An impossible task, you might think, to choose my 10 favorite songs by Super Simple Songs. They are the songs I use the most in all my classes. I could probably pick twenty or even more that I really love. So what criteria have I used to choose my Top 10? Well, they are all songs that you could use in a variety of lessons, not just the obvious ones. They are also songs that work with a wide age group and not just for very young learners. I’ve chosen songs that are fun to sing, usually have a great video to go with them and that the kids absolutely love. They are also easy enough to sing without the music or video. This means you can adapt them to the vocabulary you want your kids to learn in that lesson.
Hopefully there will be some songs here that are new to you and that you’ll be able to use with your class. So these are my very favorite Super Simple Songs, the songs that I have found most useful for my classes and the ones that I use most often.
Hello! by Super Simple Songs
Every class needs a Hello song. This is the song that I will sing in my first class of the year with most of my groups this year. It is such an easy song to learn and understand even for very little children who are coming to English class for the very first time. I use it as a launch point to start asking the children what their names are and how they are. We turn it into a game around the circle and within a very short time, the kids are already asking their first question in English.
One Little Finger by Super Simple Songs
Little children love this song. It’s a really good song to use to start introducing the names of body parts. You can use any body part you want and get them to tap it with their finger. You could also use it to find different objects around the room if you’re practicing new vocabulary, “put it on the dog” or “put it on the car” etc.
Do you like Broccoli Ice Cream? by Super Simple Songs
The ultimate song to use in lessons about food and likes and dislikes. Whether you’re talking about people, animals or even dinosaurs, you can use this song as a base to introduce the subject. Learn the song together and then make up your own version. How many crazy combinations of food can your class think of? How many of them want to try the popcorn pizza in the video? What a great way to learn Yes I do and No I don’t! Yucky!!! If you get bored of this one, Super Simple Songs have made several variations with different food combinations to use and learn.
Yes I can!
Actions, animals, ability plus a catchy tune, they’re all in this song. It can be used in a variety of different lessons. You can adapt this song to use in so many ways. Whether you’re talking about different animals and what they do or the kids in your class and what they are able to do, this is a very useful song. I even used it in a Circus lesson plan this year. Before singing it, I like to ask the kids questions like “Can you swim?”, “Can you play the piano?” and show them lots of actions. It makes it easy for even the smallest children to understand what you are talking about and understand the concept of can and can’t. Then you can sing the song with all the different actions and they can reply.
What Do You Like To Do?
I like dancing but I don’t like dancing with a bear. If you’re talking about hobbies and activities that the kids in your class enjoy doing, this is a brilliant song. The words and the video will make the kids laugh and you could use it as a prompt for them to make up their own funny stories. I find this song incredibly catchy. It really sticks in your mind so it is a good one to sing near the end of lessons and send them home still singing it.
Open Shut Them
Opposites are sometimes a quite complicated concept to introduce to little children. This song is a really simple way of doing that. You can do lots of actions as you sing it. These clearly demonstrate the differences and link them together in the minds of the kids. Come up with some new opposites too and get them to find actions for those.
Rain Rain Go Away
My favorite song about weather, but not limited to lessons about that. You can use this song in your lessons about different family members too and probably also parts of the house. The video is really lovely so if you have the chance to watch it with your class, I would and talk about it as you watch. What is Daddy doing? Where is Baby? Use it as a role play with your class and ask them to invent a dialogue to go with it for each family member.
I Have a Pet
I really included this song because I love the video. However it is also a useful song for classes about pets, animals and for your students to talk about themselves. Does anyone have a really strange pet? What noise does it make? You could adapt the song for different kinds of pets. Maybe at Halloween, you could do a scary pet version. “I have a pet, it is a spider” and so on.
Put on your Shoes
This is a surprisingly versatile song. You can use it in the most obvious way in lessons about clothes and adapt it to different items of clothing. But you can also use it in lessons about time and daily routines or about seasons and weather, adapting the clothes and time accordingly. I also really like to use it as a song at the end of lessons while the kids are getting ready to go home. It’s a good way of learning new vocabulary without having a whole lesson dedicated to it. As they get ready and put on scarves, hats, jackets, etc. sing it together. For small children, this is a good way to get them to get dressed without being distracted by everything else. Hurry up is a very useful phrase for them to recognize too!
Over the Deep Blue Sea
I’ve used this song for lesson about Pirates but you could also use it when you’re teaching about directions, weather or the sea. I even adapted the words to use in a lesson about directions at the circus. It’s a fun one to dance along with and the words are easy to learn, so much so that you will find yourself singing it as you go around the supermarket or do the washing up.
As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan and use these songs all the time. It was really hard to choose my 10 favorite Super Simple Songs. While I was writing this, more songs kept coming into my head and I could have included all of them. I haven’t got a counting song here or a goodbye song. There are a lot more that I use and love too. Which are your favorites? What would you have included in this list? Let me know in the comments. If you want to see more of my Top 10 song lists about all different kinds of things, you can find them all here. To stay up to date with new posts and song collections, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. Alternatively, you can sign up for email updates by filling in the form below.