Marching Monsters?

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Are you ready for Halloween? Add “Marching Monsters” to your Halloween activities It builds phonemic awareness and is super fun to do!

I’m gifting you with these Google slides. You can print them or just share on your device. You can easily sync your music to these slides.

Marching Monsters Halloween Slide Show: Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays

There are four Halloween characters in this song–monsters, skeletons, witches, and jack-o-lanterns. Have fun pretending to be the four characters. Practice the four verbs– march, skip, sway side-to-side in a waltz, and jump! Now put them together.

“How can we march like monsters? (Who doesn’t love marching like monsters???!)

How can we skip like skeletons?

How do you waltz? How can we waltz like witches? (sway side to side)

How can we jump like jack-o-lanterns?”

Practice “Turn around and stop!”

Note: Moving and stopping is an essential movement skill for very young learners.

For very little ones, skipping is a new skill. Try walking with a little hop. Or galloping.

Here are the lyrics. You can also find them in the slide show above.

Marching Monsters

Words and music by Kathleen Kampa

1. Marching monsters! Happy Halloween! Boo!

Marching monsters! Happy Halloween! Boo!

Marching monsters, Turn around and stop! (hold)

Marching monsters Happy Halloween! Boo!

2. Skipping skeletons! Happy Halloween! Boo! . . .

3. Waltzing witches! Happy Halloween! Boo! . . . .

4. Jumping jack-o-lanterns! Happy Halloween! Boo! . . . .

Just watch the video and have fun!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/kathy-kampas-special-days/id713965540

Did you notice that you can build phonemic awareness with this song too? The word pairs begin with the same initial sound. You can separate the verbs and nouns. Students match.

Marching Monsters worksheet and flashcards

For a bigger challenge, write the letters m, sk, w, j, and h on the board. What pair of words begins with these letters in the song?

m-> marching monsters

sk-> skipping skeletons

w-> waltzing witches

j-> jumping jack-o-lanterns

h-> Happy Halloween!

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Want to add a cute monster craft? http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.jp/2012/07/my-frankenstein-craftivity.html

Monsters by Gunder on Flickr Attribution CC 2.0 license

http://bit.ly/Gundermonstersdrawing

We hope that your students enjoy singing and dancing throughout the month of October. The music for this song and other Halloween favorites (Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Skeleton Dance, Marching Monsters, I’m A Witch) are available on Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays.

Special Days and Holidays

You can search for my music on iTunes. or Apple Music.

If you like this, my second album has more happy songs for children that have grown in my young learner classroom. Dance like falling leaves, bloom like a spring flower, move through the butterfly life cycle . . . . you’ll find LOTS of fun and magic in this album, too.

Jump Jump Everyone

Happy teaching!

Kathy Kampa

Kathy's bio photo

Kathy Kampa is a passionate educator of young learners. She seeks to nurture children’s imaginations and spark creativity through fun and engaging activities. Kathy believes that movement should be a part of every young child’s learning.

Kathy is the co-author of Magic Time, Everybody Up, Oxford Discover, and Beehive (all by Oxford University Press). She has composed music for Tokyo Shoseki’s English language courses.

It’s the Year of the Ox

The festivities are beginning for Chinese New Year! This is the year of the ox! Why not celebrate with your students by using this simple chant/song!

During the pandemic, many students have not been allowed to sing. So enjoy these lyrics as a chant.

It’s The Year by Kathy Kampa

Part A:

It’s the year of the ox,

It’s the year of the ox,

It’s the year of the ox,

It’s 2021!

Part B:

o-x ox!

o-x ox!

o-x ox!

It’s the year of the ox!

Try some of these movement suggestions. My students like making the animal shapes for each year of the Chinese calendar. I ask my students for their ideas. To make the shape of an ox, many of the students made horns with their fingers.

How can your students show the year 2021? My students liked to “draw” the numbers in the air. Some of them made numbers with their fingers. A few of them just decided to jump up into the air to celebrate!

My students really love making these letter shapes! If your students aren’t used to making letter shapes, you can model this activity. Students make letters with their fingers, their arms, or even their whole bodies!

Let’s make the letter o with our fingers. Can you make it bigger? Try using your hands? Can you make the letter o even bigger? Wow! You can make it with your whole body! Now let’s try making the letter x in the same way.

Put these all together into a chant. Add instruments if you like to really make it festive!

If you’re interested in a melody to sing this, check out my simple video here. I’ve combined two familiar songs to create this new song.

Check out Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays for songs to celebrate your child’s special days–Valentine’s Day, Easter, a birthday, or even a loose tooth!

Children’s songs for special events for pre-school, kindergarten, and elementary students

What Day Is It?

happy children group in school — Students love to make letter shapes with their bodies.

Learning the names of the days of the week in English can be tricky. For many of us, we teach our English class on the same day each week. This song “What Day Is It?” is a fun way to practice the days of the week.

First of all, write a letter on the board or show a picture card. Model making that letter with your fingers, arms, or whole body. Make the letter so that students are able to read it. You might imagine how that letter would look when you write it on your whiteboard. Students will be able to “read” your letter. Invite students to make letters with you. They might even make letters with the entire class! Try making letters in many different ways.

We started at the beginning of the alphabet. Students made A, a, and B, b (see B below). In Magic Time (Oxford University Press) students have fun making letter shapes to learn the letter name and its sound.

