There’s been some great feedback on the forum about the various Genki English songs, here are some comments from Flossy in Austria about CD7 with some nice ideas for the soccer theme and a warning about Baby Monkey!

Come on Come on – The football song was a massive hit . They gave it lots of ‘gas’ and had loads of fun doing to the actions. I had taken in a full size foam football and we played a game. The children said a word as they did the action. I am in a classroom so they had to be a little careful! eg “Throw” – child threw ball to next in circle – “Catch” said the child as they caught it! mostly anyway. We matched up lots of actions, had a free pass session saying pass each time and then everyone went into goal. It was very loud when the children shouted “Score or Goal !!!!!!” and celebrated. I liked this game as no one is out, a bit of a problem with most of my students here! It was also very amusing to watch some of them try to head the ball. I know this will become a weekly favourite as I was asked if we could play it next time.

What time is it? 2 (It’s 2:10, 3:15 etc.) I think I have several budding opera singers. They all decided to use a funny voice to sing the song. They have no problem with telling time so I do not know how it would work with younger ones. I will try it soon and let everyone know how it goes. We did sing it three times and used the arm actions just as the computer animation. Good for their fitness too and waking up the brains a bit on a slow day maybe?

Where is Baby Monkey? They liked the game and enjoyed singing the song. There was only one downside with the animation for this song. Baby monkey appears in the washing machine and the same day an article in a local paper had reported an incident (I don’t know where in the world) where a baby had been put in a tumble dryer! I did not read it myself, but the children said they thought it was not so good for younger children to see this. I said I would warn all children they should never pick a dangerous hiding place. This is just the same as the warning for the pond in the Easter song. I know as a teacher you have to be so careful with the material you expose the children to, so maybe its worth talking to them about this.

Genki Disco Warm Up Extended Mix – I used the karaoke version of the song and had changed the lyrics to suit some of my current ‘command’ words. They really enjoyed it and again this will no doubt become a firm favourite amongst my students.

Thank you very much for that Flossy.

If you have any feedback on any of the songs please send it in, there’s a form and the end of each song page. If you have video of your class doing the songs it would be even better. Any extra little hints and tips to help other teachers out are always appreciated however small or large they are!