stupid song #1

i come across a lot of stupid songs in my teaching and i've been meaning to write them down to share with the world just how stupid some kids songs are.
the following is an english translation of a japanese song:

acorn tumbled down a hill and jumped into a pond.
oh my oh my my oh what shall i do?
mr. mudfish came up to him with a friendly smile.
"hello acorn! would you play with me?!"

acorn loved his swimming friend and mudfish loved him too.
they had so much fun til acorn started to cry.
for acorn missed his home, yes way up on the hill.
and mr. mudfish didn't know what to do.

what a stupid ending for a song. i'm not joking. that's how it actually ends.now, aside from the fact that how much fun can they really be having when we're talking about an acorn, who can't swim and only sits there at the bottom of the pond, the moral of the story is what really gets my goat--don't leave your home. you will regret it. how stupid.
Tags: stupid kids' songs

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clean up time pet peeve

i hate when i call clean up time and i have at least 3 children who seem to think that simply holding onto the box that the toys are being put into counts as "cleaning up".
Tags: esl, preschool, clean up

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classroom management--switch it up

sometimes we find that kids just aren't paying attention the way that we want them to do. usually it's because we've gotten stuck in a routine and the kids know what to expect, so they don't feel like they have to pay attention.
what to do? switch it up!
for example, if you usually do craft at the end, do it at the beginning.
when you change the order of things, it keeps the kids on their toes and paying attention.

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helpful sites

class today was like a dream. there were still a lot of kids, but they've pretty much stopped the all-day crying which makes things a lot less stressful. finally i have enough energy to make a new post.
i've added a "helpful sites" section on my website which will link to other sites that focus on either teaching small children, or teaching esl (or even teaching to both, which is hard to find. haha.). right now i don't have too many sites, so if you know of any good sites that i should be checking out, please let me know...
in the meantime, check out song street and simple songs, both great sites which i'm really enjoying.
Tags: esl

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so tired

on tuesday we had our annual easter party. it was sooooo stressful. there were just too many kids and not really enough time to do everything so i was rushing kids through the games just so that everyone would have a turn. i didn't get to watch my kids to the easter egg hunt, which i was pretty sad about. and then they turned my classroom into a ball crawl room, so that we couldn't have a real closing to the day. we were just grabbing the kids who go home at 1:30 and pushing them out the door when it was time.
i went to bed at 10pm which is super early for me to do, and the next morning, all the other teachers were telling me how early they went to bed too.
i'm so glad it's over.
i also really can't wait for my class to be a normal size again.
Tags: esl, preschool, easter party

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wiped out

man, today we had 19 students and 4 teachers in the room. this month we've been working with 16 students max and 3 teachers. admittedly, we often have a few sick children, so we haven't had any more than 14 i don't think. i didn't think it would make that much difference, but it sure did. the room was noisy all day and i felt like i was shouting the whole time. then, because the new foreign teacher started today i spent a lot more time speaking in general than i usually do, telling her all the different things about working and/or living in japan.
i don't think i've ever been this tired after leaving work.
Tags: esl

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presented by the letter....

awhile ago my friend was talking about this method of teaching the ABCs. she said that it's better to not teach them in ABC order. i can understand because you don't want a kid to have to sing the ABC song while looking at a poster, just to see what the letter T looks like (however, i wonder if you just teach them in a different order, then maybe the same thing would happen....). she had a book that went along with it and each letter had a picture that would go along with it saying something like "many mice munching merrily" (obviously for letter M).
i thought it might be a good idea to teach the letters in a different order than this, but i didn't like the book she had because it was photocopied and some of the pages weren't too pretty and i'm pretty anal about the way things look sometimes. so i made up my own things, featuring pictures from magazines that start with the different letters (i actually haven't quite finished and if anyone has any ideas of easily obtainable magazine images for the letters U,K,N,V,E, J, W, Y, X, Q, Z, or O, please let me know. these ones have been hard to find. the only magazines i really have are 2 fitness magazines, one cosmo and a buttload of wedding magazines).
anyway, i also got to thinking about sesame street and how at the end of each episode, they'd have "brought to you by the letters T and E and the number 5" or something like that. and they never did the letters in order either. so now i'm copying sesame street and having a different letter of the day each day.
the way it works is this...i'll bring out the letter and ask if anyone knows what letter it is. then i'll say the letter a few times. then launch into this song that's from a great video that we have. it's kinda to the tune of "farmer in the dell" (i think) and goes like "the S says SSSS. the S says SSSS. every letter makes a sound. the S says SSSSS." and then i point to each of the pictures that i've put on there and say "SSS SSS Strawberry" etc.  and i hang the picture on the wall so that they can look at it whenever they feel like it.
so far the kids are really liking it, but since it's a new thing there's no way to know if it's completely effective yet.
Tags: esl, preschool, teaching ABCs

