Head & Shoulders

"Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is one of the few songs that is a great teaching song just as it is, but what next? Maybe a few counting songs. Then things get difficult, unless you are willing to write your own, and few of us as as creative as Richard, the author of Genki English. (He teaches English to Japanese but I love the energy in his work!)

Still it is nice to see that I am not the only one thinking about music & children & language learning.

Here is what an English speaking, director of an English school in Japan is thinking at simple songs on kids music + early childhood education. His October 6th entry may be interesting to many of us. Listen to "The Great Well" in English &/or Chinese and learn about the Google Literacy Project. Or you may want to look at his "Head, shoulders, knees, ...and peanut butter?" which seems really about what children find funny. "Wheels on the Bus" gets a high approval rating from his kids which is great. I think that in addition to what he says about why songs work, many songs do work best in the original language. I think in my class, "Wheels on the Bus" gets about a 50% rating - although I want to see if that goes up if I do fewer verses, at least the first few times we do it.

His reference for children's music from around the world was for a site I already know. Mama Lisa has lots to offer, including lots of children's songs and nursery rhymes from around the world, most of them with audio samples. Sadly there is not much from China there - yet?