CLIL resources for children from 6 to 8 years old: SONGS

Songs are useful tools for our CLIL classes for different reasons. Nevertheless, for students of first and second grade it becomes an indispensable tool. At this age, pupils love to sing and dance, therefore they will be motivated and focus while using this resource. Moreover, it represents an easier way of understand and integrate different topics, mainly the vocabulary and the simplest structures they need to communicate.

We have created a list of different topics pupils of first and second grade will work during the course and then we look for appropriate songs in order to introduce, work or assess these topics. Moreover, we include different songs in order to manage the classroom. There are the ones we recommend:

WAKE UP!

This song is about ''wake up'' as the tittle shows. It is useful in order to start the class everyday, it means as a #routine. Nevertheless, it is also useful in order to teach the different #actions we all do once we woke up.

GOOD MORNING

This song is an excellent tool in order to start the class every week or every day. It is useful to start the day with energy. Moreover, the song introduces some actions that will make students dance while singing. It is an easy way to integrate different actions that could be used as a kind of #PhysicalResponse.

HELLO

This is an energetic song to start the week. It shows students how to say Hello and ask to their mates/teacher how they are. Therefore, it can be a good tool to start a #debate on how they feel or work on feelings and vocabulary mood.

This is another energetic song to start the week or the day. Instead of focusing the start of the lesson in the pupil’s feelings it is focused in different actions: step your feet, clap your hands, touch your toes, turn around… Pupils will be engaged by the rhythm and they can dance it.

BYE

It is a great way to end the class. It's an easy song that introduces simple gestures already worked in the hello song. Therefore, it is a way to review a vocabulary already worked.

CLEAN UP TIME

This song is a tool in order to start the cleaning up of the class once the day is finished. You can play it while doing it. Pupils will identify this song with cleaning up time. They will be engaged and compromised with the task while they learn some verbs regarding this topic.

ATTENDANCE

It is a tool for teachers from English Language Games, which is a webpage in which we can find several resources to teach English or to use in our CLIL classes. Here, it is explained how to use a simple song in order to check the attendance at the end of the week. By singing this song students can learn the days of the week. Moreover, it can be complemented with a debate at the end of the song asking students for their absences.

WHAT’S THE WEATHER LIKE TODAY?

This is a typical song we all singed once. It is useful in order to make students know and identify the simplest vocabulary about atmospheric phenomenon: windy, sunny, rainy, cloudy, snowy… Moreover, pupils are introduced a simple question What’s the wather like today? and an structure to answer Look! It’s windy. Therefore, it’s also a good tool in order to start the day by singing this song and identifying the weather of their town this day. In addition, it can be complemented with some graphic they can do everyday in order to work on #maths.

SEASONS

This is an interesting way to integrate the vocabulary of this topic. This songs works the vocabulary of the seasons and some other related to the topic mentioned. It is simple and visual. Moreover, we consider important the fact that this song has been created by students of 6^th grade. Therefore, we think this is a way to motivate students to sing and dance this song focusing on the fact that in a few years they will be able to do this kind of things.

There’s another option in order to work on seasons. This is a song called The Seasons Song from ESL KidStuff webpage. It is an interesting tool as in this webpage it is explained the gestures you can do in order to dance the song. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to introduce gestures. It’s useful for students in order to recognize the different vocabulary and also for teacher’s in order to create different #PhysicalResponse activities focused on checking for understanding.

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/blog/songs/seasons-song#sthash.4sX7BYFT.dpbs

WHAT TIME IS IT?

It’s a simple tool in order to introduce the time. It shows students how to ask for time What time is it? And how to answer It’s nine o’clock. This song should be complemented by using a clock when reproducing it and showing the hour the song is saying at that time. (Ex: When it’s two o’clock the teacher would show two).

https://soundcloud.com/eslkidstuff/what-time-is-it-2

This is a more complex song about time. It includes a lot of explanation about seconds, hours, days, weeks, months and more. It would be interesting to print the lyrics and work the different parts of the song depending on the topics. It is very useful to see the relation between all those time concepts.

SHAPES

This song introduces the most common shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, diamond and star. It can be the starting point of research activity as the figures that the song shows are contextualized. Moreover, the rhythm is simple and pupils will remember the vocabulary.

COLORS

This is a good tool to wok on #Arts or #Crafts or #VisualEducation classes. Students will learn in a very visual way which the primary colors and how to create combinations of colors from them.

DAYS OF THE WEEK

It is a simple song in order to remember, review or integrate the basic vocabulary about the days of the week.

MONTHS

These are simple songs in order to integrate and memorize the month of the year.

ABC

It is a simple song in order to memorize the alphabet. Students will be engaged because of the rhythm.

https://soundcloud.com/eslkidstuff/the-abc-song-alphabet-sample?in=eslkidstuff/sets/songs-for-kids-volume-1

PARTS OF THE BODY

It's a great song to work on specific vocabulary of the body. In addition, it could be used in #PhysicalEducation classes as a warming up. They will be warming up while learning on body vocabulary. As the song is very easy it can be only singed, there's no necessity of playing music. Therefore, by singing it faster the teacher can vary the difficulty or intensity of the warming up.

This song is a good tool in order to learn and review the names of the part of the body. It can be used as an #assessment. The teacher can sing the song and let students say the part of the body she/he is touching.

PASS THE BALL GAME

This is a very interesting song for playing the ball game. It can be used in #Music or #PhysicalEducation classes. Children can develop their listening skills and also physical skills. The game consists in passing the ball around the circle that all the class constructs. When they hear a new sound they have to pass the ball in the opposite direction. There can be variations in order to increase the difficulty.

FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS

This is a song in order to show students the vocabulary about feelings and emotions. The lyrics are very useful in order to understand each of the concepts, as there are sentences that contextualize each feeling. Ex: I laugh when I’m happy. Moreover, it is very visual so students can identify the meaning easily. Finally, the onomatopoeias used facilitate them to understand the feeling and also to remember it.

ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION

This is a very complete song. Firstly, it is useful to know what means addition and subtraction. In addition, it introduces the vocabulary students should know for #Maths. Finally, there are visual subtraction and addition exercises that could be useful to practice them. Pupils with problems for distinguish this two concepts will understand them easily.

DIRECTIONS

This is a rap song in order to work on vocabulary directions. It is very useful as students will work not only the terminology but also different structures such as asking for directions. Moreover, it can be a way to introduce the different places of a town, as there are lots of them mentioned during the song. Finally, the gestures facilitate the understanding and memorization of those directions. It can be a starting point for a #PhysicalResponse activity.

ANIMALS

This song is useful can be used in #PhysicalEducation classes. It can be a game to work on different actions such as jumping, shake… while learning the different names of the animals. It can be used to do the warming up or as an activity.