Dream English’s Weblog

Teaching Children English with Chants

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!