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TeachingEnglish Young Learners Activity Book
Activities
Alternatives
• Songs can also be used to practise day-to-day vocabulary and language structures.
For example, this is the way (I brush my teeth) repeats the present simple tense with a
number of daily routines. Likewise, Ten Little Aeroplanes presents counting up to ten and
back again. These songs, with activities and animations, can be found on the British Council
website learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/ This site also has great songs
to practise stress and rhythm: Chocolate Cake is one of our favourites.
• Songs can be exploited in lots of different ways. Here is an idea from Ornella Granatiero (Italy)
called Go on Singing. In this activity, a song from the children’s course book is used, but you
could use any song. The materials are the same as for the activity on the previous page:
1. Play or sing the song two or three times while the children listen in silence, follow the words
in their books or look at the flashcards.
2. Play or sing the song again two or three times, this time with the children singing and
miming actions.
3. Once the children can sing most of the song, play or sing it again, but stop after a few
lines and ask one of the children or a group of children to continue the song. After one
or two lines, start playing it again. Repeat this, asking different children to continue until the
end of the song.
No resources?
If you do not have equipment to play songs, you can sing them yourself. If you do not have access
to the internet to download song words, you can make up simple songs yourself. The important
thing is that they are memorable for the children with lots of repetition. You could ask the children
to clap or beat the rhythm or to mime actions. Do not worry if you are not a good singer, you can
chant instead.
© British Council 2012
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