Come and sing with me!

Let's sing together!


Step to learn basic pronouns

In the first several lessons of an English course you should always start off with "I" and "You" for the very simple reason that these are pronouns that kids use the most. But once you've done several "I" themes e.g. I'm hungry, I'm 7 years old, I came here by car, I'd like an orange juice etc. you can then use this pronouns song to dramatically increase the amount of English the kids can say.
I am, you are, he is happy
by Richard Graham

I am hungry.
I am hungry.
You are hungry.
You are hungry.
He is hungry.
He is hungry.
She is hungry.
She is hungry.

We are hungry.
We are hungry.
They are hungry.
They are hungry.
Everybody is hungry.

I am thirsty.
I am thirsty.
You are thirsty.
You are thirsty.
He is thirsty.
He is thirsty.
She is thirsty.
She is thirsty.

We are thirsty.
We are thirsty.
They are thirsty.
They are thirsty.
Everybody is thirsty.

I am happy.
I am happy.
You are happy.
You are happy.
He is happy.
He is happy.
She is happy.
She is happy.

We are happy.
We are happy.
They are happy.
They are happy.
Everybody is happy.
Everybody is happy.


1. Put the I'm hungry card on the board and make sure the kids remember it. Do the
gesture for "hungry". For the "I" part either point to yourself or another idea
is to use the sign language for "I".

2. Sing the "I am hungry" line from the song with the gestures. If the kids notice
the difference simply say that you can either use "I am hungry" or "I'm hungry"
in English. Don't let other teachers go into a big grammar explanation.

3. Get the kids to repeat with the actions. If you can do it, it's always fun to
joke with the kids by saying "No, I am hungry!" etc.

4. Teach them how to say "You are hungry". This time with a gesture of either
pointing at the kids or the sign language for "you".

5. Get the kids to repeat from step 3 using the other pronouns.

For "He" you point to one boy in the class, for "she" point to one girl, for "we" point to lots of people and include yourself, for "they" point to people away from yourself, and for "everybody" try and include the whole class in your gesture. Or as mentioned before use the sign language, whichever version you are familiar with, for these words.

6. Now put up the "thirsty" card (from the extra How are you? words). See if the
kids can figure out the "you are thirsty" etc. parts. You can either do this by
asking the kids in their own language and getting them to translate into
English or by using the pronoun picture cards or gestures. This is a really
important step. We want the kids to realise they can chop and mix and change the
language they know to mean new things.

7. Now crank up the CD player to full and sing the song. The kids will love it,
it's possibly the best ever Genki English song! If you've done "hungry" and
"thirsty" explicitly you normally don't need to prepare "happy" separately, the
kids will pick up on it straight away.

8. Everyone will be on a super high note. So hit them with some tests. Teach "and"
and "but" and then use either gestures, the kids' native language or picture
kids to elicit lines such as "I am hungry, but she is thirsty and they are
tired" The kids will love the great big confidence boost making a long sentence
like this gives!

9. Usually that will be the end of the lesson so finish on another big loud
rendition of the song!