Children have a fascination for the world around them and places they have never visited. One of the best ways to encourage a love and curiosity for the world and its variety is to teach them about it in your English lessons. I can guarantee you that if you put a big map of the world (one of my classroom essentials) up on the wall of your classroom, there will always be someone looking at it and asking questions or discussing it. So what better way to encourage this and build on it than with some EFL ESL Geography songs for children and activities to go along with them.
Whether you’re learning about travel, the continents, famous landmarks or even space, there is something here for all levels and all ages. Are you ready? Get your map up on the wall. We’re off around the world to learn all about it with this Top 10 EFL ESL Geography songs for children.
Travel Around the World in English Song by Pacca Alpaca
I’m starting off with a song that is great for smaller children. Little kids often have no concept of geography or different countries so this is a brilliant way to start introducing those ideas by associating animals with each country. If you have a map that you can show them too and perhaps stick a picture of each animal on the country it comes from, that would be even more helpful. Then you can play a guessing game to see who can remember where each animal comes from.
7 Continents Song by FUNTASTIC TV
This is a simple way of learning the names of the seven continents with lots of actions to help kids remember them. It also deals with the two hemispheres, the equator and the sun so there is a lot of information here presented in a simple and easy to understand way. You could use this song in lots of different ways to help the kids remember the vocabulary. Learn it together and then have a simple quiz to see who can remember all the information or who can label the different continents on a map.
Where are you from? by Maple Leaf Learning
One of my favorite songs to use when I’m teaching about different countries and different nationalities. You can use this song in a variety of different lessons as well as the obvious asking about your students. Talk about animals and where they are from, football teams or sports people, celebrities. You could play a Who am I game where the kids have to find out what country the mystery person is from in order to guess who they are. As with all these songs, have a map available so the kids can see where the different places are.
Continents and Oceans by ABCmouse.com
There is so much information in this video. Rather than learning the whole song, I would use it like a mini documentary to teach the kids lots of different things about the world. For older children, you could use it as a base to jump off into more in depth information. Perhaps they could each choose a continent and prepare a presentation about it and its climate, size, plants and animals. Or they could decide where they would like to travel and prepare a travel program with everything they would like to see and visit.
Big Cities, US by Fluency MC
If you have kids in your class who love to rap, this is a really good way of learning place names. Can you find all the different cities and states on a map of the USA? What can you visit in each of these places? Get your kids doing research and illustrating the song with all the pictures and information they can find. Another great song for older students to spark their interest in English and real places that it is used.
Tour the World by Marbles The Brain Store
The drawing in this video is just amazing. And the music is pretty good too. I’ve used this song in lessons about travelling and holidays to discuss what you can see in different places around the world. You could combine this with a game about what equipment or clothes you need to take when you go on holiday to different places or a trip around the world. Get the kids to make a list of everything they would need for a holiday in Australia, in Sweden or in China. Then they can plan their journey, the best route to take and what transport they need to use. Alternatively you could use it in a lesson about maps and where places are in relation to one another.
Five Oceans Song for Kids by gottaluvkindy
This is a very simple song and video. I think it could be useful if you are leaning about the different oceans, their characteristics and the animals that live in them. It is easy to sing and remember and would be good to use in classes with smaller children too. You could make a poster in class about the different oceans. Then illustrate it with different animals and plants that you can find there. Then sing the song with lots of actions to help the kids remember the names and places.
Travel Song by The Singing Walrus
A very sweet song that talks about methods of transport, different climates and landmarks. With small children, you can pretend you are all going on a journey. How are you travelling? What is it like and what can you see from the window? Are you up high or on the ground? Play a matching game with flashcards and match the mode of transport with the things you can see. Let the class choose their favorite way to travel and draw a picture showing everything they can see from the plane or the train or the ship.
Phineas and Ferb – Bouncing Around the World by DisneyXDUK
A slightly alternative but very fun way of travelling around the world in your class. This song is full of different famous landmarks that you can see all over the world. Have your class visited any of them? Do they know which countries they are in? Pin pictures on a map so that they can remember where each one is. If they were bouncing around the world, what would they visit? If you have enough space, it would be fun to put a map on the ground or assign different landmarks to different places around the classroom. Then get the kids to really bounce around the world. Have two teams and do a relay around the world and see who is fastest to visit all the landmarks.
Outer Space: We are the Planets by StoryBots / Netflix Jr
We’ve been all over the world and now it’s time to go into space. This is a fun song to learn the names of the different planets and their characteristics. If you have a map of the solar system or a model to show where they are all located, that would be really helpful. You could make a human solar system in class with one child as the sun. Then the others can be planets rotating around it. This would be an amazing way of demonstrating exactly how the solar system works. Ask each child to describe their planet and do actions to show what kind of planet it is.
Well, that was exciting! We’ve been all over the world and even into space. If you’ve enjoyed this collection of EFL ESL Geography songs for children, you can find my other Top 10 favorite songs on a variety of different subjects here. To keep up to date with new posts and fun teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.