Nellie the elephant

This is not an easy song, it has quite a few difficult words and structures and it might be a bit too long for children at the first grades. Nevertheless we can teach them the chorus (or the first two verses with the chorus) at the beginning and subsequently teach them one verse at a time, always providing a context. I like this song particularly for several reasons: First and foremost, it talks to the children about an animal that does not want to be chained or showed in a circus (which I think is an important lesson to learn). Secondly, the first two verses and the chorus are not too difficult if a good context is provided (mimics, silent drama, a video). Thirdly, it can be used year after year and when we achieve the point when children are not interested in nursery rhymes anymore, we can provide them with a punk cover by The Toy Dolls which many adults love and which was indeed a great hit during 84's christmas.

To Bombay
A travelling circus came
They brought an intelligent elephant
And Nellie was her name
One dark night
She slipped her iron chain
And off she ran to Hindustan
And was never seen again

Ooooooooooooo...

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Night by night
She danced to the circus band
When Nellie was leading the big parade
She looked so proud and grand
No more tricks
For Nellie to perform
They taught her how to take a bow
And she took the crowd by storm

Ooooooooo

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

The head of the herd was calling
Far, far away
They met one night in the silver light
On the road to Mandalay
So Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trum
Trump, trump, trump

Ooooooooooooo...

Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump
Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And trundled back to the jungle
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump

Using the song:

Like I said before, I think a good way to introduce such a complex song will be to focus on the first two verses and the chorus. To start with we will listen to the song together with this video to provide some context. Subsequently we will listen again, but adding some mimics for the chorus (packing, saying good bye, the trumpety -trump etc.). We can finish by making a small dramatization in which the first two verses are performed.

In case we are working with older people, we can continue by playing after a few times the Toy Dolls cover in two different videos: one containing the lyrics and the official video.

What does the curriculum say about using short stories and other small texts such us songs or nursery rhymes?

What does the curriculum say about using short stories and other small texts such us songs or nursery rhymes? We have been looking into the Spanish curriculum to find out and we have made a mind map using Poplet. If you have any problems reading it, simply download it and use the zoom.As usual, your comments are more than welcome.

Using Glogster: an introduction to the Beatles

Among other ICT resources, we have been using glogster. This is a really interesting tool which allows you to create interactive posters. In this case our aim was to introduce The Beatles to the children and hopefully have them singing along with their families later on at home. As a pre-activity we have created this introductory play in which the musicians and their story are told. 

The Beatles (primer ciclo EPO) 

John is sixteen years old and he loves music. He goes to Quarry Bank High School every morning and listens to music in the evening. Paul is fifteen years old and he loves music too. In the morning, he goes to Quarry Bank High School too. One day, John starts playing music with his classmates, because they love music too. They start a band. Do you know what the name of the band is? Its name is the quarrymen because they all go to Quarry Bank High School and they are men. One day, John goes to a party after school and Paul goes there too. 

The Beatles

(primer ciclo EPO)

John is sixteen years old and he loves music. He goes to Quarry Bank High School every morning and listens to music in the evening.

Paul is fifteen years old and he loves music too. In the morning, he goes to Quarry Bank High School too.

One day, John starts playing music with his classmates, because they love music too. They start a band. Do you know what the name of the band is? Its name is the quarrymen because they all go to Quarry Bank High School and they are men.

One day, John goes to a party after school and Paul goes there too.

John says: Hello, my name is John, John Lennon. I love music and I have a band: the quarrymen.

 Paul says: nice to meet you, John. My name is Paul, Paul McCartney and I love music too. Can I be on your band? I love playing the guitar.

John says: Of course you can be on my band! Welcome to my band!!

Ringo and George love music too. Ringo loves playing drums and George loves playing the guitar, but they don’t know John and Paul.

One day, they start a new band together. The name of the new band is the beatles (explicar juego de palabras: sounds like beetles but you spell it like beat).

Do you know what the beat is? The beat is what you do when you clap your hands for a song.

In the new band, John plays the guitar and George plays the guitar too. Ringo plays the drums and Paul plays the bass.

Do you know what a bass is?

The bass is a big guitar with four strings that plays the rhythm of the song (pictures of guitar and bass).

And, do you know who sings in the band? Well, they all sing because they all like singing.

Do you want to listen to one of their songs? No? Nevermind, you’re gonna do it anyway!!!

(just kidding) Let’s see the wonderful poster we have for you!!!   

