Here’s a brand new hip hop track for you: You’re better than the best of the best!. As you can probably tell it is to teach comparatives and superlatives, cute, cuter, cutest etc. As with the other hip hop songs there’s a free online version where students can listen to the song and click the right lyrics as they appear (perfect for any Guitar Hero fans out there and great for homework!) Plus there’s also an mp3 version available with lyrics sheet if you want to use it in normal class.
Yes these are for high school or adult students, please don’t go playing them in your 5 year olds’ class! I can see the emails of complaint.
WARNING: don’t play the online game if you don’t want “you’re the best” running through your head for the rest of the day. I’m sure most of our students don’t get praised enough, so this way they can do it themselves.
Thanks to everyone on the forum for suggestions. In the end it came down to what fitted with the rhythm and rhyme more than anything else, but hopefully I’ve included quite a few!
Free set up for grabs
OK, there’s a free set of the mp3s to the first person who can correctly write up the lyrics to the song in the comments below without cheating and looking at the lyrics sheet!
Get playing: You’re better than the best of the best!
P.S. requests for other grammar points to use in future hip hop are songs are always gratefully received!
Richard,
definitely YOU ARE better than the best of the best!
This song is great!!!
You’re the best you’re the best
You’re better than the best of the best x2
It’s hard it’s hard it’s harder than the hardest hardware store
It’s soft its soft softer than the softest sheep’s milk cheese
You’re cute you’re cute cuter than the cutest cute little kitten
Stay safe stay safe safer than the safest safety gate
It’s hot it’s hot hotter than the hottest hot coffee cup
Stay cool stay cool cooler than the coolest hip-hop school
Its clean its clean cleaner than the cleanest cleaning machine
Stay fresh stay fresh fresher than the freshest fresh mint fresh
You’re the best you’re the best
You’re better than the best of the best x2
She’s kind she’s kind she’s kinder than the kindest kind of kind girl
He’s mean he’s mean meaner than the meanest of the mean machine
Go fast go fast faster than the fastest fast food feast
Go slow go slow slower than the slowest slow.
Be loud be loud louder than the loudest thunder cloud
Stay calm stay calm calmer than the calmest car alarm
But it’s dark its dark it’s darker than the darkest deep sea shark
Now it’s Light now it’s light lighter than the lightest lighting strike
You’re the best you’re the best
You’re better than the best of the best x2
Dont think i missed anything out ^^
I see no reason not to use the refrain with my 4th and 5th graders. I’ll try to sneak it into a story in the next couple of weeks.
Great, love the loud part. Wonder if I can get that out of my head for this afternoons lessons and concentrate on animals again.
Just looked at it again and wouldn’t it have been better to have put, “you’re good” in there somewhere instead of using the superlative straight off?
Very Hip! Sounds like something out of ‘Step up’!
`Julian-K: Well done, only two mistakes! 🙂 The slow one is actually “slowmo” but I’ll give you that. No prize till you get the kind one right though!
@Rosebud: Yeah it just flowed better without. I also want the kids to know they’re not just good, but they are the best! I’ll probably do another one with the irregular ones.
WOW WOW and double WOW!! My kids are gonna LOVE IT!!!
What’s even better, is that you always come through with something when I really need it! I have to teach this next week!Perfect.
So, when are you going to start writing for Rihanna or 50 cents???
Great sound!! Hearing this song, I feel like resuming teaching HS students and adults. hhmmm
It’s hard it’s hard it’s harder than the hardest hardware store
It’s soft its soft softer than the softest sheep’s milk cheese
You’re cute you’re cute cuter than the cutest cute little kitten
Stay safe stay safe safer than the safest safety gate
It’s hot it’s hot hotter than the hottest hot coffee cup
Stay cool stay cool cooler than the coolest hip-hop school
Its clean its clean cleaner than the cleanest cleaning machine
Stay fresh stay fresh fresher than the freshest fresh mint fresh
You’re the best you’re the best
You’re better than the best of the best x2
She’s kind she’s kind she’s kinder than the kindest kind hearted girl
He’s mean he’s mean meaner than the meanest of the mean machine
Go fast go fast faster than the fastest fast food feast
Go slow go slow slower than the slowest slowmo.
