Head, Shoulders, Knees, and all that

See you later, alligator!

As you may have gathered from the picture of Santa that has been the featured post on this blog for many months now, I've let this blog slide.  We've been REALLY busy over at Super Simple Learning.  Rather than just let it linger, I'll be wrapping this blog up in the next few months. 

I encourage you to come visit the Super Simple Learning Blog, where I will be writing along with my colleagues Troy and Tanja.  And if you are looking for even more community, please keep in touch through our Facebook page, our message board, and/or our newsletter. 

Thanks to everyone who has read and contributed to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and All That.  

Enjoy the latest video from Super Simple Songs!

Super Simple Christmas

There's a whole lot of Christmas going on over at Super Simple Songs!

JALT 2008

JALT (Japan Association for Language Teaching) is a great association of dedicated, professional language teachers in Japan.  Every year, they host a HUGE Conference with teachers and researchers from around the world gathering to discuss the latest in language acquisition and teaching.  It's an inspiring event to attend because you see thousands of teachers giving up their weekends to come share ideas and learn how to better help their students acquire foreign languages.

This year's event is especially large as it will also be hosting the 7th joint conference of the Pan Asian Consortium (PAC) as well as the 6th Asian Youth Forum (AYF), so there will attendees from ThaiTESOL (Thailand), KOTESOL (Korea), ETA-ROC (Taiwan), FEELTA (Russian Far East), ELLTAS (Singapore), and PALT (Philippines). 

I'll be presenting on Sunday, November 2nd at 9:15am with Troy and Tanja.  We'll be just one of the hundreds of presentations to choose from, so if you're looking to power up your teaching, we hope to see you there!

Halloween Songs, Videos, Games, Lesson Plans and more!

Halloween is fast approaching!  If you are looking for some Halloween ideas for your class of young learners, have a look at our new Halloween page over at Super Simple Songs.  Every year we have a blast celebrating Halloween, and we think we've gathered a nice collection of songs, party ideas, activities, games, lesson plans, flash cards, and more. 

Once again this year, we're offering Knock Knock, Trick or Treat as a free download.  It's a really fun song and perfect for young learners.  Here's a clip of us singing it at our 2007 Halloween party:

Have a great Halloween! If you have any favorite Halloween songs or activities, please share them here!!!!

Super Simple Phonics

Phew!  It's been a much longer project than we intended, but we have finally put the finishing touches on Super Simple Phonics!  We finished the book/CD set a couple months ago and now the Super Simple Phonics Support Pack enhanced CD is available as well!  It started as a very simple idea, but as we tested the materials in our classes, we kept wanting to add more and more. 

It's all there now.  Writing practice, fun phonics songs, mini audio lessons, easy-to-learn vocabulary items, pencil skill practice, review pages and songs, teacher's guide, gesture guide for the songs, activity bank, flashcards, mini-cards, printable worksheets, bingo games, completion certificates, and more!

Together the book/CD set and the Support Pack are everything you need to introduce the alphabet and phonics to young learners.  The goal of Super Simple Phonics is not mastery of the English alphabet, but rather to introduce young learners to the shapes and sounds of the English alphabet in a fun, confidence-building way. 

Have a look and listen and tell us what you think! 

Happy Birthday, E.W. Spider!

Tanja is celebrating the one year birthday of her blog, E.W. Spider.  For the past year, Tanja has posted thoughtful and fun posts every single day!  Take a second to pop over there and say "Happy Birthday!" And if you aren't already a regular reader, have a look around...I promise you'll enjoy it.

Simple Songs Save Lives

I know, I know...the title is a little dramatic.  But it's true! 

Last week, after her Mom had lost consciousness due to a medical condition, 3 year-old Madelyn Eaves picked up her Mom's phone, dialed 911, and soon emergency dispatchers arrived to provide care. 

How did she know to call 911?  Her Mom, aware of her own medical condition, had taught Madelyn a simple song to remember in case something like this ever happened.  The lyrics to the song?  "911 green, 911 green." (Green being the color of the "Send" button on most U.S. cell phones).  When Mom collapsed, Madelyn called 911 and was able to give enough information to guide help to her house.

Is there some really important information you need your kids to know?  Put it in a song!  Make a song with just the digits to your phone number.  Or a song for your address.  Nothing will help a young child remember better than a catchy, simple song.

Cake

Sometimes I blog here.  Sometimes I blog there.  Please have a look over  there sometimes!

K.I.S.S. - Keep It Super Simple

Tanja, Troy, and I will be giving a workshop, facilitated by Yuco Kikuchi, on Thursday, June 26 here in Tokyo about using simple songs to energize, motivate, and manage young learner classrooms. 

If you happen to be in Tokyo, come join us!  You can find details here or here (in Japanese).

If you aren't in Tokyo, or you are but you can't make it to the venue, you are still in luck.  You can sign up to participate in the workshop online!  Space is limited.  You can learn the details by following the above links.   See you there?!?!

Clean Up Song

I came across a post this week (via Zooglobble) about the benefits of using music as a tool to make transitions and routines easier for young children.  Getting dressed, taking a bath, cleaning up, brushing your teeth, nap time, story time, etc.  Moving from one activity to another can at times be very frustrating for parents, children, and teachers alike.  Music and simple songs help young children make the transition to these activities much smoother.  Songs can grab a child's attention, create positive impressions of the new activity, and reduce the stress a young child may feel in stopping an activity that they have settled into comfortably.

The post features an enlightening interview with a music therapist (highly recommended listening).  At one point the interviewer notes, "If you sing the words you might say to a child, they are more likely to respond."  That's something that I learned early on when teaching young learners.  In teaching young second language learners in particular, the music plays a double role of helping to teach new language AND signaling transitions to children who may not otherwise understand the directions of the the teacher due to a limited vocabulary. 

Here are some examples of the Clean Up song from Super Simple Songs in action! (note that it works with puppies, too!)