It’s truly one of the most amazing presents I have ever received from a student. I hope I can thank her in person someday.

This weekend was the annual ETJ (English Teachers in Japan) expo and book fair in Tokyo. We took Super Simple Songs to the book fair and had a great time meeting new people, and finally put some faces to some names.

English teaching in Japan is going through a rough period with the collapse of Nova and so many questions and speculation over what will become of the whole industry in the coming months/years. My hope is that it will get better and its events like ETJ that leave me believing it will.

It’s great seeing so many dedicated teachers sacrificing their weekends to get out and participate in workshops and see presentations to improve their skills and give their students the best possible language education they can. I was lucky enough to be able to take in a few presentations and left with some great ideas for my own classes and can’t wait to try them out. I’m really looking forward to next year’s ETJ and hopefully Super Simple Songs will be there again.

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who stopped by the table and had a look at what we do!

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! 

We’re just finishing classes for the summer here and along with that comes a few big events.

First the not so good news….We’re losing Jeremy sensei. Jeremy is heading back to his hometown of Chicago to continue on with his video-making magic. He’s been behind all of the Super Simple Songs videos over the past year and we’re going to miss him when he’s gone. But if you’re in Tokyo, rumor has it he’ll be performing at the Apple store in Shibuya soon-not a bad way to say goodbye to Tokyo.

Super Simple Songs three has finally arrived and is ready to be shipped. We also have a new website uploaded as of yesterday. I’ve been working on it for the past few weeks with the goal of making a site that is much easier to navigate and access the songs and information on actions/gestures, activities, videos, etc. I think the new site is much more user-friendly and will be an excellent resource for teachers of young children who use Super Simple Songs (and even for those who don’t).

We’ll also start shipping all CDs from Japan so there are some changes in the purchase pages. Downloads are also now possible direct from the Knock Knock English site. You don’t have to be an iTunes-friendly country now to download the songs.

I think Super Simple Songs Three is our best album yet and has worked very well in our classes here while we were testing out the songs. Hope you enjoy!

I’m off to Canada in a couple of days for some time with my family, and to escape the heat of summer in Tokyo. Hope everyone has a great summer!

Was lucky enough to go to Fuji Rock Festival in Niigata Japan this weekend–something I have been waiting to do for years. Summer Camps and Summer Programs have always ended up at the same time and I have never been able to go, but this year, things worked out great. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. When working on CDs here at Knock Knock, I rarely ever listen to any music I like or take the time to discover new music. My ears are filled with music all day, and usually need a break by the end of the day. Having finished up Super Simple Songs Three a couple of days before Fuji Rock, it was perfect timing for getting out and hearing some new music. I am back to enjoying the artists I love and now have a few more to add to the list after my weekend in Naeba. I’m already counting the days down until next year’s festival. This was a scene from Mika’s encore on the green stage on Saturday.

Playing with a parachute in class is probably one of the most enjoyable activities a child ever encounters and luckily there are plenty of ways they can be used in an ESL classroom. Unfortunately, it has to remain in that special day category to keep it from getting old. I remember being a kid and everyone constantly begging the PE teacher to play with the parachute. We only ever got to use it a handful of times in the year. (The other big treat was a big medicine ball we played various games with. Wouldn’t recommend them for 3 year olds though!)

Japanese kindergartens have come up with so many great songs and activities for parachute play. I would love to be able to translate them someday and make a whole CD of parachute songs. For now, I am trying to come up with one for the next SSS CD that uses some elements of parachute play I have seen here in Japan. The challenge is making it simple enough that the children can enjoy some structured play without having to concentrate too much on the words. Because, let’s face it, with a big bright, fluid, colorful sheet of fun in front of them, what child is going to worry about the words to a song?

Debbie at Hands On English posted this clip today of her kids playing with a big parachute. Watch/listen to what happens when the whole class vanishes under the parachute–too cute!

The Hokey Pokey Shake on Super Simple Songs 2 has always been one of my favorite songs we’ve come up with. It’s the perfect combination of making a song easier for ESL students, throwing in some relevant classroom vocab/phrases, and keeping it fun all at the same time. This video is from Milk English in South Korea. Great job!

http://www.moby.com/journal/2007-05-14/few_years_ago_i_was_tour_and_i_had_show_.html

Interesting article from PingMag on this duo and their block creations.  A commenter says they are available at Tokyu Hands, Shinjuku. Would be interesting to see what some kids come up with with these in their hands. Though, with a few thousand Kanji, thats a lot of woodblock sets to translate everything into English.