Be loud be loud louder than the loudest thunder cloud
Stay calm stay calm calmer than the calmest car alarm
But it’s dark its dark it’s darker than the darkest deep sea shark
Now it’s Light now it’s light lighter than the lightest lighting strike
Ok, how’s that? ‘Kind hearted’? =D
Well, I’d go along with Julian-K except that I reckon it’s
“kinder than the kindest kindhearted girl”
I also think Richard sings “fresh mint breath”, not “fresh mint fresh”.
Great tune tho’. Another ear-worm for sure. Maybe I’ll trying slipping it into my next DJ-ing set!
BTW on a technical note, do you know why I was only alerted to this new post just now through my ‘subscribe to the blog thingummy'(see, I said it was technical!) even though you posted it a while ago?
Oh my god! This song rocks! Its in my head for sure…..thanks, haha. I was thinking I should play this song for my adult class tomorrow night and make them dance. You are my hero Richard! Thanks.
Tina Turner watch out! I’m going to try the refrain with my 4th years – they’ll go bananas about it.
Julian I also receive the blog update at least 1 or 2 days later than everyone else seems to. Don’t know why.
@Julians: Oops, yes it is “breath” and Kind Hearted Girl. So let’s say both Julians are the joint winners! Check your emails.
@Carol: Maybe Rhianna and 50 should come write for Genki English! 🙂
@Julian: Is it the email notification that was late? I have it set for an 11AM deadline, which I’m often missing with the 3 hour time difference at the moment!
@Everyone else: Glad you liked the song! Does this give me an excuse to write some more?
Woah! I don’t believe it! I seem to have inadvertently won a competition! Possibly the first thing I’ve won since that tea trolley at a school fete when I was 9. This is a LOT cooler. Though I guess it’ll be hard to balance a teapot on an MP3….
Thanks Richard! And thanks Julian-K for doing all the hard work!
BTW yes, Richard, it is the notification that comes late. Like Liza, sometimes two days late, so it can’t just be a simple deadline thing, can it?
Whey! Congrats to Julian too! I’d probably have never gotten the “breath” one. Ha-ha!
I think it certainly does give you an excuse to write more! My private students (mostly recently graduated from Uni) all really love them. The ones that you’ve put up worksheets for are especially useful – we normal listen to song, do the worksheet, go though the lyrics then I set listening on the webpage as homework. Of course it’s not my full curriculum, but it makes a nice non-textbook ending to each lesson!
I usually get one student at the front on the mouse and have the others gathered round the screen pointing. Which gets a bit crazy!
I haven’t figured out a worksheet for this one yet. Would it be cool with just the words or would pictures be needed?
These songs are actually easier than the other GE songs as I’m not so limited by the English plus I like the music more!
So any other grammar points to cover let me know and if something catches my ear I’ll try and make some more, it would be cool to have one song for every grammar point you could think of!
It would be very, very cool having a song for each grammar point, Richard. It’d make my job super easy too! 😀
My adult classes are normally one on one, but I’ve found things like the ‘cut up and then arrange in order’ worksheets, as well as the fill in the blanks go down a treat. I’d say that pictures are better though – I think it really helps on the presentation side of things, but also to make things go smoother. Then again, adults are more easily pleased than kids – so anything goes!
Other grammar points…. That’s kind of hard, simply because I can’t think of anything that wouldn’t work! Two things that spring to mind (mainly because I taught them recently! ) are “there’s a 00” “there are 00’s” Quantifiers, and countable/ uncountable. For the first I imagine some kind of town/ shopping mall description…like, ‘my favorite place to hang out’. Or something. Don’t know how helpful that is!
Julian-k and julian congratulations. Great work!
Richard,
YES! Please~!
It really doesn’t need to be one song a day, but I also agree with more songs like this. It would be so great and just in time.
Yesterday I had a very bad 5th graders private lesson and I got really scared to teach them all the grammar points they are going to have to learn from now on.
