Song Activity Factory

Come Out and Play – Billie Eilish

Description:
This is an ELT video and song activity based on the Apple ad  Holiday - Share Your Gifts featuring Billie Eilish’s song Come out and Play and also the video ‘Holiday - how I create music on IMac and IPhone’, in which students talk about talents; find common ideas connecting quotes about talent and sharing; watch a video ad and play a memory game with questions about it; do a listening exercise with another video in which the singer talks about creating music; listen to the song and put the lyrics in order

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, reading & listening

Topics: talent and music

Language: Vocabulary related to talent and skills, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: Youtube videos, video activity Worksheet, cut-out song lyrics worksheet and mp3 file

Duration: 1h -  1h 30 min 

Downloadable materials:  instructions; worksheet part 3; song mp3; cut-out song slips part 4

Instructions

Part 1 – Warm Up / Quotes

Step 1. Play hangman with the word 'talent'.
Write on the board T ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Step 2. After the game, ask students to share some of the talents they have (whole class)

Step 3. Write or project the following quotes on the board:

1- “The more you share, the more you receive to share.” Lailah Gifty Akita
2- “Don’t hide yourself. Stand up, keep your head high, and show them what you got!” Joe Mari Fadrigalan
3- “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away”
Pablo Picasso

step 4. Ask students to read them and (individual task) think about their meaning carefully and find out if there is a connection between the quotes, and what it is.

Step 5. After 1 or 2 min, have students share their ideas in pairs (2 min)

Step 6. Have the pairs express their opinions to class and ask if the other students agree/disagree and why

Part 2 – Apple Ad video -Holiday Share your gifts

Step 7. Tell students they are going to watch a video. They should pay attention to the story to answer some “memory” game questions about it (divide the class into pairs or trios).


Memory Game Questions:

1. what color sweater was the girl wearing in the first scene of the video? (Red)
2. What 7-letter word is written on her laptop cover? (Supreme)
3. What is her occupation (baker)
4. What color is her uniform at her job? (Green)
5. What did she draw on the bus window? (Glasses)
6. What color is the box she keeps her paper sheets in? (Green)
7. What musical instrument does she have? (A piano)

Part 3 – Video 2: How I Create Music on iMac and iPhone ft. Billie Eilish

Step 8. FIRST WATCH.

Students watch the video and answer the question:
What does Billie Eilish compare music to? (emotion)



Step 9.  Hand out the Worksheet - part 3. Students watch the video again and fill in the gaps in the transcript. Play the video twice. And check the answers as a class.

Answer key:
Billie: I'm Billie Eilish.
Finneas: I'm Finneas.

Billie: And this is how we create a song from scratch.
Music is emotion.
I feel like, every song, I know, sounds like an emotion I've felt.
it's like how could I make a song that sounds like the way that this light looks.
I think that's really weird to think about, but it's more interesting for me that way. Like, it doesn't have to rhyme;
it doesn't have to make sense;
['cause] it's just words.
Sometimes I need to create something out of it.

Finneas: Once we understand the narrative,
[that] we can flesh out a song behind it.
First guitar, then vocals, then that 808 sort of...
Logic is really easy to have fun in
and I think having fun in a program is
how you get better.

Billie: I think you have to force yourself sometimes. just put it out there,
and if it flops, it flops.
But who cares?
At least you're doing what you want to be doing.

Part 4 (extra) lyrics

The Lyrics were divided in 12 slips of paper (print, cut out and laminate)
Step 10. Divide students into groups of 4 (or fewer students per group, depending on the number of students) and give 1 set of cut out lyrics four group.
Students listen and put the lyrics in order
Play the song as many times as necessary. The first team to get the lyrics in the right order wins!

Answer KEY (correct order):
10 - 09 - 11 -12 -01- 03- 08- 06- 05- 04- 02- 07

That’s it for this week and for 2018!

We’ll be back in January to continue providing free high quality ELT song activities for teachers all over the world!

