It’s Leap Year–Let’s Leap!!

If you teach young learners, you know that they love to move! As teachers, we can provide opportunities for children to explore movement in bigger spaces. What kinds of movement should we practice with young learners? We’re going to explore LOCOMOTOR MOVEMENTS. Locomotor movements are not done in one place; children move from one place to another. You might know these as “gross motor movements.”

Add some Locomotor Movements to your Leap Year / Leap Day celebrations!

Happy Leap Day on 29 February with Jumping Frog.

LOCOMOTOR MOVEMENTS.

If this is the first time your students are doing these types of movements, I recommend practicing them. Make sure that your students have ample room to move. Then, say each locomotor movement word and have students move with you before playing the music.

Alternatively, you can dive right in! Put on the music and move with your students around a circle. Model each of the movements.

If your students are used to doing movement, they can move freely around the space. Here are the locomotor movements used in the song.

walk. Use your imagination! Walk with a puppy or an elephant. Walk like a dinosaur or a princess. Walk happily!

march. Pick up your knees. Imagine that you’re playing a big drum.

tiptoe. Sh! Lift up your heels and move quietly. Maybe someone or something is sleeping.

gallop. Put your hands behind your back to make a tail. Gallop like a horse.

skip. Skipping is like a step and a hop. It can be a little challenging for young learners. Once children learn it, they’ll love skipping.

jump. Jumping is moving off of both feet at the same time. You can jump in different ways–jumping feet apart and together, turning around, or jumping super high! You can jump forward or backward.

hop. Hopping is like jumping, but you have to move by balancing on one foot. If one foot gets tired, just change to the other foot. You can hop in a straight line, a zigzag line, or even in your own circle.

leap. Imagine having to leap over a big puddle. Swing one foot out and fly in the air! You can put things on the floor to leap over, such as beanbags, small hula hoops, or spots

Now practice the letters and their sounds.

In this song, we’ll be making the letter shapes. If your students don’t know these letter sounds, try this.

When I first teach letters and their corresponding sounds to young learners, I like to use the Montessori approach with the Montessori Three-Period Lesson.

Step 1: Choose two letters to introduce. This sound is /m/. This sound is /t/.

We can show students things that begin with these two sounds, such as . . .

Mm: milk, monkey, mouse, mother, mirror, me

Tt: table, tail, teacher, teddy bear, tiger, T-shirt, toy

Step 2: Point to /m/. Point to /t/.

Step 3: What’s this? It’s /m/. It’s /t/.

What sound does monkey start with?

What sounds does tiger start with?

Movement

We can also do movement to practice letter sounds and their corresponding shapes.

Here are Melissa Bailey’s Moving Little Letters flashcards. The cards connect movement with letter sounds. Check out her beautiful work.

My young learners really love to make letter shapes. They visualize the letters in their heads and create their own ideas. If your students need ideas, here are some images for you. The images at the right are from the Phonics Section of our course, Magic Time Two by Oxford University Press. We believe that children learn best by having opportunities to move their bodies. It provides an MI (Multiple Intelligences/ kinesthetic) approach.

The additional photos included below are of my students. I hope that they inspire your imagination and creativity. So . . . make shapes with your fingers, arms, whole body, or a partner. Sit. Stand. Lie down.

When you demonstrate to your students, imagine that you are the letter on the whiteboard. Make the letter from that perspective. What does it look like?

I always write the letters on my board to help my students visualize the letter shape. I don’t worry if their letters look reversed. From their perspective, it’s probably okay. Have fun creating letters in different ways.

Song

This song comes from my album Jump Jump Everyone. You can find it on iTunes as well as other streaming sites. You’ll find the Spotify link below.

Here are the lyrics for the first verse. The recording will tell you what’s coming next. Great listening activity! Refer to the locomotor movement list above if you really want to know what’s coming next.

We’re walking all around. We’re walking all around.

Walking, walking.

