If you're happy and you know it...

"If you're happy and you know it" is one of the traditional kids songs. It's energetic and also great for teaching verbs.Actually it was difficult to decide which version of the song was better but finally ideal tempo and rich lyrics of the cover below persuaded me. 

In this version lyrics are long and many verbs can be taught in one song. Also the video has creative animation that students liked and they could follow the lyrics while singing, watching and dancing at the same time. By this way they could learn the lyrics quickly and written lyrics in the video made all these vocabulary memorable for them.Multicultural images and saying hello in many languages are very good ideas.I first wrote the lyrics and add a matching exercise as below: 

Say Hello,

Konnichiwa! Bon jour!

Privyet! Ni hao!

Kalimera ! Jambo !

Hao ! Guten tag !

Namaste ! Selam!

Buongiorno! Hola!

Vangaa!

Merhaba!

 Turkish             Japanese

Italian                  Chinese

Arabic                German

Russian                  Spanish

French                  Greek

African           Indian

Lesson Plan

1. Cut the lyrics in ten pieces.
2. Hand out the pieces of lyrics randomly.
3. Ask students to listen to the song (without video) and put the lyrics in the correct order.
4. Listen to the song again (with video) to check answers.
5. Read the underlined lyrics (verb phrases) and explain with your body, gestures, mimics, etc.
6. Ask students to match languages and "hello" expressions.
7. In an open group check answers and give feedback.
8. Watch the video, sing and dance.In short, enjoy the song.

Next week

1. Play the song and ask kids to sing together. (Encourage them to sing do not care about their pronunciation mistakes)
2. Ask students to sing in slow tempo, fast tempo, by whispering, happily, crying, etc. (Believe me this is a great fun and kids love it!)
3. Record their performance and finally watch or listen together.

If you'd like to play the song here are the chords: 

C                                                          G
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

                                                     C
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

F                                                           C
If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

    G                                                      C
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.


p.s. If you're happy with my ideas do it, and share your feedback please!;)