A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have Bu Cathy stay at my home and visit my classroom. While she was here, I told her about an activity I used to do with my LOTE classes in English, as a warm-up. It was singing ‘My Bonnie lies over the Ocean‘. Students are asked to stand up (and subsequently sit) whenever they hear a word that begins with ‘b’. (Lots of fun when the chorus kicks in!)

Bu Cathy and I then came up with an Indonesian version to keep the input in the target language! It goes like this:

Susi tidak suka Sydney

Tidak suka Sydney Susi

Susi tidak suka Sydney

Kembali, kembali Susi

Chorus: Susi, Susi, Susi sakit dan sedih, sedih

Susi, Susi, Susi sakit dan sedih

This is sung to the same tune as ‘Bonnie’ and students stand up or sit down with every word that begins with ‘s’. Tried it with my Year 1s, 2s and 3s last week. The Year 1 and 2s were a bit all over the place,  but Year 3s really listened carefully and had lots of fun standing and sitting at the appropriate times. Try it with your classes! Fantastic Brain Break. Afterwards, I asked my students to tell me what the song was about.

Another great idea inspired by Bu Cathy! I was trying to think of a way to get lots of reps with ‘suka’ (like) for my junior classes. Bu Cathy had posted about a game called ‘Double This Double That’. I realised this could be a fun way of getting those valuable reps!

Suka, suka es, es

Suka suka krim, krim

Suka es, suka krim

Suka, suka es krim

We went through the rhyme very slowly, line by line, repeating until all kids had it. Then I asked them to form two circles facing each other. We practised all the rhyme slowly once, then the outside circle moved around to the next partner. We did this until they were back at the start. It did not get boring as each time they had a new friend! Gave the struggling kids time to get the hang of it also.

Year Prep to Year 3 learned the rhyme. I then asked them to go home, teach someone at home, practise it at school with friends, practise against the wall and try to go faster and faster. The video below is what one class came up with – they were so proud that they could do it as a big group! I was totally blown away! Afterwards, we had the challenge of a whole class clap. Parents have come to me to tell me their kids are driving them crazy with the clapping rhyme (what wonderful feedback). So change the words to suit and get clapping!