I hope you all have wonderful holiday celebrations, and that in 2019, you have the wisdom and energy to fulfill cherished dreams and achieve amazing goals!

No Matter What – Calum Scott

nomatterwhat_scott

Description:
This ELT song activity is based on the song No Matter What by Calum Scott  and the official music video. Students talk about parent and children relationships, review irregular verbs and the Simple Past tense, watch an edited video, Write a narrative based on the video, listen to the song and do a listening exercise with the lyrics

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, writing & listening

Topic: relationships

Language: Vocabulary related to family relationships, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: A vimeo edited video, youtube link for the official video, song mp3 file and song activity Worksheet

Duration: 1 hour

Downloadable materials: instructions; song mp3; song worksheet

Part 1 – warm up / review of irregular verbs

Step1. Students write down as many irregular verbs as they can remember in 2 min in a sheet of paper. Tell them to write the verbs in their infinitive form

Step 2. Divide the class in two. If there is an odd number, choose the most extroverted student to come to the board and be your assistant,

Step3. Group work.
In their teams, students compile a final list of verbs with all the irregular verbs they remembered.

Step 4. Tell them the team with more correct irregular verbs on the lists will be the winner. Give them an extra 30s to add more verbs to the list.

Step 5. When the time’s up. (Nobody is allowed to add any more verbs to the list at this point. Make sure students know the teams are going to be penalized and lose points for cheating! Ask teams to count how many verbs they’ve found and tell the assistant.

Step 6. Have your assistant draw a line in the center of the board, and write A/B on each side of it, with the number of verbs each team got.

Step 7. Team A starts telling the assistant all the verbs in their lists, and he/she writes them on their correspondent side of the board. (No corrections at this time)

Step 8. Team B does the same thing, omitting the verbs already in team A’s list. (The teacher checks the lists, to avoid cheating)

Step 9. Class work. The teacher goes over each verb, and with the help of the class, checks if the verbs are really irregular and ask random students to give their correspondent simple past forms, and write them in front of the verbs. Students copy them, as they are going to use them later.
After recounting the valid verbs, the teacher awards points (for verbs in the 2 lists, the teams get 5 points, for original verbs, they get 10) the team with more points is the winner!

Part 2

Edited video from the music video for “no matter what” – (speaking/writing)

Step 9. Students watch the modified video (obs: the music heard in this video is instrumental and it is not the original song)

Step 10. In pairs students talk about the following questions: .

The video shows 3 important moments in the boy’s life. Talk about what happened in these 3 moments.
How did he deal with those situations? Who helped him? How?
Which of the following quotes best applies to the video? why?

a) "A mother is a woman who shows you the light when you just see the dark." Grimaldos Robin 

b) "A mother understands what a child does not say." unknown

c) "Simply having children does not make mothers." John A. Shedd

Step 11. The pairs share their answers and the teacher asks other pairs if they agree/disagree and why. Students express their opinions and have a mini discussion

Step 12. Students rewatch the video. Tell them to pay attention to the details because they are going to rewrite the story.

Step 13. Give the pairs 10 min to write a paragraph with the story of the video. Tell them to include as many verbs from part 1 in the paragraph as possible.

Step 14, students share their paragraphs
Step 15. Students watch the official music video.

Step 16. In pairs. After they watch the video, the teacher asks the students why they think the boy was bullied in the second part of the video (answers as a class)

Part 3 the lyrics – listening

Step 17.Individual task.
Students receive the song worksheet, listen to the song and fill in the gaps with the verbs in the past
Step 18 play the song again and stop at each gap to check.

Answer key:

Was   2. Didn’t understand  3. Took  4. Said 5. Got  6. Came  7. Ran  8. Saw  9 Had 10. looked

That’s it for this week!
I hope this ELT activity can help your classes and add value to your work!

Happy teaching!

Be Fluent in LIFE

Being fluent in English is an important goal that many people in the world struggle to achieve. However, there is another kind of fluency which is of much greater importance: being able to speak the language of your own soul. Being fluent in LIFE.