Jeremy Sensei’s latest creation…

On my way to the Thai Festival in Yoyogi Park the other day, this boy was showing off his stuff with his band. I was going to ask him if he wanted to do backups on the next Super Simple Songs, but he looked pretty busy.

Kids love musical chairs but it does tend to be a bit boring for the kids who get out early in the game. And for younger kids, the idea of getting out is a bit too much to handle. This is a varitation I play with kids as young as 3 or 4 with their parents, and up to 6 or 7 without.

Set out enough chairs for all students (and parents) minus one chair. Place flascards or objects under the chairs, march around the circle to some music, stop the music, everyone sits down. The one person left standing, chooses a seated person and a dialogue something like this follows,
S1 - Stand up S2
(S2 stands up)
S1 - What’s that? (this, these those, etc.)
S2- It’s a dog!
S1 - Your’re right, good job, etc.
S1 - Stand up…. (chooses another student)
etc…

Continue through all of the players if you have a small class or maybe just a few if you have a larger class.
Its not a great new original game BUT adding the element of students choosing other students make it a lot of fun, because kids love to play games that involve this. And, the best part–nobody is ever out. Actually the person who doen’t get a seat gets to start off the whole game, leaving no negative associations with not getting a chair.

PopUp books are obviously a definite attention-grabber for young children. There are so many fantastic ones out there. This week, PingMag has a great little feature on popup books , their history and creation, with a few examples–one from an amazing dinosaur popup book, and another from an Alice in Wonderland popup. (Check out the video that shows Alice’s fall down the well)
These are definitely not for very young children, but an interesting article!
Here’s the article.
日本語で

Lisa over at Mama Lisa’s World Blog has responded to my request to post a call for pool games from around the world.  So far, one response has come in–a game called Sharks and Minnows, which I actually remember playing as a child.  It got me thinking about some possible uses for such games in the classroom.

Marco Polo - You could simply take two vocab words, (opposites would work well) and replace "Marco" and "Polo" with them then play the game the same way as in the water.  One player is "Marco" and has to shout a selected vocab word and the other players respond with "polo" or their selected vocab word.  The person who is it, must then find and tag the other players while their eyes are closed.

Sharks and Minnows - Simple-one player is the shark at one end of the room, and the rest of the players are minnows.  The minnows must get to the other side of the room without being caught by the shark.  Last minnow to be caught is the next shark.  (Providing they can answer a question or name a vocab item in English) (Thanks to Robin for reminding me of Sharks and Minnows)

Hen Rooster Chicken Duck - This one could be fun using different animal vocab.  Have the students hold hands in a circle and step around as you say HEN, ROOSTER CHICKEN DUCK.  On duck, all the students fall to the ground.  If they are too late, they are out.  Could make it interesting by saying an unrelated word on the fourth word (i.e. hen rooster chicken CAR!) If the students fall to the ground on a word that isn’t one of the related words, they are also out.  Great listening activity.  But definitely for older students…

Thanks Lisa!

Here are some simple ideas to make learning vocab fun…

flashlights- not great for sunny days but on any other day, close the blinds and instead of flipping through your flashcards, point a flash light on various cards or objects around the room and have the students elicit the associated vocab or sentences.

magnifying glasses- make mini versions of your vocab cards-as small as you can make the in your word processor-and place them around the room.  Give your students magnifying glasses and have fun searching around the room for various objects.  This works great with an insect topic.

binoculars- make some simple binoculars from construction paper and decorate them.  Attach a pice of yarn so students can hang them around their neck.  Have fun searching around the room for various objects or flashcards.  Play a hinting game with older students in which they search for objects based on the hints you give them.

telescope- same as above but make a telescope instread–requires less time.

A great way to play with vocab cards (for around 5 y/o and up) is a simple (or not so simple) run and touch game.  With small classes, divide the class into two teams and have them line up at one end of the room.  At the other end place your vocab cards.  When you shout a card they can run up and touch the card or hit it with a plastic hammer (or anything else that isn’t too dangerous).  Then they say the word, sound, sentence structure, etc associated with that card.

