STEP 1
Play only the refrain of the song
and ask students to work in groups to write a story that leads to this song being sung.
STEP 2
Compare stories of the class with the original story in the song by playing the song until the end.
If needed, find a version with lyrics to help with understanding.
Step 1
Ask students if they are aware of any groundbreaking speeches people gave in history. If you can have pairs or small groups access the internet, it is a good reading practice to allow them to search for them.
A simple search for “best speech” brought ideal results among the first ten, such as these:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1841228,00.html
If Internet in school is not available, you can either assign this as homework or print out a set and distribute them around the classroom for students to “browse”.
Each group should choose one speech they find special and present it to the rest, including an oral explanation why they thought so.
Step 2
Play the song without the video and ask students if they can figure out whose the voice is and which speech it is.
Have them go back to the speech and read along.
Step 3
Let students use the internet and/or the transcript of the speech to write a paragraph about why they think this particular speech was important then and why did the artist in this song decide it is still worth using in a song and why it was a hit in many European countries. (source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakermat )
Step 4
After exchanging their ideas about the topic, students expand the paragraphs into essays adding introduction, conclusion and some more background and arguments.
STEP 1
Ask students to work in pairs or small groups. Give them a time limit to name as many vegetables as they can. One of my groups full of boys likes competitions so I set it as a competition.
STEP 2
Ask the group with the lowest number to read out their list and then ask other groups to add to it.
One of the vegetables on the list will surely be tomato, so here you can have students watch this interesting video that looks at a tomato as a fruit and have them think about this aspect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxo_EOyK7eA
Talk also about what they know about tomatoes.
STEP 3
Ask students if they know anything about cucumbers and what they are good for. Then show them this song:
The first time, I let the song play out until the end without interruptions. Later, if necessary, I stop the song and check understanding.
STEP 4
Ask groups to choose 1 vegetable from their list, do a short Google search about it and make a similar song about their chosen vegetable. They can easily find instrumental versions of popular songs on Youtube for the basis of their song. Alternatively, they can use one of many music apps to produce the music to it. One of my groups already had a guitar app installed on one of the phones so they produced the whole song from scratch.
STEP 5
Have groups perform the song while their schoolmates grade the performances. You can also make a video of the performances.
Have fun J
STEP 1
Put your students in small groups and ask them to find online what the following words mean and 3 different ways of using them in a sentence.
Oblivion
Lense
Picket fence
Utopia
Bubble
Ornament
Numb
Distortion
Wasted
Inferno
Nuclear
STEP 2
Ask groups to write a short story using these words and share them with the class.
STEP 3
Ask students to listen to the song and watch the video.
What is she trying to say with the song?
Now show them the song with lyrics and see if they understand even more:
STEP 1
Ask your students to step to the window and look out for 30 seconds, trying to remember as much as possible. After that, they should sit down and individually describe what they saw in as much detail as possible. (This is a nice opportunity to revise past simple structures such as I saw… There were… etc.)
STEP 2
Ask students to find a partner and compare their notes with at least 3 different people. Ask if they all noticed the same things and if there are any reasons why some people noticed different things than others or interpreted them in a different way.
STEP 3
Ask students to listen to this song
STEP 4
Have students work in small groups to try to understand the song. They might need dictionaries or internet to be able to understand everything. Each group writes a short paragraph on how they understand it. They share their ideas with other groups and discuss the following questions:
Who are the people in the song? What is their relationship?
What function does the cat have?
How does what you see through the window relate to the people in the song?
If they are interested in more, they can try to find interpretations of other people on websites such as http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/82387/