After being awake for half of the night because of this one girl, wondering what to do and how to continue teaching her things , it’s a relief to first watch this blog today and get some hope.
I think I will have several grammar points I would request and will think about this later on today.
First a technical question:
There are about half of the hip-hop songs everybody can access; for some I need to buy the mp3, right?
If I (or my students) get the mp3 they can’t do the visual part, can they?
If you do new songs, you add them to the old ones ,so if I want the new song only, I do have to get all the other mp3 songs again?
Do you plan to make any CD from these songs?
Sorry, cause these questions surely sound silly to people used to technique. I’m not at all, and my students (their parents) are even less. The best they can do is put the CD inside and work with that, but if I send them a link to check and work on, f.ex. some Genki themes they don’t have at home, just to check the pronunciation ,
it seems to be to hard already, So for students also CDs would be great.
Next comment coming soon, have a nice day!
I have another day at the BoE and the first thing I did was come to this site and play this song…..5 times! I love this song, it has a nice feeling to it. Please write more songs, more more more more onegai de ansu! ^^
@Margit: I think there are just two that don’t have games so they’re not on the site. The mp3 pack contains all the songs, but as you say none of the games, the games are only online. For the moment I’m sending anyone who has previously bought the Hip Hop pack, and emails me, a free upgrade when there’s a new song. I’ll do this for as long as it’s practical for me!
I originally wrote the songs for a book deal with a publisher. But they wanted them slowing waaaayyy down and didn’t like the music! So I did it as a podcast which got into the iTunes charts, but that proved too technical for most people so now I’m trying the mp3 download route. I have thought about making a CD, but it’s a big investment to do that and I’m not sure that any students would actually buy them on CD?
Ah, I’d wondered about Margit’s question too. Actually I brought the set quite a while ago, but since you sent me the updated version through here I didn’t think much of it. For my students though, I’ve always just given a link and said play around with it. Actually I think most of them spent more time with the kids’ games, but whatever, as long as their doing some homework!
I’m going to be putting this game up as my “video lesson of the week” next week. I’ve actually had to move the site onto a separate server, which means I’m going to have to start all over again with link building etc.
If any of you have a few seconds spare it would be really great if you could pop over to http://www.KeiKaiWa.com and hit the “英語ブログ” button to help get some link love for the site!
Or if you have a blog or site any links would be much appreciated!
I’ve just hit both buttons of “英語ブログ” of the new site and “子供英語教室” of this blog. I’m looking forward to seeing your blogs ranked at the top!!
Yumiko,
I actually stumbled over your blog, googling for something about the BoE.
surely:
YOUR blog serves many button hits as well. I tried to send you a comment: my first one was too long and refused, the second one also said:拒否します.I don’t know why, but at least now I can take the chance to say this, and thank you!
Your comments here are always great, but reading your blog gave me so many new ideas again.
I hope you read this, but I’m sure you are also reading pretty much every comment on this blog.
Sorry Richard, I hope it is okay to use this site to leave this message.
@Margit: No problem at all, and yes I agree Yumiko’s blog deserves lots of button hits as well! http://pub.ne.jp/tatchan/
Margit,
Thank you for reading my blog!!
I’m really sorry my blog rejected your comment. I removed the tick from “reject English comments” just now, so there will be no problem next time, I hope! When I started my blog last Feb., I was kind of scared, because it was my first time to have my own blog. And I set almost everything “reject”.
I’d be really happy if you would leave comments on my blog.
Richard, thank you for letting us chat here!
That looks like a really cute site Yumiko but unfortunately I can’t speak Japanese.
Richard hope I pressed the right buttons on your site. Good luck guys.
your the bestest
Hi Richard!!!
I think the GE materials you design are great. This Hip Hop song is my students’ favorite and even for one who does not show a lot of interest in English, he was listening to the song over and over when I showed him the access to Kids pages.
On top of everything, I really like the comments and posts because it just encourages us to try new things, what works better, and we get a lot of energy from the other teachers’ enthusiasm.
Thanks for creating this space.
Well I sincerely liked reading it. This subject procured by you is very useful for proper planning.