Seasons

 As a follow‑up to the lessons on clothes items, I taught my Class 1 pupils the seasons through an old chant with movements:

It’s hot outside,

I wear T‑shirts and shorts.

It’s summer, it’s summer, it’s summer.

It’s cold outside,

I wear a jacket and a scarf.

It’s winter, it's winter, it's winter.

The pupils enjoyed acting out the words, which made learning both fun and memorable.

Clothes

Đorđe, I3

My Class 1 pupils enjoyed learning the names of clothes through a lively chant. Together, we drew a washing line and hung the clothes in the order they appeared in the chant. 

At first, it was a real challenge since the chant is a bit faster, but soon they caught the rhythm and followed along, repeating the words and pointing to the drawings. It was a fun way to practise vocabulary and remember the new words!

Toy Shop

My Class 2 pupils had great fun chanting about toys. 

This lively chant is a wonderful way for them to practise toy vocabulary while enjoying rhythm and repetition.

Toy shop, toy shop,

Let's go to the toy shop.

Look!

A doll, a car, a bike, oh yes,

A go-kart and a train,

A ball, a computer game,

A monster and a plane.

Yes.

And there's a kite!

That's right!

Teddies

Here's a cute chant, perfect for learning or revising prepositions of place and furniture. My 7-year-olds find it amusing.

A teddy on the table,
A teddy in the bath,
A teddy on the sofa,
Teddies everywhere!

A teddy on the cupboard,
A teddy on the bed,
A teddy on the armchair,
Teddies everywhere!

Clothes

My Class 1 pupils enjoyed learning about clothes through a chant and a song!

We started with a chant. To help them remember, we drew a washing line with the clothes in the order they appeared in the chant. 

Lenka, I2

Aron, I1

Lorena, I2

Iva, I2

The pupils soon added their own movements, pointing to their clothes and acting out each item.

In the next lesson, we learned a new song. We drew stick figures of a boy and a girl, dressing them in the order mentioned in the song. 

Aron, I1

Lenka, I2

Teodora, I2

Iva, I2

The pupils joined in with actions.

With singing, drawing, and movement, they quickly picked up the vocabulary—and had lots of fun along the way!

What a mess!

This is one of the latest chants my Class 3 pupils have learned. It's great for revising clothes, toys and prepositions of place, but also 'encouraging' somebody to tidy up their room.

What a mess!
What a mess!
What a mess!
Please, tidy up your room.

There's a schoolbag on the floor,
The jeans are on the armchair.
The T-shirt's on the lamp,
There's a plane under the bed.

There's a pencil on the mat,
There's a ball on the table.
There's a book on the wardrobe,
And a sock on the clock.

Your cap's on the mirror,
Your train's on the sofa.
And, where's the other sock?
On the chair, over there!

What a mess!...

Clothes Chant

 Although they found it pretty challenging at first, all groups of my Class 1 pupils learned this chant by heart. Most of them even said that it was their favourite song from this school year.

 

chanted by group A of Class I2 pupils

chanted by both groups of Class I3 pupils

Mickey Mouse's house (chant)

As a warm up, we chanted a well-known chant called 'Point to the window'.

Then, I asked my pupils to imagine and draw a house, with a door, windows and a roof, of course. Since there are still some pupils who have difficulty with some colours, I told everyone to colour the windows blue, the door - green, the roof - red and the walls - yellow. By the way, they are familiar with the Serbian song about a yellow house at the end of a village, thus my choice.

Finally, I told them that the house in front of them is Mickey Mouse's house. They were very pleased. Then, we learned a new chant:

Mickey Mouse has a little house,

The roof is red,

The door is green,

Knock, knock, please, come in.

a group of my class I2

After that, we were ready to listen to a new episode in our coursebooks and find out where each character was.

Easter Bunny Chant

This is a cute chant for very young learners. Pupils listen, repeat line by line and then say it as a class. Need I say that miming is a must?

Watch my class I5 and give it a go. Here are the lines:

I'm an Easter Bunny.

I've got two long ears.

I've got two pink eyes.

I've got a small mouth.

I can wiggle one ear.

I can wiggle the other.

Hop, hop, Easter Bunny, hop to your mother.

Hop, hop, Easter Bunny, hop to your mother.

Point to the window... (kids chanting)

Here's another action chant popular among my young learners:

Point to the window, clap, clap, clap,

Point to the door, clap, clap, clap,

Point to the board, clap, clap, clap,

Point to the table, clap, clap, clap

(and we added - Point to the chair, clap, clap, clap)

Point to the window, stamp, stamp, stamp...

This is how class I1 performed it in September 2012:

Days of the Week (kids chanting)

This chant is perfect for learning and revising the days of the week. A lot of my pupils find it amusing and ask to chant it every lesson.

Here are the words:

Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday,
Two days of the week,
Two days of the week,
But what's next?
Wednesday!
 

(and so on, until you come to Sunday)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Seven days of the week,
Seven days of the week,
But what's next?
Next week!

This is how my classes II2 and II4 chanted in June 2010:

Point to the window... (chant)

Here's another action chant popular among my young learners.

The lyrics are as follows,

Point to the window, clap, clap, clap,
Point to the door, clap, clap, clap,
Point to the board, clap, clap, clap,
Point to the table, clap, clap, clap

(and we added - Point to the chair, clap, clap, clap)

Point to the window, stamp, stamp, stamp...

This is how my class I6 performed it in December 2008.

The Body Parts Chant

Here's a cute show-and-tell chant to learn or revise body parts. My 11-year-olds enjoyed it:

Touch your hair,

And wiggle your nose,

Touch your ear

 and tap your toes.

Open your mouth

And wink one eye.

Now close your mouth

And wave 'Goodbye'.

The Numbers Chant

One of the ways to learn numbers is through a chant. Here's one my 11-year-olds liked:

One's a number,

Two's a number,

Three's a number,

Four!

Number five is under six,

And number seven's more!

Eight's a number,

Nine's a number,

Now we come to ten,

And, we're back to one again!

Where's the cat? (chant)

My 11-year-olds found the following chant quite amusing:

Where's the cat?

Under the hat.

Where? Where?

On the chair.

Where's the cat?

In the box.

Where? Where?

Over there.