To vary the game, add some components to it like hula hoops in the middle of the room that they have to go through or some kind of fun obstacle.  Tanja had a great idea, having the students put balloons or balls between their legs as they run.  My students had a great time with this the other day.  Add a tambourine or bell that they have to shake or ring when they make it back to their team. 

To extend the game further, have the students one by one, name the cards that their teammates have to run and touch. 

We use a lot of songs in our classes that get the students up and moving and having fun.  The usuals being, Walking Walking, Clap, Clap Clap Your Hands, Seven Steps, etc…

Once in a while, to mix things up, try doing your usual up and active songs sitting down and use your fingers instead of your legs.

Walking Walking, for example, works great with just your fingers doing the walking, hopping, and running (and the kids really get a kick out of it).

Its also a great way to catch your students’ attention when you need it.

For an ESL teacher, finding versions of classic kids songs like Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, or The Wheels on the Bus that don’t clip along at a pace so fast that you can’t use them in your class, can be a challenge. If you look hard enough though, you can find some. Of the few children’s artists out there today that are sticking to the classics and creating recordings of them that are truly kid-friendly (and teacher-friendly) Sue Schnitzer is at the top of my list.

I recently purchased Wiggle and Whirl and Wiggle and Wiggle and Whirl, Clap and Nap and have been trying them out in my classes. The song choices are obviously great for very young children but the songs are not what are most impressive about these albums. She has the unique gift of being able to put a little magic into every song and make even the most recorded kids songs seem new again. There is so much more to these albums than what appears on the surface.

ESL-wise, I would say about half of the material is lyrically too much of a
challenge for my classes and the other half is just right. And if you
are an English teacher, who, like me, has rarely ever found more than
one or two songs on an album that go over well with kids whose native
language is not English, you know that’s quite impressive.

I reccomend them to anyone teaching young children. Click here to find her on CDbaby.

One great activity we do in our classes is a bathtime activity.  Its a refreshing break from the usual Head Shoulders Knees and Toes approach to teaching a parts-of-the-body theme. 
In Japan, people sit on a small stool outside the bath and wash there before they soak in the bath.  Traditionally the water is kept in the tub and shared by the family and reheated the next evening– though, not many Japanese do this nowadays. 

For this activity we give each of the students a small bath stool and sponge (a sponge only will work fine if you are not in Japan) and pretend to wash various parts of the body.  Shameless plug, but "The Bath Song" on Super Simple Songs is hands down, the best song to do this with.  You can have a lot of fun just pretending to take a bath, but adding some music to it makes it that much more fun.  If you really want to get into things, give your students some plastic bath caps, buckets for rinsing, rubber duckies, whatever you want.  A copy of "This Is The Way We Wash…." might work well too.  Have fun with it!

If you bring back the activity in a later class, try bathtime with stuffed animals!

Devon has summed up everything you need to know about teaching children aged 1-3 before you begin to teach, in a post over at the Preschool Forum on Dave’s ESL cafe. 

It’s an excellent look into what makes really great English classes for very young children.  Unfortunately, as he points out, we are constantly dealing with the dilemma of producing results when their is tuition to be collected vs. the patience required from both teachers and parents to wait for the results of what is a long and slow process. 

It doesn’t get much simpler (or more fun) than this….

Draw simple faces with a ballpoint pen on the tip of everyone’s index finger.  Try some songs like, One Little Finger, Where is Thumbkin, etc.

Also, have some fun talking which each other fingers.  I spent the whole class yesterday doing everything through little finger people and the kids really enjoyed it!  Some students who rarely speak up were letting their fingers do more talking than they ever have.

You could also talk about emotions and draw happy, sad, surprised, scared, sleepy, etc. faces on each of your fingers as well.

For older students who are able to control their thumb movement, painting faces on the top of your fist can also be fun.  Move your thumb to open and close the mouth.

And finally, from a student’s mom…make a fist and draw the lines of an elephant’s trunk down your middle finger (depending on what country you are in, you may want to use the index finger-though it isn’t as effective!) and eyes at the top,  Then, extend the finger out like an elephant.  Great fun playing with this!

