Dream English’s Weblog

I introduced the 1,2,3 Go! Method in the previous post. I feel like riffing a bit on that idea today, so lets talk about teaching children a new song using the 1,2,3,Go! Method.

If possible, it is great to have the students listen to the song a few times before practicing. This way it gets into their heads a bit. You can do this by playing it a few times before class starts, or after a class ends. All of my students have the Dream English Kids Songs CD that I use in my classes. This is really great because they listen to the music at home, and are already familiar with it when they come into class.

Let’s talk about teaching the Dream English “Let’s Count” song. So here we 1,2,3 Go!

1. Preteach the vocabulary- In this case the lyrics are mainly numbers and some actions. You can review the numbers before you start with the song. Then teach the simple actions, and have the students do them with you. In this case: 1,2,3 step forward; 1,2,3 step back; 1,2,3 spin around.
2. Next add actions and practice singing the song with the actions. I use a simple clapping left to right in a big semi cirlcle (1,2,3,4,5) and then right to left (6,7,8,9,10), then of course jump!
3. Go! Now sing the song with the students and music.

You can apply this same method with any other song. The Let’s Count song is available on Dream English Kids Songs Volume 1, and as a free download here. So give it a try, and let me know how it goes!