I bet each of us can remember one of the songs we sang in our kindergarten classrooms or camp experiences. That’s the beauty of music: it sticks with you! Harness this incredible power to encourage learning topics to stick with your students and build community. With newcomer students in particular, music provides a gentle pathway to building vocabulary and understanding the basics of the English language. This list includes song suggestions to get you started!
1. “Rise and Shine”
Start your morning routine with Dr. Jean’s version of “Rise and Shine.” Singing a greeting song together each morning is a unifying experience that helps students connect and switch into “school mode” before learning begins. Follow up with another tune that involves saying hello to everyone by name.
Learn More: Sarah Barletter
2. “Open and Shut Them”
“Open and Shut Them” is an excellent routine song to keep in your toolkit for tricky transitions. The lyrics and accompanying motions help remind students of listening skills for carpet time, and it allows them to “get their sillies out” before more serious learning time.
Learn More: Debbie Doo Kids TV
3. “Who Stole the Cookies?”
Remember how I mentioned how we never forget the songs we sang in our kindergarten classes? This one is mine! As singers query, “Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?” they are also building community, learning their classmates’ names, and practicing patterning through the repetitive call-and-response nature of the song.
Learn More: TheLearningStation
4. StoryBots Colors
Learning the names of the colors is often one of the first skills covered when learning a new language. Luckily, StoryBots has a song to cover each color with your ESL students! The action-packed music videos, with captivating characters, help solidify meaning.
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5. “Colors! Colors!”
Harry Kindergarten has a fantastic array of basic skills songs for early learners and ESL students. He has a particularly effective song for teaching the colors of the rainbow, complete with rhymes and movements to go along with each color. Use it anytime you need a learning-oriented movement break!
Learn More: Harry Kindergarten Music
6. “Finger Family Song”
Jack Hartmann’s fun fingerplay helps new language learners or beginner students learn family member vocabulary terms. This is an essential early skill in learning a new language, and the finger movements provide an excellent, hands-on approach to introducing, and mastering these new terms.
Learn More: Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel
7. “One Little Finger”
Super Simple Songs is another amazing learning channel! Their “One Little Finger” song helps beginner-level students learn key vocabulary terms, like body parts and action words, as well as practice active listening! After listening to it a couple of times, extend the activity by letting students come up with their own verses!
Learn More: Super Simple Songs
8. “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe”
Counting is another essential skill for students new to a language. “1, 2, Buckle My Shoe” provides children with ample opportunities to practice common vocabulary and math skills. This classic song also has a set of movements that accompany the lyrics and help lock in meaning.
Learn More: TheLearningStation
9. “Welcome to the Zoo”
Jack Hartmann has a fun song for almost any subject, counting included. One of his counting to 100 songs includes zoo animals and their associated actions. Utilize this catchy tune to help provide basic background knowledge and vocabulary regarding wild animals, while also building essential math skills.
Learn More: Jack Hartmann Kids Music Channel
10. “The Noun Song”
Make some of the concepts in English class, like parts of speech, more engaging through music! The song lyrics for “The Noun Song” define nouns and include examples of each type of noun. Turn it into an entire lesson plan by challenging students to write a new rhyming verse!
Learn More: The Classroom Key
11. “The Verb Song”
“The Verb Song,” sung to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching,” makes learning about action words fun for students! Children act out the lyrics as they sing, which involves jumping, spinning, rolling, and falling, though you could easily exchange them for additional simple vocabulary terms.
Learn More: The Classroom Key
12. “What Do You Like to Do?”
This original song by the Super Simple Songs channel is a great way to teach about asking and responding to questions. The song repeats, “What do you like to do?” and has a bunch of silly responses to the question. Turn it into an entire lesson by having students sing their own answers!
Learn More: Super Simple Songs
13. “Apples and Bananas”
“Apples and Bananas” is a popular song in early childhood for teaching phonemic awareness skills of flipping vowels and substituting sounds. It’s also a playful way to get in some basic pronunciation practice for the sounds of the English language! The entire song is repetitive, which makes it a quick one to learn.
Learn More: Raffi
14. Song Sticks
One of the best ways to incorporate music into your daily classroom routine is to make a bucket of class song sticks that you can draw from any time you need a unifying activity, movement break, or silly moment with your students. Add the aforementioned songs or just use a few classic nursery rhymes set to music!
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