Another activity we do with our very young classes is fishing.  The thing I like most about fishing activities is how they can be used over and over with kids from two on up.  Young kids love them and even though I rarely ever do it with Elementary-age kids, it never stops them from begging to play a fishing game if they ever catch sight of the fish lying on the shelf.

You’ll need three things for fishing…

1/ Fish (bet you figured that one out already)
2/ Fishing poles
3/ Some rope to make a lake/ocean.

The best fish are….

About 8 inches long, in various colors.  (e.g. we have class sizes of 4-6 students so we have sets of 6 fish in every color.   Laminated–to make them last long.  Draw fish on both sides of the cutout and on one side write numbers, the other side, ABCs.  This way, you can fish for not only colors, but also numbers or letters.  Clip (and tape) a large paperclip onto the mouth of the fish.

The best fishing poles …

Have a short thick dowel that children can hold easily.  (long and thin doesn’t work well for very young kids).  String that is thick and heavy to avoid tangling because IT WILL happen no matter how careful you are.  Keep the length short.  The smallest, strongest magnet you can find, because fishing isn’t easy when you are two.  I’ve tried countless ways to make the magnets stick to the string but they always fail and I end up taping them so…just tape them!

You can fish for colors, numbers, ABC’s, and to mix things up/tie it in with your current topic, stick mini pictures of your vocab for the month to the paperclip under each fish.  Then, talk about the vocab each student finds under the fish. 

Trying to think of some simple fishing songs now….

Any ideas?

I have seen ESL classes where the teacher always has music playing, from start to finish, and I have seen some where there is almost no music at all.  I have even worked at a school where the owner would turn the CD player off every time I put some background music on during an activity.  (Perhaps she simply thought I forgot to turn the CD player off every time).

I think background music is important to creating a warm, relaxing, and learning-conducive environment.

I have music playing when the children come in (usually something new and interesting each week (classical, fun, silly, even pop), have music playing in the background to most activities (usually something related to the activity) calm music during storytime, and music playing while the students are leaving.  In fact, I would say there is rarely a moment in my class when there isn’t something playing in the CD player.

When introducing new songs, I always play it in the background first and usually the students will begin to pick up on the song and have a general idea of how it goes before we even begin to learn it.

When selecting music for classes for young learners, keep in mind its not always about music that is upbeat and active.  There are times where quiet music is very appropriate and slow gentle versions of normally upbeat songs can be used to introduce a song gradually. 

Some variations on freeze dancing…

Basic freeze dance: play some music and pause from time to time, at which point the children have to stop and stand still.

Tambourines: Good for younger children-have them dance around and try and keep a steady beat with tambourines.  When the music stops, freeze, and keep the tambourines silent.

With bells: For slightly older students tie a bell (craft store jingle bells kind work well) to their wrists.  When the music stops the goal is to freeze and not make a sound with the bells.

Ribbons: Give each child a ribbon (not too long) which they can dance and move with.  Freeze when the music stops.

Sit down: When the music stops, sit down and freeze.

One foot: When the music stops, freeze standing on one foot.  A challenge for younger students.

Body parts: Instead of shouting, "freeze" shout "nose" or "head" or any body part, and the students have to touch that body part and freeze.

Hugs: When the music stops, the children have to find a partner to hug.

With dad/mom in class: When the music stops, children have to run and hug mom/dad.

Music for freeze dancing…

There is a Freeze Dance by Greg and Steve that works okay.
Also, there is one on a Wee Sing album.  This one is a bit slow and jazzy and the kids sort of just stand there and don’t do much moving to it.  But, it could work for your classes.
The best kind of music to freeze to is actually a march I think.  Because it is a straight forward beat, all the kids tend to move to it, and the freeze is more fun when it breaks a steady continuous beat.

Many classes, ESL or otherwise, have some set songs that are done in every class.  Hello, Goodbye, etc.
Here are some suggestions for simple changes to make them new again.
If you have been teaching ESL for a while, you’ve probably got most of these figured out already.  If you are new to it all, have a look….

Sing it in a high voice.

Sing it in a low voice.

Sing it in a monster voice.

Clap/stomp/pat legs to the rhythm while you sing it. 

Clap/stomp/pat legs to the rhythm of the song but don’t sing it.

