What better way to kick off your lesson on animals, than Old Mac with American Sign Language! OK, so I may have butchered some of them – the signs, not the animals! But check out Dr. Bill at Lifeprint for all the correct signs. And enjoy the rest of this video describing how I teach this song in lessons – with actions, PictureLyrics, and playing/singing on drum and glockenspiel. And download the slides for use in your home or classroom here. Enjoy learning English and music through pictures!
Tag Archives: learning
Weekly Release: Mary Had a Little Lamb Learning Unit
This is the first song I remember learning on the piano, and with this PictureLyrics learning unit I hope to bring more young learners into Mary’s fold! This week’s video shows 4 ways to teach, learn, and enjoy this classic – with dance, PictureLyrics, and music for the drum and glockenspiel. I use this song when teaching colors, as you can swap Mary’s white fleece for just about anything – silver, green, blue, fuchsia. Just make sure to change the snow part also – let your imagination run wild! And download the slides for use in your home or classroom here. Enjoy learning English and music through pictures!
https://youtu.be/jlwzxYSwzeY
Weekly Release: Hello How Are You Learning Unit
How’s everybody doing? Fine I hope! Just released, our third learning unit, for the super simple greetings song, Hello How Are You by Muffin Songs. This is a great way to start any lesson, with a simple and repetitive tune and dance that kids recognize across Asia. Learn it 4 ways with our video – dance, PictureLyrics, and play on the drum and glockenspiel. And download the slides for use in your home or classroom here. Enjoy learning English and music through pictures!
Weekly Release: Rain Rain Go Away Learning Unit
This week PictureLyrics and Dream Kids Network bring you the whole learning unit for Rain Rain Go Away – with dance, pictures for vocabulary, and music for the drum and glockenspiel. Thanks to the super cool kids, Clayton and Landis, who made a cameo for the video, and to all my students at Dream Kids. All the learning materials in this video are available for free here. Enjoy learning English and music through pictures!
Weekly Release: Twinkle Twinkle Learning Unit
This week we introduce the first PictureLyrics and Dream Kids whole learning unit for early language learners, with the timeless classic, Twinkle Twinkle. This builds on my experience teaching at Dream Kids Network in Tokyo, where kids in my English music program learn songs in four distinct ways – with actions, pictures, and playing/singing with drums and glockenspiel. This really drives home the pronunciation and meaning of the song, and kids have a great time doing it! Give it a try with your child or class – all the slide materials are available for free here.
Weekly Release: Six Body Action Songs Compilation
This week we put together the hard work over the past 6 weeks on some of the most loved and best body action songs: Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, One Little Finger, The Pinocchio, Tofa Tafa, Hokey Pokey, and the Stretching Song. We hope you enjoy singing and dancing along to these in succession, and not hearing the PictureLyrics theme song after the end of every song 🙂 Let us know what you think, and enjoy learning English through music!
Weekly Release: Stretching Song by Have Fun Teaching
Line up your group of kids and have them wiggling and shouting in no time with this high-energy number from Have Fun Teaching. This song is a great way to get kids excited about English, and also learn lots of useful vocabulary – from actions (sit stand stretch reach) to directions (up left right in out) and more. We use this to warm the kids up every year at the annual Dream Kids Network Sports Day – bonus video of me leading an activity a couple years back, fun times. Download the slides for use in your home or classroom here, or play the video and dance and shout along.
Weekly Release: The Hokey Pokey by Super Simple Songs
Get the kids out this weekend to join this birthday classic, Hokey Pokey. Super Simple Songs also supercharged this version with some extra useful action vocabulary, so it’s good for party time and learning time. Thanks to Dream Kids Tokyo for letting me use their space to film the video, it was great fun! Enjoy the video, and if you want to teach the words either in your home or classroom, download the slides here.
Weekly Release: The Pinocchio
Song 3 in our Body Action Song compilation, the hilarious “Pinocchio”, where you turn yourself into a moving puppet who spins and struts in and out. This is a great song to use as a lesson warm up, or any time you need to get a big group of kids laughing and grooving. Download the slides for your home or classroom here (consider donating if you do!), or play the video and move with the pictures!
Weekly Release: One Little Finger
Song 2 in our Body Action Song compilation, the fantastic teacher “One Little Finger”. We use this regularly in lessons at Dream Kids Academy in Aoyama, to teach everything from body parts to room objects to any vocabulary we are using slides to teach. Download the slides for your home or classroom here (consider donating if you do!), or play the video and move with the pictures!