Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Age: 4-6 years

Language: Hello/ How are you/ I'm fine thank you/ Animal vocab: Dog, cow, horse, sheep, chicken, farm.

Procedure:

1. Drill Hello, How are you and I'm fine thank you. Check meaning.
2. Sing Hello song.  (Hello, hello, how are you? I'm fine thank you I'm fine thank you, hello hello hello - to the tune of "Hi Ho Hi Ho"). 
3. Take your animal flashcards and put them behind an A4 card 'door' with keyhole cut out in the middle. Students guess the animals. Say hello to the animal, ask the kids to ask the animal "how are you?" and reply in the animals voice, for example bleating 'I'm fine thank you'. Then get the kids to repeat. I put a scary dog behind the last one who we have to slam the door shut on and scream. 
4. Get the kids standing up and dancing to Old MacDonald had a farm. Sing it without the music first and sing it slowly. 

Old MacDonald had a farm (hold onto your braces and bob from side to side)

EIEIO (do windscreen wiper hands)

And on that farm he had a -elicit flashcard- (hold onto your braces and bob from side to side)

EIEIO (do windscreen wiper hands)

-Elicit noise the animal makes-

eg. woof woof woof. woof woof woof. woof. woof. woof woof woof. (The kids cannot sing the full version so just make the noises along with the rythm. 

Old MacDonald had a farm (hold onto your braces and bob from side to side)

EIEIO (do windscreen wiper hands)

5. Play the start of the video. What animals can they hear?

6. Play the whole video, pausing every time a new animal starts to appear.

7. Sing along.

Extensions:

Draw and number six fields with a farm in the middle and do a listening dictation. Eg. "Draw a cow in number 3". This will be difficult for them so leave some fields for their imaginiation, and divide the activity over two lessons.

Match halves of the animals worksheet. 

Teach pig and duck. Play musical statues 'walking around the farm' (I do it on the spot in a small figure of 8) in the style of the different animals to this song. Introduce this phase by talking about the concept of 'dance bubbles', in that noone can leave their own or enter other people's!

Then show them the video and encourage them to join in.