What does that mean?

Speaking the language of your own soul is finding out your true and unique talents. It is finding out the way they can be best expressed in this world, and most importantly, ACTING on them.

How can you start this journey to life fluency?

With small steps, just like a child starts with a few words, but surely, steadily, act on it! Your actions, even the smallest ones, will bring results. REAP them with pride. Be proud like a child in showing their parents that first written composition, or that first good grade in an oral presentation.

Be proud of your smallest results, for they are proof of your ever growing fluency in the nuances of life. Also, multiply them by paying attention and learning, every day and in every way, how to speak your own heart accurately.

Cherish the language of your own soul and speak it, not only with your own words, but also with your actions, for actions speak much louder, and the louder they speak, the more likeminded people they attract to your life, so you can become stronger, wiser, better and consequently, attract more results.

Being fluent in your LIFE means knowing how your heart truly feels, and expressing it clearly and gracefully through your ready and smooth actions, so that the universe can understand, and respond to your wishes and desires.

Aim to be fluent not only in English, but also in the language of your own SOUL. There is no telling how far you can go or how many people’s lives you can change this way!

That’s it for this week.
I hope these ideas can help you in your life!
Happy teaching! 🤓

Watch & Catch!

watch catch pic

Introducing a new, fun and original ELT video activity – WATCH & CATCH – containing excerpts from music videos for current songs, in which students have to ‘catch’ visuals in the video excerpts, as well as words in the lyrics of the songs.

Description:  In this activity, students work in teams to identify, visually and audibly,  grammar and/or vocabulary words in the music video and lyrics. as a competition; they are awarded points for each right item identified. 
Language level: A2+ and above     
Learner type: All ages
Skills: listening, writing
Topic: varied
Language and grammar: common objects, animals, parts of the body, food, numbers, basic prepositions, adverbs of frequency, adjectives,
Materials: vimeo video  and a blank sheet of paper for each group (to write down their answers)
Duration: 20 -30 min
Downloadable materials: none

INSTRUCTIONS

Step 1. Tell students they are going to watch a video with 5 excerpts from different music videos, and in each excerpt they have to identify – catch – something visual (in the video ie. find a number or an animal), and also listen to something in the lyrics: ie listen to adjectives.

There are 5 video excerpts, and before each one, there are instructions to what the students are supposed to catch. The excerpts are recorded 3 times in a row, so tell students they have 3 chances to find what is asked. For each right item, the teams get one point. The team with more points wins!

Step 2. Divide the teams. make sure each one has a blank sheet of paper to write their answers down.

Step 3. Play the video (pause it on each video instruction and make sure to review the things they’re supposed to see or find before they watch it. For example: ask students if they remember adverbs of frequency and ask them to give examples.

Step 4. To award the points, before playing the next video, pause, and walk around the groups awarding the points. (read their answers and write the number of points on their sheet)

Answers:  
Video 01 - Find: a means of communication (TV) - Listen to: something you use in school (a number) 
Video 02 - Find: an animal (tiger) - Listen to: parts of the body (hands / heart) 
Video 03 - Find: a number (98) - Listen to: prepositions (in / out)  
Video 04 - Find: something sweet (ice cream) - Listen to: a frequency adverb (never) 
Video 05 - Find: something connected to religion (crosses on necklaces) - Listen to: adjectives (weak, shy, sweet)

Songs featured in this ELT video activity: 
video 01: Trust My Lonely (Alessia Cara); 
video 02: Big Love (the Black Eyed Peas); 
video 03: Just Got Paid (Sigala, Meghan Trainor, Ella Eyre); 
video 04: Shallow (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper); 
video 05: Woman Like Me (Little Mix)

That’s it for today! I hope you enjoy this ELT video/song activity.

