Footprints Recruiting

Bringing songs and music into the classroom is a great way to make learning fun and enjoyable for all involved. However, why stop at just teaching the lyrics? With music there is so much you can do, that virtually a whole unit can revolve around just one song.

Now I am sure that many of you can remember singing the song “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed” as a child. This fun-loving song can be used in several activities. Before even beginning to teach the lyrics, an ESL teacher can go through the song and pick out several vocabulary words.

Students can then learn the various vocabulary words, and once these are learned the following lesson can involve learning to count to 5 forwards and backwards (as this also takes place in the song.) Once this has been done, the actual learning of the lyrics can be brought in. At this point the students will have a strong grasp of the vocabulary used in the song which will make learning it all the more fun. You might even want to have them draw out what is happening in the song, and then use their new vocabulary to label the characters and objects depicted. 

Finally, singing and acting out the song is a great way to bring the unit to an end in a fun and enjoyable way. As you can see, one song equals many opportunities to reach out to all of the various learning styles in a classroom and make learning fun for all.

Five Little Monkeys

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Four little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed.
One fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

One little monkey jumping on the bed.
He fell off and bumped his head.
Called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Now there's no little monkeys jumping on the bed.
None fell off and bumped their heads.
I called the doctor and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed."
 

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