[arielhud]

I teach 1-3 year olds, and 4-6 year olds and just recently found a "treasure trove" of CDs and nursery rhyme/Mother Goose books in the attic of our school. I'm curious to know what songs people actually swear by at language schools- and which songs you use as background noise during quiet activities. I'm not a huge fan of teaching most nursery rhymes and Mother Goose poems to EFL learners because the grammar and vocabulary is often ridiculous or outdated.... (For instance, my boss loves "Where is Thumbkin?" but I hate it- they have to unlearn all of those finger names a couple of years later....)

I like singing B-I-N-G-O, The Wheels on the Bus, If You're Happy and You Know It (haven't found a good recording of this yet), Itsy Bitsy Spider (for babies) and I use the Days of the Week and Months of the Year chants pretty regularly, as well as Barbara Milne's phonics song, but other than that, I haven't really been happy with the choices that are out there.

I get a lot of "kimo waruuuuu" in Japan (which is like saying "eww!" in Japanese) to a lot of the Wee Sing albums and other nasally, adults-talking-like-kids songs, so I'm trying to find a good mix of proper songs.

[Lane84]

Hi, the best site for these kind of songs that I have been using is Dream english, they are mostly TPR but kids love them, whatever involves gestures, they are in!
There are plenty of songs to download

[arielhud]

Thanks a lot! I've run into their videos on Youtube and didn't like them too much (my kids just point and laugh at him ^^;; ) but having just the songs would be great~ thanks!

[mesmark]

I use
- the Wheels on the Bus
- Itsy bitsy spider
- head shoulders knees and toes
- london bridge is falling down

I don't do much singing at all but I generally get these songs in somewhere and don't do much else.

[Beatrix]

If you are teaching kindergarden, Super Simple Songs - Easy English songs for kids. are I believe among the best songs for children in English.
(I think the guys who created them are friends witrh Richard Graham of Genki English, and their songs are equally good as his, only for kindy level)