We’re walking all around.

We’re walking all around. We’re walking all around.

Get ready! Get ready!

Make the letter Ww. /w/ /w/ /w/.

It looks like I might be making the letter i! Or the letter j if you could see my feet!

Songwriter 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 music and movement should be a part of every young child’s education. Kathy’s songs for kids (Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays and Jump Jump Everyone) are available on iTunes.

Kathy uses a globally-minded and inquiry-based approach to teaching through which students develop 21st-century skills. She also supports the development of English language skills by creating songs, chants, and TPR/movement activities targeted to young learners’ needs. Kathy is an author and teacher-trainer with Oxford University Press. She is delighted to be teaching young learners in her hometown.

Spotify:

Here are some Google slides, just in case you want to use them in your classroom.

I’m Your Friend, a Valentine’s Day Song For Kids

Featured

Valentine’s Day is a time for children to celebrate friendships! Classroom activities like this can teach young learners how to develop healthy relationships.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day here in the United States, children often make cards or little treats for their friends. I’ve invited my friend Ava to share her thoughts about how she celebrates Valentine’s Day with her friends and classmates.

Ava shares Valentine’s Day traditions in the US

I like to celebrate holidays with music and movement! Today’s song is called “I’m Your Friend,” from my album Jump Jump Everyone. With this song, you can add valuable skills such as phonemic awareness to your lesson while celebrating Valentine’s Day and friendship.

Rhyming words

Listen for the rhyming words at the end of each line. In this song, the words mine, nine, and Valentine all rhyme. Why is rhyming important? Check out this fabulous post by Marissa Labuz. Rhyming aids memory, supports phonemic awareness, and builds listening skills. Children have fun singing songs and chants with rhyming words.

Movement

This song invites children to move in various ways, such as galloping, skipping, jumping, walking, and even skating! Developing gross motor skills is important for young learners. The movements encourage students to move from one place to another. These are called “locomotor movements.” If you have a smaller space, students can move in a small circle in their own spot.

You can sing this song with small or large classes. I usually teach this song to kindergarten and early elementary students.

Here’s a video to teach you the lyrics and the movements:

Here are the lyrics to the song:

3. I’m Your Friend words and music by Kathy Kampa

From Jump Jump Everyone CD

Chorus:

I’m your friend.

(Gesture to chest, then to a person)

You are mine.

(Gesture to person, then to heart)

Will you be my Valentine?

(Swing hands with partner or in the circle)

Repeat.

Let’s walk.

(See the notes below. Children can hold hands in a whole class circle or move with a partner.)

Verse:

Walk, walk, walk with me. Walking, walking, 1-2-3,

4-5-6, 7-8-9, Will you be my Valentine?

(Clap-4-5-6,-7-8-9) Make a heart shape with your fingers or arms by yourself or with a friend. Or give your partner a hug!

*repeat with skip, jump, slide, skate, dance

Here are Google slides for this song.

Building Social Skills

Here’s the version from the video:

Stand in one big circle. Face the middle for the chorus, and then move around the circle with the whole class for the verses. For the counting part, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, clap your hands on one side and then the other. Finally, make a heart shape using your fingers or arms.

Children face the middle, then hold hands together to move around the circle.

Once your children know this song, you can add some new challenges. Step into my English class in Tokyo, Japan. Check out how my English students added their own ideas.

Children can dance with partners. How can you help them find partners? When children are in a circle, you can walk around the circle. Have two children turn to face each other. They can do all of the movements with their partners.

Or you can use this transitional chant. Pat and clap your legs to keep the beat as you say the chant. Count slowly as you get closer to the number ten.

It’s okay for partners to be scattered around your space and move in their own little group. If you have an odd person out, make a group of three.

For elementary students, you might try this challenge. Make an inside and an outside circle. One partner stands in the inside circle, and the other in an outside circle. Partners face each other. Children can do the movements for the verse holding hands with their partner around the circle. At the end of the verse, the outside circle children move ahead to the next partner.