Here Comes the Change (From the Motion Picture ‘On The Basis of Sex’) – Kesha

SAF KESHA

Description:

This ELT song activity is based on the song ‘Here comes the Change’ by Kesha and the official music video. Students read quotes about gender inequality, talk about it, read the lyrics of the song and work with verb tenses, listen to the song, watch the music video and do a listening exercise with it,

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1+) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, reading & listening

Topic: gender inequality

Language: Vocabulary related to gender inequality, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: Youtube video, mp3 file and song activity Worksheet

Duration: 1 hour

Downloadable materials: Here Comes- instructions; worksheet and mp3 file

INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1- WARM – UP and QUOTES

Step 1. WHOLE CLASS:: Beside physical differences, what is different between men and women? (write students answers on the board, help with some vocabulary) [5 min]

Step 2. IN PAIRS. Hand out the song worksheet part 1. Students read and talk about the meaning of the following quotes and say which ones they agree and disagree with and why[10 min]:

quotes kesha

Step 3. WHOLE CLASS: (students share what they discussed in pairs with the whole class. As each pair shares their answers, the teacher asks other students if they agree/disagree and why, so everyone gets the chance to participate and get practice with interaction and using the language of opinions/agreement/disagreement. [5 – 10 min]

PART 2 – LYRICS and VERB TENSES

Step 4. INDIVIDUAL TASK Exercise 2 of the song worksheet. Tell students they have to read the lyrics of the song and correct the verbs. [10 min] when they have finished, before playing the mp3 file of the song, have them check their answers in pairs.

Answer key:

will keep turning
you’ll be
they live
it’s time
there’ll come

PART 3 – MUSIC VIDEO and LISTENING EXERCISE

Step 5. INDIVIDUAL TASK Exercise 3. The students watch the music video and fill out the blanks in the script for the scenes from the upcoming movie ‘on the basis of sex’ which appears in the music video

Answer key:

answerkey

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy this ELT song activity!

Big Love – The Black Eyed Peas

blackeyedpeas

Description:

This ELT song activity is based on the song Big Love (The Black Eyed Peas) and it does NOT make use of the official music video (some scenes it portrays may be shocking for most students, however if you consider it suitable for any specific class you have, use it at your own discretion.)

In the activity, students talk about bullying, gun control, smart phones and war, read and share opinions about those topics, listen to the song, do listening exercises with a worksheet and the lyrics, scan QR codes, read and write a text for homework,

Language level: intermediate (B2) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, listening, reading & writing

Topic: current controversial issues

Language: Vocabulary related to bullying, guns, smartphones and war, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: cut out opinion + topic sheet + song activity Worksheet – smartphones or other digital device (tablet, laptop, etc) with a qr code reader app installed. Internet connection, wifi available for part 3.

Duration: 1 hour (or 1h and 30 min if you have time to do step 9 in class + HW)

Downloadable materials: Big Love- instructions; cut-out opinion/issue sheet; song worksheet; song audio mp3

INSTRUCTIONS

Preparation for the activity:

Download and print the cut-out opinion/issue sheet; cut out as indicated and laminate it to make the sets. Make 1 copy per pair or trio of students. Download and print the song worksheet. 1 per student.

PART 1

Step 1. Warm up – WHOLE CLASS:: Write/ project the following issues on the board:

BULLYING – GUN CONTROL – WAR – SMARTPHONES

Ask students if they think there is a connection between the four topics and what it is, or ask them which of the four is the most important for society right now and why. Have a vote and write the number of students in front of the issues on the board. (about 5 minutes)

Step 2. IN PAIRS or TRIOS. Hand out the opinion+issue set, one for each pair/trio of students.

There are 4 pairs of opposite opinions for each of the four issues (bullying, gun control, war, smartphones).

The students’ task is to match the topics with their correspondent opinions.

Step 3. after the pairs or trios have finished matching the opinions and the topics, they are going to talk about the opinions they agree more or disagree and give their reasons. (about 10 minutes – step 1+ step 2)

Step 4. After discussing in pairs/trios, the students share their opinions with the whole class and have a short plenary discussion.