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quick game

when i'm finding that the kids are extra hyper that day, this game helps them get the energy out and ready to sit down and learn.
have every kid touch a part of the teacher. i usually hold out my arms and all of them have to be touching it.
then call out a color. the kids have to run and touch something that is that color. if they are not touching that color, then the teacher can tickle them.
when i'm ready to start the real lesson, i'll call out a color like "fuscia"that the kids won't know. it's funny because they all start to run away, then immediately stop because they realize they have no idea what color that is. then i laugh, and point to that color in the room and we all sit down.
Tags: esl, game

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classroom management--praise the good

whenever you've got a "bad apple" in your classroom, it's always tempting to spend a lot of time, yelling at them, correcting their behavior, sending them to the corner, etc. but a lot of times, these techniques don't seem to do much.
in my experience, a kid who is acting naughty is often doing it simply to get attention. and they don't care if it's good or bad attention. my advice is this. ignore the child who is acting bad, while praising all of the other kids who are doing good. sounds surprising but i find that it works 9 out of 10 times.
if one or two kids is standing up when they should be sitting down, i comment on how nicely some of the other kids are sitting. immediately the standers will sit down because they want to be praised on their nice sitting as well.
one time, riki wasn't cleaning up when everyone else was. it was really frustrating me and i kept yelling at him to clean up. suddenly i remembered the advice that i'm giving you, and i started to tell other kids what a good job they were doing. as soon as i praised the first kid, i saw riki's head snap in my direction. then he started cleaning up too.
try it. it works....
Tags: esl, classroom management

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lesson plan for 2 year olds

i've been getting some google hits from people who are looking for lesson plans, so i thought i'd give out the lesson plan that i use daily.
kids this age need a lot of repetition. the first part of my lesson is the same every day. but the kids never get tired of it, and it really helps them to gain confidence because they know what is coming and hear the correct answers every day.
here you go:
1. hello song--i change this every few months
2. short conversation--i pick a conversation question/answer each month and ask every kid the same question every day (except one month when i was trying to get them to listen for the difference between "how are you?" and "how OLD are you?"). these are simple questions such as "what's your name?" "how are you?" "what color do you like?"
3. attendance--i have a board on the other side of the classroom. one part is "home" and one is "school". at the beginning of the day, all students start out at the "home" side. during this time, i call them one at a time, to run to the board and move their name to the "school" side. each student's name is written on a colored shape, so if they don't know which is theirs i can say "you are the red circle." students typically learn which shape is theirs after about a week.
4. weather--i have a picture board that has 4 different types of weather--sunny, cloudy, rainy, and snowy. we review all of the different types and then i ask what the weather is like today. every day, one child gets to stick the "today is..."sticker on the weather.
5. days of the week song
6. ABC song--the CD i have goes through the song twice. the first time, i use my pointer to point to the different letters of the alphabet; the second time, i call up one of the kids to point to the letters (they don't do it right, but thye really like it)
7. simple vocab--colors, shapes, counting, letters
8. harder vocab--animals, food, emotions, household objects, etc.
9. singing and dancing--every month i pick out 4-6 songs that we do every day. we start with standing songs, then move on to sitting songs.
10. smile time--students who were good during lesson receive a smile in their book and a hug from the teacher.
Tags: esl, esl lesson plan, preschool lesson plan, lesson plan

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new kids

well, all my new kids started on monday. usually i have 12 kids in the class, but now i've got 17, with only 16 coming on any given day. this is because they're starting a new nursery class but the new teacher doesn't arrive until mid-month.
i've got 7 new ones, a few of them were in my after school class, so i already know them. i'm really pleased with how the class is going so far.
of course, most of them have spent a significant amount of time crying. usually this is really hard on kana, because the kids only want to be comforted by the japanese teacher. i want to snuggle them, but if i come near them, they only scream louder. but this new group of kids is not afraid of me and will come to me for hugs when they are crying, which makes me pretty happy.
i was smart this time around and planned to not have a lesson for the first three days. instead i'd set out educational toys and we would just play with them. i think this is making for a smoother transition. tomorrow i start in with real lessons.
they're pretty good kids and i'm happy. sad that i'll be losing some of them to the new teacher though.
Tags: esl

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pillow train

i love when the kids come up with their own ideas that i remember being fun when i was a kid but which i had completely forgotten.
the other day, miona took all of the cushions that we use for lesson and she laid them out side-by-side making a long, winding train. she was jumping from pillow to pillow.
right on, i thought, that's a totally fun game!
Tags: kid's games

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let them be teacher

kids love being teacher. many of my students mothers will tell me that after school, when the kids are at home, they will pretend to be me and teach their mothers. this makes me tear up every time.
i often try to give them an opportunity to be teacher in class. when we do abc song, i have a cute star pointer that i use to point to each letter of the alphabet while we say it. then i give the pointer to one of the kids and let them be the teacher for the next round of the song. they love it.
this technique is also really effective when you've got a student who is acting out in class. when you give them the teacher responsibilities, then they suddenly shape up.
of course, all the kids will want a turn, so make sure that you play fair.
Tags: esl, teacher tips

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