So you can make this as simple or as fancy as you’d like!

If you’re looking for music to play in your classroom, check out this Spotify playlist for February:

Come back to my blog to discover more fun activities that build language through music and movement. Thank you!

Celebrate Valentine's Day with this delightful song for children.

Songwriter 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 music and movement should be a part of every young child’s education. Kathy’s songs for kids (Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays and Jump Jump Everyone) are available on iTunes.

For more kid-tested music and movement activities, check out more music on iTunes. Kathy has produced two music CDs for very young learners, Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays and Jump Jump Everyone, which build English language skills through music and movement while nurturing creativity and imagination! Grown and loved by real kids!

Marching Monsters?

Featured

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!

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!

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.

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.

Happy teaching!

Kathy Kampa

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 2021!

Part B:

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.

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.

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!

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

Be My Valentine!

Valentine’s Day is on February 14th, just a short time away! To celebrate the occasion, I wrote a song that my young learners love to sing and move to. It’s entitled “Be My Valentine.” This song helps children learn the shape and sound of the letter “V.” You might even call this song “V-V-Valentine.”

Children also explore how to make the shape of a heart with their hands, their arms, or with a partner.

The easiest way to demonstrate how to use this song is to view a video I created with my two nieces, Brooke and Shannon.

Just click HERE to see the video!

To hear and buy the studio version of the song, just click HERE on iTunes for the single, or HERE for the album (Track #4). You can also find the music on Spotify.

I hope that you and your children enjoying singing and moving to this song together, either at home or in the classroom!

Sending warm Valentine wishes,

Kathy and Chuck

Celebrate Halloween as Marching Monsters . . . Boo!

(Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Do your students like to pretend to be different Halloween characters? Then “Marching Monsters” is a great new addition to your Halloween song repertoire! It encourages creativity and imagination, plus gives students great language practice with “alliteration.”

“Alliteration” happens when two or more words begin with the same sound. The phrase “marching monsters” has two words that begin with the sound /m/. Other phrases in the song include “skipping skeletons,” “waltzing witches,” and “jumping jack-o-lanterns.” Children love to sing these fun phrases while doing the actions throughout the song. They also learn the song quickly because of the repeated phrases.

Here is a simple recording of the song. A FUN professional version is available on iTunes here (just click on Track #11).

Here are the lyrics, plus notes on how to teach it!

Marching Monsters

Words and music by Kathleen Kampa and Charles Vilina

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! . . . .

Students can move around a circle or freely around the classroom.

1. On Marching Monsters, students march around, pretending to be monsters. On Turn around and stop, students turn around and make a pose. They hold until the music begins again.

2. On Skipping Skeletons, students skip around, moving their arms like a skeleton. For very young learners, children can gallop, or they can slide sideways.

3. On Waltzing Witches, students dance in one place. If you’re in a circle, face the center. Students sway from side to side moving their arms.

4. On Jumping Jack-o-lanterns, students jump in one place, making the shape of a jack-o-lantern.

Enjoy this wonderful song and dance activity with your students!

Once again, you can find the professional version of this song on

Kathy Kampa’s Special Days and Holidays, available on iTunes.

Happy Teaching!

Kathy and Chuck

“The Apple in the Tree” : Storytelling that builds phonics and listening skills!

“Elefante” courtesy of Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As teachers of young learners, we know that phonics is an important part of our curriculum. How can we teach phonics in a way that gets children excited to learn?

The following activity is one of our favorites! Here’s how it’s done:

1. Begin by showing your students the following words illustrated with colorful pictures. These six vocabulary words are part of our Magic Time series (Magic Time One, Spring ABC’s). If you teach Magic Time, use the picture cards for that lesson. If not, make your own picture cards, placing the upper and lower case letters above the picture that begins with that sound. Attach them to your whiteboard or blackboard. You can also use items such as stuffed animals, puppets, plastic fruit, etc. The Internet also has pictures available.