PART 2 – LISTENING ACTIVITY WITH LYRICS

Step 5. Individual task. Hand out the song worksheet. It has two exercises: in exercise one, students have to listen to the song and number the verses, lines of the song as they listen to it.

Answer key exercise 1: 4 b. 2 c. 1 d. 3

Step 6. Individual task. In exercise 2 they have the complete lyrics of the song with 10 words removed. Their task is to listen to the song and fill in the blanks in the song lyrics with the words given.

Answer key exercise 2:

Leaders 2. Fire 3. Americans 4. Young 5. Hands 6. Hope 7. Life 8. Global 9. Believe 10. Violence

Step 7: Back to their original pairs/trios, the students identify which parts of the song in exercise 1 correspond to the issues they discussed in part 1 (bullying, gun control, war, smartphones) and what opinion the song expresses.

Step 8. They share their opinions with the whole class

PART 3 – READING / WRITING

OBS: If there is no time available in class, steps 9 and 10 can be done for homework and handed in the following class.

Step 9. Students choose the issue they want to read about, scan the correspondent QR code on their worksheet and read an article about that issue on Newsela. This is an excellent Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject. Your students will be asked to make a profile there to read the whole article, it is free and fast.

blog song 2 codes

Urls for the articles

Bullying https://newsela.com/read/schools-bullying/id/1155/

Guns https://newsela.com/read/overview-guns-in-america/id/19146/

War https://newsela.com/read/lib-convo-just-war-theory/id/29945/

Smartphones https://newsela.com/read/lib-convo-just-war-theory/id/29945/

Step 10. Homework. Students write a paragraph or two with their opinion about the article they read in the previous step for the following class. (word limit 50 – 80 words)
That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy this ELT song activity.

Feel free to leave some comments if you wish, and let me know how the activity worked out in your classes.

Happy teaching! 🙂

Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille

SAF HAPPIER 001

Description:

This ELT song activity is based on the song Happier (Marshmelo ft. Bastille) and its official music video. Students talk about pets, watch a video, retell a story, write a text, listen to the song and do a listening exercise with the lyrics

Language level: Pre-Intermediate (B1) and above

Learner type: All ages

Skills: speaking, writing & listening

Topic: pets

Language: Vocabulary related to pets, expressions to agree, disagree and express opinions

Materials: Youtube video and song activity Worksheet

Duration: 1 hour

Downloadable materials: Happier- Instructions; worksheet

INSTRUCTIONS

PART 1- WARM – UP

Step 1. WHOLE CLASS:: Why do people have pets? (write students answers on the board, help with some vocabulary)

Step 2. IN PAIRS. Students talk about the following questions, for about 2, 3 minutes:

How can pets help us?
What animal makes the best pet? Why?

PART 2 – MUSIC VIDEO

Step 4. DIVIDE THE CLASS into two groups: the ‘A group’ and the ‘B.group’.

The students in the A group stay in the classroom and watch the music video, while the students in the B group go out and wait.

Step 5. Tell the students in the A group to watch the video attentively because they are going to tell the students in the B group the story in the video.

Step 6. Students watch the video (3:53 min)

Happier – Marshmello ft. Bastille (official video)

Step 7. The students in the B group return to class and pair with the A group and IN PAIRS, the Student A tells the story of the video to Student B and Student B writes it down. Allow 10 minutes for the writing of the story.

Step 8. After the time is over, have the pairs share their stories, have a quick vote for the best account of the video, and also ask students (A and B) what they thought of the story depicted in the video.

Step 9. The whole class watches the video and students compare and comment on the differences and details that may have been left out in their written stories.

PART 3 – LYRICS

Step 10. Students receive the worksheet with the lyrics. They listen to the song and circle the words they hear.

Answer key:

Cold
Word
Way
Smile
There
Our
From

That’s it for this week! I hope you enjoy this ELT song activity.