New Color Chants

February 19, 2009 at 12:43 am | Posted in Children's Classes, Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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yellow-icon2 Whenever I do a coloring activity with my younger students, we always start out reviewing the colors. First I say the color name, and then use I like, for example, ” red, I like red!” and have the students repeat.

I recorded two new chants with the color and I like vocabulary. I also made one, while I was at it, with ” I don’t like red.” So you can practice both if you like. Check them out here.

Why Chant?

I think it is helpful for the students to chant in the rhythm of the music. It helps them learn, unconciously, where the stress of the syllable is placed. It is also just a bit more fun! One thing you can do though is learn the chant with the free Dream English mp3’s and then just chant on your own, clapping your hands. Or you can use the music in your class. The choice is yours!

I Like English!

September 22, 2008 at 6:20 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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Awhile back I was teaching some 5-6 year olds at a preschool, each class had about 30 students. When I asked the students what English meant, I only got blank stares. I have since repeated this experiment at other schools, and found it to be pretty common. So, I decided to make a little chant that says, ” I like English!”.  The I Like English Chant is a free download at Dream English.com and is great for warming up a class. First you can ask the students if they know what “I like English” means, and teach them how to say it. The rest of the actions in the chant are really simple, clap your hands, hands up, etc. Then during the “I like English” part I have them point to themselves during “I like” and put their hands in the air for “English!” So give it a try, and have fun. You can find the “I Like English Chant” on the Dream English site by clicking here.

New Free Chants

July 21, 2008 at 10:21 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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It’s summertime. I love the summer. It’s hot, but there’s something really relaxing about the heat. I should be relaxing more, but I have a lot I want to do for everybody! So.. I just put up a bunch of new chants for free download. The vocabulary of the chant’s match with the free listening exercises and worksheets at 123 Listening and the free flash cards at MES English. So if you have a moment please check out the new free download chants here.

Topics

Here is a list of the free chants currently available at Dream English, and there’s more to come!

ABC Phonics
Animals Set 1 (4 Chants)
Animals Set 2 (3 Chants)
Classroom (3 Chants)
Clothing (2 Chants)
Days of the week
Food (2 Chants)
Fruit (2 Chants)
Happy New Year!
Months
Opposites
Places: The Zoo, The Park
Sports
What time is it?
Vegetables (2 Chants)

When is your Birthday?

May 13, 2008 at 12:08 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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January

Mine happens to be this month, but anyways this is a great question to ask kids. It can be a bit challenging for the young students, but I think it is good practice. You can ask the students, or have them ask each other. Of course they have to know months, and dates (16th, 17th, etc.) I always have them answer, ” My Birthday is January 1st” etc.

Months

In order to drill the Months, you can try the Dream English Months Chant, its a free download. Also, check out the great Months flashcards (pictured above) from MES English, have fun!

Teaching Children English with Chants

May 9, 2008 at 7:02 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | 12 Comments
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I didn’t used to use many Chants in my classes. I mainly focused on songs when I wanted to use music. Recently I have found that Chants can be really useful, and the kids enjoy them too!

What is a Chant?

A chant is simply vocabulary spoken over a background of music or rhythm. They are useful because something about the music energizes the students, and they have to pronounce the word in a rhythm. I found that in classes where I don’t see the students often, chant’s are great. For example, I teach at a few schools where I only see the children twice a month. In this situation, a chant is a lot easier to teach than a song. However, I also use chants often in my regular weekly classes. Also, if you are not comfortable with singing in front of your students, chants are useful.

Do you have any chants I can try out?

Funny you should ask : ) There are currently 10 Free Download Chants on the Dream English website. Here are the topics, click on a link to go to the page with the chant download, lesson ideas, and where available free flashcard links

ABC Phonics

Animals

Clothing (2 chants)

Days of the week

Happy New Year

Opposites

Months

Places

Sports

Happy, er, chanting!

Update: There are now over 20 categories of free downloadable mp3 chants with 30 chants available on the Dream English site. Click here to go to the Dream English free chants page!

New Free Sports Chant Download

May 7, 2008 at 12:44 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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What sports do you like? I like baseball. This is a question I often ask my students, as children really like, and often play sports. I have a group of students who are all on a basketball team. They love it when I teach them anything to do with basketball in English.

Sports Chant

The newest Dream English Chant is a sports vocabulary builder. It has the same vocabulary as the MES English (www.mes-english.com) sports flashcards. Click here to go to the Dream English Sports Chant, and the links to the flashcards.

Dream English Months Chant

April 26, 2008 at 2:51 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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I just added the Dream English Months Chant to the Dream English website.

I hope you like it, check it out here!

New Songs

I am working on an album full of new songs. It’s a long process, but I hope they will be worth the wait. I am certainly having fun working on them and testing them out with the kids!

The park, the school, the restaurant, the zoo!

April 22, 2008 at 6:51 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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Many of you know that I uploaded 4 new free chants for download last week. I have been using them a lot in my classes this last week, and they are working great! There is a little song in the middle of the chant, that really makes it fun for the kids.

The Dream English Free Places Chant

This is a great chant if you are teaching places. It simply will help you teach the vocabulary to the students. Click here to check out the Dream English Free Places Chant! Coming soon on Dream English Kids Songs Volume 2 is a song called, “Let’s go to the park!” So get your students ready to sing with the places chant!

Days of the week chant

April 18, 2008 at 7:05 am | Posted in Children's Classes, Teaching Tips:Chants | Leave a comment
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Anybody know what day it is today? Yay, it’s Friday! You may have noticed on the Dream English website that I added a bunch of new chant’s for free download. The most popular one so far seems to be the Days of the Week chant. I am using this chant with my students as well, and it is really useful. Check it out here.

A Days of the Week Game

An easy game is to have the students write the days of the week on some paper, then cut them into individual strips. Next, make teams and ask the students to put the days of the week in order. Who ever does it the fastest wins! Of course this game is best for older students who can read. If the students are younger, you can use flashcards, and ask them to put them in order to match a poster, or the days written on a board.

Put On Your Shoes!

February 21, 2008 at 3:11 am | Posted in Teaching Tips:Chants, Uncategorized | 3 Comments
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A very useful expression, I think. Especially for parents and teachers. After class I always say to students,”put on your shoes”. If it’s cold than I ask them to put on their jackets, hats, etc. On the Dream English website I have a chant for clothing, and I have just added a new chant, which is a bit easier for younger kids. You can download that chant for free here: Put On Your Shoes-Easy Chant.

I haven’t had a chance to update http://www.dreamenglish.com with the lyrics, so if you have any questions please email me, (you can find my email at http://www.dreamenglish.com)

Let me know what you think! Also, I have written a Put On Your Shoes song. This song will be on Dream English Kids Songs Volume 2, coming out later this year. You can hear a preview of that song on my upcoming Radio segment on Children’s English Education which will be broadcast on Love FM in Fukuoka Japan starting May 7th. If you are not in Fukuoka, after the show airs I will post a link to the show here, so stay tuned!

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