As you’ll quickly discover, there are thousands of songs out there to choose from, but not every song will connect with your preschool students. The right song will make your lessons fly while the wrong one can send them crashing to the ground. Choosing the right EFL songs for your kindergarten classes is a critical step towards success. Here’s what to consider as you’re planning your lessons.
What’s Your Goal?
When you’re looking for EFL songs for kindergarten, you’ll first want to consider what you want to achieve with them.
Topic: Do you want to activate a set of your students’ vocabulary like numbers, animals, or feelings? Or do you want them to practice language chunks like “It’s sunny” or “My name is…” (or even both). That might lead you to choose songs like the “Days of the Week” or “One Little Finger.”
Transition: Or, do you want a song to give some structure to your lessons? Songs are great for starting and ending lessons. Perhaps you need a song to tell everyone it’s time to transition to a circle or clean up the classroom? These routine or transition songs are a fun way to let children know what’s coming up and what to do….
Energy Management: You might also be looking for a few songs to manage your students’ energy levels. High-energy, popular stirring songs like “Baby Shark” can wake-up and re-energize sleepy classes. On the other hand, sometimes we need a settling song or two to calm students down to a more manageable level. These can be related to current class topics or just something you keep in your back pocket for emergencies.
Listen for Quality
Not every children’s song is great for young EFL students. You want to keep in mind several key factors as you search for songs.
Useful Language: The song should include either vocabulary or phrases that are useful to achieving your lesson aims. A lot of traditional children’s songs are great for native English speakers, but they use inappropriate vocabulary or phrases for EFL students. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or even “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes” aren’t actually that great for kindergarten EFL students because their language is either too complicated or not commonly used enough; how often do children need to talk about their shoulders or knees? Instead, for body parts I recommend songs like the “Hokey Pokey” (with one & two, not left and right), or “Shake It Out.”
Good Tempo: EFL songs for kindergarten students shouldn’t be too fast or even too slow. The lyrics should be clear and easy enough for your children to hear and pick out important sections after just a listen or two. They should also be able to keep up with the song when it’s their turn to sing it. Try to avoid overly slow songs as well. These usually bore children quickly.
Repetitive: Good EFL songs include a lot of repetition of key vocabulary and phrases. Children enjoy predicting and mastering songs, but they need repetition to support this. A good chorus line and repetitive use of key phrases or vocabulary really help with this. A great example is the “Family Finger Song.”
Visuals & Actions: Good EFL songs for kindergarten are also easy to use with flashcards, pictures, realia and mime actions. These help students understand the songs and interact with them.
Context: Good songs are either connected to your children’s lives or they have an interesting and accessible fantasy. Songs about fruits your children like or cleaning up the room are directly related to their everyday experience. Fantasy songs about going to the jungle or the zoo are relatable and naturally interesting for young children.
Making Music
Finally, the format for how you will bring the song into class is important.
A cappella: One of the best ways to use music in the classroom is with just your voice & no instruments or music. This lets you speed up and slow down as needed and also start and stop easily. You can also change the lyrics to suit your needs. Many of the songs found in the links above can be sung with a little practice and without accompanying music.
This can, however, be pretty scary for new teachers or the less musically-inclined. The good thing is young children aren’t very picky. Personally, my voice isn’t good at all but I’ve yet to have a student complain.
Instruments: If you’ve invested the time to learn the guitar or another classroom friendly instrument then this is an amazing option. Kids immediately connect with and are fascinated by musical instruments. These also give a lot more flexibility than other most options. Just be careful to set clear rules and routines to protect your things.
Audio files: Another popular option is to find EFL songs for kindergarten files from CDs or the Internet. I find it to be very convenient to play the songs from a Bluetooth speaker connected to my phone. Two of my favorite sources are Dream English and Super Simple Songs, though there are many great resources out there on YouTube and elsewhere.
Video: These days many teachers have access to either a smart-TV or an Interactive Whiteboard. These can be great for playing song videos for children. However, be careful with this. Many children will just watch the video without singing or interacting much. I don’t recommend playing the video more than once a lesson. After the first time you’ll want to play just the audio so you can get the students to focus on the lyrics and singing.
Last, with all the technology options make sure you’ve got everything set up and ready before you want to sing. I’ve watched many teachers lose their students’ interest and attention as they fiddle with their CD player, phone, or the computer and Internet. Don’t derail your lesson while waiting for the song to stream or to find the right track number.
What are your favorite songs & sources for songs? Don’t forget to like, share, and comment below!
