Anthony Rinaldi
Toyama Higashi SHS
Special Needs
Vocabulary through Song and Sound Effects
Target audience: Elementary school students who have no/low-level vision
Objective: Introduce and practice emotions and weather vocabulary
Materials: A slightly edited version of the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” with verses added to introduce more emotions. My version of the song went:
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands [CLAP CLAP]
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands [CLAP CLAP]
If you’re happy, happy, happy, if you’re really really happy,
If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands [CLAP CLAP]
***
If you’re angry, angry, angry, stomp your feet [STOMP STOMP]
***
If you’re sad, sad, sad, cry “boo hoo” [BOO HOO]
***
If you’re sleepy, sleepy, sleepy, make a yawn [YAAAWWWNN]
***
If you’re surprised, surprised, surprised, say “Oh my gosh!” [OH MY GOSH!]
Simplifying the song so as to repeat the vocabulary will not only give the student more chances to actually say the emotion, but will also help the student remember it.
2) Sound effects for various types of weather. In my lesson, I used sound effects for rain, thunder, howling wind, walking on snow, and cicadas buzzing (to represent sunny weather)
Procedure:
1) Go through the song with the student, teaching them one verse and action at a time. It may help to know the Japanese words for the emotions you wish to teach, for ease of clarification. After you’ve gone over a few verses, you can sing them together, until you’re singing the entire song. If the student just sings the emotion words with you, that’s fine, since singing the whole phrase can be difficult for them.
2) After you’ve gone through the whole song together, you can quickly review the emotions by doing one of the actions and having the student say the correct emotion.
3) Now it’s time to move on to weather. You can play each of your sound effects, telling them the English word that describes it (and the Japanese word too, if they need it). After you play a sound, you can ask, “Do you feel [happy, sad, surprised…] when it [rains, snows, thunders…]?” You can help the students by giving an example sentence about yourself—i.e. “I feel happy when it snows.” When a student gives you an emotion, you can help build this whole sentence with them, having them repeat the sentence piece by piece with you, and then the whole sentence by themselves. If the student is able to write or type in braille, they can do that with their sentences.
Additional information:
I did this lesson individually with a 5th grade student, but I think this lesson could work with a small group of students as well. The lesson filled 50 mins, and you can always add more emotions to the “If You’re Happy and You Know It” song if your kids pick up on it quickly or you sense you need to fill more time.