Hellos and Goodbyes- Sing them like animals.  Elephants say hello and goodbye with their long noses.  Gorillas say it while pounding their chests. 

Sing the song standing on one foot.

Hum the song.

Mouth the words.  Don’t sing. 

Hands behind the back and try singing it without the usual gestures.

Speed it up.  Slow it down.  Alternate speeding up and slowing down within the song. 

Pinch your noses and sing it in a funny nasal voice.

Head Shoulders Knees and Toes/One Little Finger/body part songs-Pair the students with each other (or with parents) and have one touch/point to the others body while they stand still.  Then reverse roles.

This is an ESL activity based on a popular children’s playground game/chant I see here in Japan. 
The kids form two lines, holding hands, with the lines facing each other (even number of students on each side)  One side starts with a chant in which they step forward together, the other line steps back chanting.  The chant ends with something like one, two, three, and they kick on three.  Then the chant is repeated but the other line moves forward and the first line retreats.  Basically the two lines are facing each other going back and forth chanting and kicking on the end of the chant. 

The chant speeds up and gets louder until finally it ends and each group huddles and decides on a member from the other group, They then call their chosen people to the center where the two play a quick game of rock paper scissors.  The losing member gets taken in by the other team, making their group one person bigger.  The whole thing is repeated again and the sizes of the teams fluctuate.
There is no real winner or loser because the students are always changing teams and it will probably come down to one big group in the end, in which case everybody is a winner.

Using this in the classroom, you could replace the chant with vocab words that are repeated 5 times or so, sentence structures, simple phrases, numbers, ABC’s, or anything really. 
There is some obvious drilling happening from the perspective of the teacher but for the students, its a lot of fun.

When I took out the container of marbles today I did the usual shaking, and playing with the fact that they are very NOISEY.  Then, I had the students put their hands inside to see if they could guess what was inside.  It was cold and rainy today and the marbles had been sitting on the window ledge all day.  The fact that the marbles were also cold really caught their attention.  So, I tried it too.  Sure enough, a container of cold marbles does feel pretty neat. 

Its something I have been experimenting more and more with lately-the idea of bringing all five senses into my classes.  Children are still discovering their senses and, even in their native language, they still don’t have all of the vocabulary to describe how they perceive things.  By using activities that directly involve senses other than just sight, we allow the children to express naturally in any language the things they experience around them.

Some activities you might try that appeal directly to the five senses….

Sight: Instead of using just flashcards, put some plastic color tinted paper over some toy glasses and play with those.  If you can find funky colored sun glasses from a dollar store, even better.  Have fun looking at the world in various colors.  For older students, point out the fact that mixing colors makes other colors. 

Smell: Pick up some liquid incense in fruit flavors from a dollar store.  Cross senses by smelling these and asking what color, not what fruit.  See if the students are able to make a connection between smell and color without mentioning the fruit first.

Sound: In addition to counting objects, you can count sounds as well.  Clap once, three times, five times, two times, etc. and have the children try and figure out how many claps.  Use tambourines or castanets instead of clapping.  Use any combination of objects that make interesting sounds.  Go outside and knock on the door.  Come in and ask the children how many times you knocked.

Touch:  Mystery Boxes are great fun.  Have the students reach inside and touch an object you’ve placed inside.  Ask them simple questions:is it big, small? Can they guess what it is? For older students, try using blocks or items of the same shape and count how many– by touch, not by sight. 

Taste:  For older students, Jelly Belly candy are a great way to experiment with taste and food without having to deal with food, cooking, or other potentially messy activities. 

There are many different types of counters that are useful for teaching children how to count. The most effective counter set I’ve ever used is a simple bag of marbles. A bag of marbles and a few paper cups is enough to get any class excited about counting.

Pass out some empty paper cups. Count together as you give each child their marbles (3-5 for very young learners upwards of 20 for older students). Toss and count marbles into cups. Hold them up high, count and drop them into the cups. Pass one marble at a time down a line by pouring it into and out of each cup until it reaches one student’s cup or your cup. Then, count how many marbles were passed along to that cup.

Pour cups of counted marbles into another cup to practice simple additions. Pass those along 10 at a time, then 20 Add to the cup by 5s or 10s and pass them down the line, making the goal not to spill the cup of marbles as it gets fuller.

