I use EFL Feelings songs for kids in nearly all my classes. How are you today? That’s the question I ask all my students at the beginning of every class. It’s a good way to start them thinking in English, get into the routine and tell me something about themselves. This is important for children; they love to tell you all about their lives. Having the vocabulary to do this is crucial if you want them to do it in English. Otherwise they will go off into a long story in their own language. So we need to teach kids to talk about and describe their feelings in English.
Of course, one of the best ways to do this, especially for little kids, is to learn a song. There are lots of songs out there about feelings. Here are the ones that I’ve found to be the most useful and that the children in your class will enjoy the most. So here we go, whether you’re happy, sad, sleepy, hungry or even bored, there something for everyone and these are my 10 favorite EFL ESL Feelings songs for children.
If You’re Happy Happy Happy by Super Simple Songs
Of the many songs for kids about feelings and emotions available, this is absolutely one of my favorites and is one of the easiest to teach too. Little kids love to sing along to this and do the actions especially for scared and sleepy. You can change the feelings and the actions to suit your class and how they are feeling that day. It’s such a cheerful song and is a really good way to start your class talking about how they feel and learning the vocabulary.
Colors and Feelings Song by English Tree TV
This is an interesting song because it associates feelings with different colors. As well as the fact that you’re therefore practicing two lots of vocabulary in one song, you could also use this as a jump off point to further conversation. Which color do you think is associated with which emotion? How does this differ from one student to another? Why do you think we associate, for example, red with angry? You could also make some colorful artwork or wall charts based on this. For little children, you could have a wall chart where, at the start of each lesson, they have to say how they are and what color they feel like that day. So, a song with lots of uses and possibilities.
Feelings – Word Power by Pinkfong
When you want an easy song for little kids to teach them simple feelings vocabulary, this is a good one. As usual with Pinkfong songs, it has a catchy tune and is good to sing and dance along with in class. It’s a good one to use at the start of lessons when you ask the children how they are. They can choose a feeling and an action to reply.
Feelings Song for Children by The Learning Station
This funny song and video will make older children laugh as the song tells the story of all the bad things that happened to a boy one sad bad terrible day. It’s also a good way of showing kids how to feel better if they are having a bad day and cheer them up. Maybe, you could just use the chorus if someone tells you they’re having a bad day when you ask at the start of the course. You could also use it as the start of a story telling exercise where your students have to invent a story of a bad day, maybe in comic strip form. They could tell it to the class or act it out and then everyone can sing the chorus together. It’s a versatile song that could be adapted to lots of different classes and activities.
Feelings Song by Dream English Kids
If you want to teach little children the question “How are you?” and its different responses, this is a simple song with lots of actions to do that. It’s great for very little kids and has a fun dance to do as they ask the question and then reply. You could change the TPR used in the video to make it more personal to you and the actions you’ve taught your class to show feelings. It’s also easy to learn and remember even if you don’t have the accompanying music or video.
Feeling Song by HooplaKidz
When do you feel happy? This song is slightly different as it describes how different activities make you feel rather than just how you feel. So you could use this as a conversation starter to ask the kids in your class when they feel happy or when they feel sad. This would be a good exercise when you are talking about activities they do or their daily routines and how these make them feel. For example, I feel happy when I am riding my bike or I feel tired when I am going home from school. You could adapt it to different activities and different types of lessons.
The feelings song for children by Francisco Espinosa
This is a fun song with western style music and a video that uses cartoon horses to show feelings. It’s funny to sing and you could use lots of different voices or actions to show the different feelings. It might be fun to write a comic book story using the different horses and how they are feeling as part of a lesson about feelings and emotions.
Feelings and Emotions Song for Kids by Fun Kids English
What do you do when you’re happy? Again, this is a slightly different way of looking at how to express your feelings which you could expand on with your class. Cute monsters and a catchy tune make this a fun song to sing in class and a good way to start the conversation with older kids. You can ask them to think of different things they do when they are happy or sad. “When I’m happy I sing”. “When I’m hungry, I eat pizza”. It’s a good way to use lots of different vocabulary that covers lots of different topics.
The Happy Song by Treehouse Direct
If you’ve got older kids in your class who aren’t too keen on singing but like rapping instead, this is a good one for them. It has lots of fun things that make kids feel happy and will teach them lots of new but not too complicated everyday vocabulary. You can ask them to make a list of what makes them feel happy or change it to a different feeling and make a list for that. Then they can invent a new verse for the song using that feeling.
Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake
And to finish off, something to dance to in class. It’s not one of the traditional EFL feelings songs. However,this is good if you have a class of older kids who really like singing and want something to get their teeth into. It will give them some new vocabulary and, even though it’s a challenge, it’s definitely not too complicated for English language learners. They probably know some of the words already and will definitely recognize the tune. This would be great if you’re putting on a show and want something to impress parents or other students.
So there you have it, my 10 favorite EFL feelings songs for children. There is something here for everyone, whatever age or level they are, and lots of different things to talk about in class and widen the conversation. What are your favorites? And what have I missed out? As always, I’d love to hear any of your ideas in the comments below. If you’re interested in looking at some of my other favorite songs, you can find them here. To stay up to date with new posts, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. Alternatively, sign up for email updates below.