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.