For an older class, try passing one marble at a time around the circle BUT don’t wait for each marble to make it around to the final cup before starting the next. Start the next marble off immediately. The students are then hearing two or three numbers being shouted simultaneously and must keep track of their own counting at the same time. (This was super fun activity for a class of 2nd graders I had today-they caught onto the challenge right away and went with it).

If your marbles have distinctive colors, sort them by color, then count the number of each color.

If you have marbles of different size, sort by size, then count the number of each size.

Saw a Japanese kindergarten teacher doing this once and have used it ever since.  (If you don’t have a piano you can just sing up a scale)
Get all the kids crunched down in a ball, start at the low end of the piano and in octaves go up the scale (sing, up up up up up if u want) have the kids gradually stretch up as the music goes up, then shout "down" and suddenly glissando down the piano, at which point the kids all fall to the ground. 
The opposite is to start arms stretched up standing on toes, and go down the piano, and suddenly shout up, and the kids jump up.  For ESL classes its a good exercise in opposites, replace up and down with tall/short, big/small, high/low,  or animal names, or anything you can think of that might fit. 
Play with it, ham it up.  They’ll love it.  Gets them stretching, moving, and listening.

One of the best finger plays I’ve seen is one that is popular here in Japanese kindergartens…
It is based on rock (fist) paper (flat hand) scissors (middle and index finger extended like scissors)
The Japanese version goes like this…(to the tune of Frere Jacques)

rock scissors paper
rock scissors paper
what shall we make?
what shall we make?
right hand (rock paper or scissors)
left hand (rock paper or scissors)
……….

our English version that will be on Super Simple Songs Two….
rock scissors paper, rock scissors paper, 123, play with me, right hand =====, left hand =====,  Look its a ======!

the idea is making things using combinations of rock, scissors and paper gestures

here are some to get you started.
paper + paper = wrap you thumbs around each other and you have a BUTTERFLY
paper + paper = hold hands on either side of your head, and roar like a LION
paper + paper = extend arms out and fly like a BIRD or an AIRPLANE
paper + scissors = paper on top of the scissors and rock the top hand back and forth like a SEESAW
scissors + scissors = make chopping claw gestures like a CRAB
scissors + rock = put the rock on top of the scissors to make an ICE CREAM cone
scissors + rock = put scissors under the rock like the antennae of a SNAIL
rock + rock = pretend to place fists on a steering wheel and drive a CAR
rock + rock = fists out like riding a BICYCLE (don’t forget to ring the bell with your thumb)

The list is endless, be creative and also let the students try and come up with their own.

Check on the Knock Knock English website sometime in April/May for more ideas after Super Simple Songs Two is released.

If You’re Happy and You Know It….most versions go something like "clap your hands", "stomp your feet", "shout hooray", and the odd version ends with "do all three" (the fun part)
One activity I like is one that builds on this a bit.  I usually introduce it by trying the above version first.  Then, I have the students come up with some actions we can do.  Go around the class adding action ofter action–the sillier the better.  If a student can’t can come up with something, and are standing fidgeting and mumbling, "I don’t know", make that their chosen action and they"ll get a huge kick out of it. 
When you come to the final version and can take no more, speed it up, then speed it up again.

There are plenty of activities involving some sort of guessing that work well with young kids.
One I never really thought to try until today was, a ‘guess the page I am reading’ game.
We use a series from Oxford University Press called, Potato Pals so I opened up to random pages in one of the readers, pretending to be reading (to myself) the phrase on that page.  Then, I had the students each guess which page I was reading, i.e. which phrase. Next I had the students take turns being the "reader".  It ended up being a fun, child-centered activity.   

If you’ve ever tried a guessing game that involves students handling more than one card at a time, you know it has potential for disaster and at best is a big time-consumer.  In this case, because you are using the pages from the reader, they have no problem choosing their phrase. 

To mix things up a bit today, I started off my class by having the kids hum our usual hello song.  They thought it was hilarious and really enjoyed it.  So, I went with it and ended up playing a kid’s version of "name that tune."   I hummed some of our usual class songs to see if they could come up with the words/and or title.  Then I had the students try.  It ended up being a great activity that got the kids trying to recall language and song lyrics and sing and speak them in a different setting, i.e without the CD playing.