Musical Activities

Head, shoulders, knees and toes! Review the song Head, shoulders, knees and toes. After singing the song with actions, the students drop one of the key words each subsequent time but continue to do the actions. For example, the second time through the song, students sing (silence), shoulders, knees and toes. The third time, they sing (silence), (silence), knees and toes. The fourth time, they sing (silence), (silence), (silence) and toes., etc. Feel the music! This activity can be used to talk about weather, emotions or even colors. Bring in several selections of classical music, such as Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Play some music and say This music makes me think it's (sunny). Draw a quick sketch on the board, then ask What do you think? Explain that students should think about the weather described in the music. Distribute paper to students to draw quick sketches. Then play a different piece of music and have students draw quick sketches about the weather described in the music. Invite volunteers to show their pictures to the class and describe the weather, e.g. I think it's (windy). Welcome maestro! This is an extension activity for any song. Divide the class into two or more groups. Choose a song that the students know well and assign each group different lines from the song. Start singing with groups only singing their assigned lines. The teacher acts as the conductor to cue the students when to start singing. he/she can speed up and slow down the tempo for fun. Music video After teaching students one of the songs from Gogo Loves English, say Let's make a music video! and have the students make up actions to go with the song. Encourage students to be creative: some students could do a simple dance while others pretend to be the band and others can be the actors. If there's access to a video camera, the teacher can film the class singing the song with actions. Turn down the music! After teaching students one of the songs from Gogo Loves English, have students pretend that they are singing a song on TV. The teacher sits and pretends to watch them on TV. When the teacher turns on the TV with an imaginary remote control, students begin singing. When the teacher turns the TV off, students continue singing the song silently in their heads. When the teacher suddenly turns the TV back on, students start singing out loud again. Name that song! Divide the class into two to four teams. Play three notes from a song on the piano and have students guess the song. The team that guesses correctly gets three points. If no one guesses correctly, play five notes from the same song for two points. If no one guesses correctly, play a line from the song for one point. Have the winning team sing the whole song for an extra point. If a piano is not available, play short sections of the song on the CD/cassette. Lip synching Model lip synching a song (silently mouthing the words) without playing any music. Ask the class to guess the song. Have each student choose a song. Give students time to check the words and practice lip synching. Put students in pairs, sitting face-to-face. S1 lip synchs his/her song. S2 watches and tries to guess the song. When S2 guesses correctly, the partners switch roles. Follow the leader Send two students out of the room. Have the rest of the students stand in a circle and choose a student to be the leader. The students practice singing and trying to follow the leader's movements without looking directly at him/her. Invite the two students back into the room and have them stand in the middle of the circle. The rest of the class start singing and copying the leader's movements. The pair try to find who the leader is. Once they have found the leader, choose another two students. The new students leave the room and the procedure is repeated. Creative recycling Review the song What are these? Then have students invent new objects by combining two vocabulary words they have previously learned, e.g. a rocket hotel, an apple-teacher, etc. Have the students draw pictures of their inventions and label them. As students present their inventions, the class alters the lyrics of the song by singing What is it? Presenters answer by including the names of their inventions in the lyrics, e.g. It's a rocket hotel, hotel.