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Songs and poems are a naturalpart of early childhood educa-tion in the United States.

Native English-speaking children in allregions of the United States are taughta wide variety of songs and poemseither by their family members ortheir teachers. Even teachers and par-ents who are not musically inclinedshare songs and poems with younglearners. Many teachers working withchildren learning English as a ForeignLanguage (EFL) also know the valueof children’s verse in the young learn-er classroom.

Experienced teachers know thatsongs and poems are an excellent wayto begin or end a lesson. At the begin-ning of a lesson they can help childrenmake the transition from their nativelanguage into English as the lessonwarm-up. Whenever possible it is bestto select a piece of verse that is direct-ly related to the content of the lesson.For example, if you are teaching bodyparts, you could easily begin the classby doing the chant, “Head, Shoul-ders, Knees and Toes.” At the end ofthe lesson, a good way to dismiss thechildren is by singing or chanting a

piece of verse. This may even be donewhile children are lining up to leaveor while they are waiting at the doorfor the dismissal bell to ring.

There are a number of differentways that songs and poems can be pre-sented to children. Often the first stepis to introduce any key vocabularythat may be unfamiliar. Props, such asreal objects or pictures of objects, canbe used to present the key vocabularyfor a song or poem. Actions can alsohelp children learn unfamiliar vocab-ulary. The props or actions not onlyhelp children remember the words andmeanings of new words but also helpchildren remember the context or sit-uation depicted in the piece of verse.

Once the key vocabulary has beenpresented, teachers find it useful tointroduce young learners to pieces ofverse one line at a time. The teachersays one line of the song or poemusing the props or actions that illus-trate it, and then the children repeatthe line. This procedure continuesuntil all the lines of the targeted pieceof verse have been said and repeated.

Next the learners repeat the entireselection of verse using props or

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Using Favorite Songs and Poemswith Young Learners

C a ro l i n e L i n s eS O U T H K O R E A

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actions to help them remember the words. Inaddition, teachers may have children clap outthe syllables of a piece of verse as a way to keepyoung learners actively involved.

Using actions to accompany songs and poems

Children love to move as they chant or singpoems and songs. It is easy to make up actionsto accompany many pieces of verse. Theactions can be as simple as moving a hand orfingers. For example, the following poem canbe transformed into a fun action rhyme byadding simple movements (as indicated).

Other songs and poems can be made moreinteresting with the addition of whole bodymotions. It is best to start by standing, if at allpossible, away from desks, tables, and chairswhen reciting pieces of verse with accompany-ing whole body motions. See the box in thenext column for the types of actions that couldaccompany the verse “Humpty Dumpty.”

Children may want to make up their ownactions to accompany different pieces of verse.

If a digital camera is available, learners maywant to take pictures of the learner-created ac-tions for each song or poem. If a digital camerais not available, learners and/or teachers maydraw pictures of the learner-created actions.

Puppets

Children enjoy puppets and often will talkto a puppet more freely than to a teacher. Pup-pets work well with many songs, such as “TheFarmer in the Dell.” Puppets can be made bycutting out the pictures provided with this ar-ticle and mounting the pictures on chopsticksor popsicle sticks. Hold up the appropriatepuppet as the song is chanted or sung. Oncechildren are familiar with the song, they canassume different roles, and each child can holdthe puppet that matches his/her role.

Innovations

Children can create innovations for theirfavorite songs and poems. Innovations are dif-ferent versions of pieces of verse created bysubstituting individual words for some of theoriginal words. When children create their own

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Here is the Beehive

Here is the beehive; where are the bees?

(Fold your fingers into a fist.)

Hidden away where nobody sees.

(Hold up your fist.)

Watch and you’ll see them come out of the hive.

(Wave your fist.)

One, two, three, four, five.

(Open up fist, one finger at a time.)

Bzzzzzz…………..

(Wave fingers in the air.)

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

(Pantomime sitting on a wall by squatting.)

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

(Pantomime falling down.)

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

(Pantomime looking sad, weary, and unable to get up.)

Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

(Turn and stagger away.)

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innovations, they substitute words in the versewith their own words. The number and typesof words substituted will vary depending uponthe song or poem. Look at the example below.

Personal songbooks

Children can make their own personalsongbooks by copying the texts from theboard or using photocopies of the texts. Learn-ers can also be provided with pictures, such asthe ones provided with this article, or they candraw their own pictures. If learners have creat-ed their own innovations for songs, theyshould make sure they put them into theirsongbooks, complete with illustrations.

Sources for songs

Two very good sources for children’s songsare available on the Internet. These websiteshave been set up primarily for native Englishspeakers and their teachers and family mem-bers who may have difficulty remembering thewords to favorite songs. The first site: www.bussongs.com was designed to help adults remem-ber the words to the songs that they wanted to

pass on to their children. The second site,www.songsforteaching.com, was designed tohelp teachers use music across the curriculumto teach a wide variety of concepts and skills.

On pages 43 to 45 are some songs that havedelighted native English-speaking children inthe United States for a long, long time. You andyour students are likely to enjoy them just as much!

Song and poem charts

Song and poem charts can be created fordifferent pieces of verse. Song and poem chartsare large posters containing different pieces ofverse. In some cases, all of the words are print-ed on the poster with a few illustrations toprovide context. In other cases, some wordsand some rebus pictures, with a couple ofillustrations, constitute the chart. Rebus pic-tures are small pictures that are used in placeof words that are unfamiliar or that childrencannot read. Whenever possible, try to includeon the chart illustrations like the ones provid-ed with this article.

Two examples of song charts follow this arti-cle. The first example of “Home on the Range”shows a song chart with the text and a photo.Note that the photo can be used to teach twoof the key vocabulary items, range (a large areaof open land where livestock wander andgraze) and buffalo. More than anything, thephoto serves as decoration to make the songchart more attractive.

The second song chart shows “Home onthe Range” with rebus pictures. Song chartscan also be created with the musical scores forlearners who have learned how to read music.Note how the rebus pictures are put into thechart in place of the written nouns. Rebus pic-tures are used to help native English-speakingchildren ease into reading. In the foreign lan-guage classroom, rebus pictures help learnersuse a visual picture cue to remind them of theword and the meaning of the word.

CAROLINE T. LINSE, Associate Professor,Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul,Korea, is the author of numerous studenttextbooks. She is also the author of thebook: Practical English Language Teaching:Young Learners (McGraw Hill).

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OriginalAround the Garden

Round and round the garden,Goes the little mouse.Up, up, up he creeps,

Up into his house.

Innovation ofAround the Garden

Round and round the farmyard,Goes the little horse.

’Round, ’round, ’round he struts,’Round into his barn.

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Home on the Range

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Home, home on the range,

Where the deer and the antelope play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

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Oh, give me a where the roam,

Where the and the play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the are not all day.

, on the range,

Where the and the play,

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

And the are not all day.

on the Range

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