Aa apple

Bb bear

Cc cat

Dd dog

Ee elephant

Ff fish

2. For each picture card, teach the letter name (optional), the letter sound, and the word that begins with it. For example: “A / a / apple,” and so on. Continue until students are familiar with the six words and the sounds they begin with. Students can also make apple shapes, or explore the movements these animals make.

3. Draw a simple apple tree on the board, with one big apple high up on a branch of the tree.

4. Next, read the following story to your students. As the six words above are introduced in the story, point to their pictures on the board. You may want to tell the story more than once as you say the words slowly and clearly.

The Apple in the Tree

by Kathy Kampa and Chuck Vilina

Once upon a time, there was a very hungry elephant. She was looking for something to eat. Suddenly, she saw an apple tree with a big red apple on it. She reached for the apple with her trunk. Oh, no! It was too high up in the tree.

Along came a bear. “Climb up on my back,” said the elephant, “and you can get the apple.” So the bear climbed up on the elephant’s back, and reached for the apple. Oh, no! It was too high up in the tree.

Along came a dog. “Climb up on my back,” said the bear, “and you can get the apple.” So the dog climbed up on the bear’s back, and reached for the apple. Oh, no! It was too high up in the tree.

Along came a cat. “Climb up on my back,” said the dog, “and you can get the apple.” So the cat climbed up on the dog’s back, and reached for the apple. Oh, no! It was too high up in the tree.

The elephant, the bear, the dog, and the cat looked at the apple. It was such a big, red apple! Oh, how they wanted to eat that apple!

Suddenly, a little fish jumped out of the water — up, up, up! It grabbed the apple in its mouth, and went back under the water. “Thank you,” said the fish. “I just LOVE apples!”

__________________________________________

Children love this story. And NOW they’ll have an opportunity to MOVE to it. Do you notice the underlined words in the story? They are the six target words, used this many times:

apple: 14 times

bear: 5 times

cat: 3 times

dog: 5 times

elephant: 4 times

fish: 2 times

This brings us to the next step in the activity:

5. Prepare one small picture card for each child, using the six target words above. You can even let children draw their favorite picture (from the above group) on a piece of paper and use that. However, the cards should be evenly mixed if possible. For example, if you have six students, each one should get a different letter picture card. If you have more than six students, add more cards, so that more than one student will have the same word card.

6. Have your students place their chairs in a circle, facing out. If space is a problem, the chairs can be put in two rows with their backs to each other. Students sit quietly in their chairs. At this time, give each student a picture card (unless they drew their own, in which case they should be holding them).

7. Explain to students that you are going to tell the story again. When a student hears the word on their picture card, they GET UP QUICKLY and run around the circle of chairs, then sit back down in their own chair. They must do this EVERY TIME they hear their word.

8. NOW – tell the story SLOWLY. Watch as your children jump up out of their seats and run around the circle. As you can see from the words above, the “apple” holders have to run around the circle 14 times! The “fish” holders only run around 2 times.

Of course, to make it more fair, mix up the cards after the story, hand them out again, and tell the story again! This gives each child more chances to run around the circle.

This activity has many Multiple Intelligence strategies rolled into one: It’s Word Smart (using written and spoken words), Picture Smart (using pictures), Body Smart (moving quickly in a circle), People Smart (listening and responding together), Self Smart (drawing their own picture cards), and Nature Smart (showing the relationship between the animals according to size).

Most importantly, it builds strong listening skills as it reinforces letter sounds.

You can follow up this activity with an art project: students can draw a funny picture with all the animals standing on top of each other, with the fish jumping up to grab the apple!

You can also write similar stories using other letters from the alphabet. Be creative! In fact, your students may help you write the story!

Let us know how your students enjoy this activity! Happy Teaching!

Kathy and Chuck