A student of mine making letters

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Now write the names of the days of the week. Run your finger under the word as you say it (Sunday). Point out the first letter. Encourage students to make that letter with their bodies in several ways. Remind students that days of the week begin with capital letters. As you can see, sometimes the letters appear flipped around to us. The important idea is that students are making the letter shapes.

I love to catch my students making their amazing letters by taking photos. Remember CCBA (Catch Children Being Amazing!)

Pass out the “days of the week” cards, one to each student. Students line up in order around the circle starting with Sunday. Students make the initial letter shape as they sing each day of the week. When they sing “Tra la la la la” add a group movement, such as pat your knees, clap your own hands, clap your “neighbor’s” hands.

What Day Is It?

from Magic Time Two, Unit 8, Use the Words

What day is it?

Today is Sunday.

Today is Sunday.

Today is Sunday.

Tra la la la la.

*repeat with the remaining days of the week

Here are some of my students demonstrating this song. Come and join them!

Happy New Year!

Japanese Sheep

Happy New Year! All around the globe the new year is celebrated in different ways. Here in Japan people celebrate o-shogatsu, the new year, with many special traditions. One of the important traditions seen all over the country is the celebration of the new animal for the year. This year it is the year of the sheep. Perhaps you’re familiar with the Chinese calendar of twelve different animals.

At our first class this week, we’ll begin by wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2015, the year of the sheep. I wrote a simple song to teach the year and how to spell the word “sheep.” We had fun creating a recording for you at home with our son Christian.

It’s The Year

lyrics by Kathleen Kampa Vilina, melody (For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow/ BINGO)

sung by Christian Vilina

Intro:

Baa, baa, black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes, sir, yes, sir.

Three bags full.

It’s the year of the sheep.

It’s the year of the sheep.

It’s the year of the sheep.

It’s 2015!

s-h-e-e-p, s-h-e-e-p, s-h-e-e-p,

It’s the year of the sheep.

1. Show students the picture of a sheep.

Image courtesy of TCJ2020 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When they sing the word “sheep” they can make a pose like a sheep or point to the picture. If you have lively students, they might enjoy skipping or galloping during this part of the song instead.

2. On the words, “It’s 2015,” students stop moving and make the numbers 2015 with their fingers. Very young students can stop and wave their arms in the air as if saying “Hooray!”

3. Write the letters for the word “sheep” on the board. Clap the rhythm below to accompany the letters. (slow, slow, quick quick, slow)

To make it more challenging, students can pat, stamp, or snap the rhythm. My students like to clap the first time they spell “sheep,” then they pat their legs, and finally they stamp their feet. If you have instruments in your classroom, you can play this part.

4. The song ends with “It’s the year of the sheep!” Students make the sheep pose, or point to the picture.

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You can also celebrate the New Year with our song, “Happy New Year!” I wrote it with our son Christian, and it is always a hit with our students. You can find it on Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays. The lyrics are easy for students to follow.

Students like to pat their legs, then clap their hands to the beat.

On the last Happy New Year, they turn around and wave their hands.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hip hip hooray!

Having Fun with Fortune Tellers!

When I was a little girl, we made “Fortune Tellers” to play with our friends. We used our homemade fortune tellers to write messages about things that might happen when we grew up.

Your students will love this game. It’s easy for students to put into their pockets and play wherever they go. You can practice any vocabulary or grammar by adapting the game in this way.

Here’s an example of a fortune teller from Magic Time 2, Unit 5, Teacher’s Book reproducible by Oxford University Press. Once you understand how this fortune teller works, your students can create their own. This unit focuses on toys with the phrase “I have a _________.” They can expand it to “You have a ________.”

Download a free Fortune Teller template taken from Magic Time Teacher’s Book 2.

3. Copy one sheet per student. Students cut out on the dotted lines to create a square.

a. To begin, have students fold the paper in half.

Open and fold in half the other way. This makes folding easier. (See below.)

b. Turn paper over. Find the middle point. Fold the corners to this middle point. Crease well.

c. Turn the paper over again. Fold the new corners to the middle.

d. Find the numbers. Cut up from the point up to the fold between each of the numbers (1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8).

e. Now fold it in half so that you can put your thumbs and pointer fingers into the four openings at the bottom.

f. Bring the points together. Then open and close the fortune teller.

To play the game:

A: Asks, “Which letter?”

B: Says (for example), “C.”

A: Moves the fortune teller three times, and says, “A-B-C.”

A: Shows the inside of the fortune teller, and asks, “Which number?”

B: Says (for example), “4.”

A: Moves the fortune teller four times, counting to 4.

A: Shows the inside of the fortune teller again, and asks, “Which number?”

B: Says (for example), “7.”

A: Says, “You have a yo-yo!”

With a little creativity, you can add more language to these dialogues. With this fortune teller, students can imagine that they’re celebrating a birthday.

A: “Happy Birthday. This toy is for you! It’s a yo-yo!”

B: “Thanks a lot!”

Or they can pretend to be Santa, saying “Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas. Here’s a yo-yo for you!”

To make your own fortune teller, do your folding first. Then open it up and add numbers, pictures, words, etc. Instead of counting or saying the ABC’s, more advanced students can spell out words.

Keep me posted . . . I’d love to see how your creativity builds upon this idea in your classroom.

Happy Teaching!

Kathy