Erin Bouma's Recommended
Sites for Teachers
of Young Learners of English
Whether you work in a classroom or with your own children or private pupils, you should think about bringing more music, puppet and mask activities and project work into your teaching to make working with kids more fun and effective.
Music/Teaching with Songs
www.supersimplesongs.com
These songs were created by Westerners teaching children in the Far East. Free downloads and a newsletter
www.nancymusic.com
80 free songs for downloading – most are original by a creative American songwriter/singer
www.songsforteaching.com
large listing of texts/audio samples, plus a newsletter with a free song each month
http://eleaston.com/music.html
A wealth of children’s songs, Scout songs, ESL, Folk Music and other categories
http://judyanddavid.com
The Children’s Music Archive online songbook directory
Mask Resources
www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/maskcrafts
Good selection of simple animal and ethnic mask patterns
http://www.kinderart.com/multic/cpapermask.shtml
Directions for making paper masks
www.aaps.k12.mi.us/thurston.art/thurston.art-2/masks
Elementary school African-style masks
http://webtech.cherokee.k12.ga.us/carmel-es/dkinzel/multicultural_masks.htm
Face masks made by students using a variety of materials
http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/huntington/kinderthumbnail/index.htm
Kindergarten-made Chinese-style masks
www.janbrett.com/activities_pages_masks.htm An artist’s wonderful animal faces to print out
Puppet Resources
www.gis.net/~puppetco
68 ways to make big puppets, scripts and other resources
http://chartier.rainbowwings.org/Kids/puppet.html
On-line workshop for “Anything can be a Puppet”
www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/toddler
Simple finger puppets, folding paper, paper bag and paper plate designs to make
www.101handpuppets.com
Instant puppets: Simple ideas using handkerchief and hands
www.sagecraft.com/puppetry
Questions, types of puppets, puppets around the world, making and using puppets. Practical
http://drango.com/tips/makepuppet.htm
How to make a puppet from a stuffed animal
www.puppetools.com
A learning community with its own training and teacher-led research focused on play. It is not theater but “a language of handheld ideas and symbols”, a revolutionary “play language” and play-based communication system. Interesting ideas, essays and example puppets.
Project Approach
www.project-approach.org
Theory, planning, development information and many samples of real projects carried out in classrooms
www.ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n1/chard.html
How to take Early Childhood curriculum themes and develop them into projects. Research & practice.
http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/books/projcat2/schuler1.html
How to conduct a “mini-project” to teach children skills for project work