Later on we will explore the different features of our poster and we will sing altogether!!

As you can see, we have use the song Hello, goodbye to work the concept of opposite. However, its importance within the whole activity is really small and our main aim is to have our pupils singing and enjoying a real text.

In addition we can ask our students to create a Glogster about a story or a topic that we have been working on.

Using nursery rhymes: classified links

We have already talked about the advantages of using real texts such us stories, riddles, tongue twisters and nursery rhymes for our classes. Working with short texts, such as nursery rhymes, has an obvious advantage: those are the kind of texts that are going to be repeated many times without being boring and tedious and after many repetitions they are probably going to have much more educational value than any grammar lesson.

Another of its main advantages is that we have an extremely wide range of topics to choose such as animals, transport, names, seasons etc.

Here there are some useful links classified by topics:

Animals:

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/animals_and_insects.html

 http://www.songsforteaching.com/animalsongs.htm

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/insect-rhymes.htm

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/animal-rhymes.htm 

Maths and numbers:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/store/early-number-and-counting-skills-songs-c-440.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/numberscounting.htm

http://www.songsforteaching.com/math/additionsubtractionsongs.htm

http://www.songsforteaching.com/math/multiplicationsongs.htm

Christmas and other celebrations songs:

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/mother-goose-nursery-rhymes/holidays.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/christmas/

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/celebrations.html

Seasons:

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/seasons.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/calendarseasons.htm

Transport:

http://livelyenglishclass.blogspot.com.es/p/eans-of-transport-songs.html

http://www.songsforteaching.com/transportation.htm

http://www.nurseryrhymes4u.com/NURSERY_RHYMES/transport.html

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/transportation-rhymes.htm


There are many other themes that can be explored through nursery rhymes. If you want to explore other pages which provide with good selections of them go to the useful links column.

Why do we use stories, songs, poems etc. for our FL class in preschool?

During the last two weeks we have been working on the advantages of using songs, stories, poems, riddles, fables, nursery rhymes, playground games etc. in the context of a FL class, both in preschool and the first years of primary school.

We've learnt that it has many advantages regarding motivation: the use of real texts, the fact that we may be promoting real interaction with some of the activities etc.

Each group has prepared a presentation with a web 2.0 tool of their choice. My groups choice is Prezi, a colaborative tool that allows you to create original presentations on your own or as a part of a group. This is our presentation (Coming soon a few tips when using Prezi).

Please, note that the presentation misses an idea we only went over verbally: the fact that many of those activities are an excellent way to promote communication strategies (as something completely separated from pure expression and/or comprehension and more focused on skills related to the interaction itself).

The most recurrent ideas among other groups have been the following:

-It helps to present new vocabulary within a context. That allows children to learn things that are more than formally correct. They are examples of a real use of a certain word, expression etc.

-It is motivating, amusing, helps creating a good working atmosphere and promotes creativity.

-Both its length, usually very short, and its structure, usually predictable and full of recurrent patterns, are ideal to work both with small children and with a second language first learners, as it helps to build up their self-confidence.

-It is an excellent way of improving children's listening skills.

-It helps improving pronunciation as when reciting or reading we don't only pay attention to the plain code, but to the intonation, rhythm, stressing etc.

-Quite often it provides us with a good excuse for working in pairs and in groups that besides being a good way of improving communication strategies, allows us to develop other cross curricular topics such as socialization, self-responsibility or a certain moral value. In addition, I honestly believe that the kind of learning that happens within a social context is usually deeper and longer lasting.

-A single text can admit a wide range of pre and post activities. Those activities might be intended for different levels as well as focused on a cross curricular approach to topics. For example a song about farm animals can be used to develop concepts which belong to science class (or get to know your social and natural environment, as we call it in Spain). As an example, here it is an audiovisual text, published on the recommended blog Mi Primer Año en Red, which may be used as a simple text with a strong context for an English class, as a text to work science concepts with or even as a text to learn English within the science class (which is what the author of the blog originally intended).

-Some of my classmates think that one of these texts' main features is that their vocabulary and structure are really accessible to children and new learners. I couldn't disagree further. Quite often the vocabulary and expressions are not precisely easy for first learners and most times includes verbal tenses, structures and words that they are not suppose to know yet. Then why do we use them? Here comes the good thing: BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW THOSE THINGS.  Well, that and the fact that we provide them with a really good scaffolding when we support our texts with a good context (pictures, finger puppets, body language etc.).

What do you think?