“Five Little Pumpkins” is fun little song. While it’s a nice fit for the Halloween season, it can be sung any time of the year and is one of our autumn favorites. Five Little Pumpkins Lesson Plan Need a quick and easy autumn lesson plan? Use the “Five Little Pumpkins” song to teach about counting,… Read more »
Row Row Row Your Boat
“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is a much loved nursery rhyme and kids song. We wanted to make a video that would introduce the song at an appropriate pace for young learners, feature very clear singing, foster deeper thinking/discussion, and be compelling to all ages. It’s a lot of fun to sing in a round…. Read more »
5 Years of “Uh-huh!”
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the YouTube video for the song “Uh-huh!” off of Super Simple Songs 2. 5 years. 5,800,000 views. That’s a lot of head nodding. We made the song because we wanted to help our young English students in Tokyo move beyond formulaic yes/no responses to more natural, kid-like responses. If… Read more »
5 ways to make Halloween parties less scary for young kids
We always try to stress the playfulness of Halloween. It’s a time for dressing up, playing games, singing songs, carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, etc. However, even if you don’t have a haunted house or spooky music at your Halloween party, it can still be a scary time for many young children. People are wearing masks, some… Read more »
The ABC Song in the Gutenberg Museum
We’re really happy to share that our “ABC Song” video is now a part of a new exhibition at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany. From the organizers: “Moving Types” shows a retrospective from of the beginnings of the film to the 21st century, using filmlets, film excerpts, advertising films, video clips and a media facade… Read more »
Halloween Topics – Counting
One of the first skills we work on with our students is counting, and one of the first phrases we teach is “How many?” We don’t drill or force the students, just constantly practice counting as part of our lessons. Learning the numbers is a fun and easy way for students to build confidence and… Read more »
Halloween Topics – Occupations
One of the most exciting things about Halloween is the chance to have fun thinking about, choosing, preparing, and wearing a costume. It’s so much fun to see what everyone wears! As you can see from the video below, some costumes are more popular than others :-). We see a lot of boys dressed as pirates,… Read more »
Halloween Topics – Food
Halloween takes place in the fall, when the leaves are changing colors and many foods are harvested. The holiday is most associated with treats and candy, but Halloween is a great opportunity to talk about other foods as well. If you learned about food earlier in the year, it’s a perfect time to review words… Read more »
Halloween Topics – Parts of the Face
Not only are jack-o’-lanterns perfect for practicing emotions, they are also great for introducing young learners to parts of the face. This Is The Way We Carve A Pumpkin This Is The Way We Carve A Pumpkin, turns a regular ol’ pumpkin into a happy jack-o’-lantern.
Halloween Topics – Parts of the Body
Doing The Skeleton Dance The Skeleton Dance is a fun and danceable way to work on learning parts of the body. No “teaching” necessary. Just put the song on and go! It’s a great addition to Head Shoulders Knees And Toes, because it adds even more body parts like foot, leg, hip, and neck. You’ll… Read more »
