I encourage you to come visit the Super Simple Learning Blog, where I will be writing along with my colleagues Troy and Tanja.  And if you are looking for even more community, please keep in touch through our Facebook page, our message board, and/or our newsletter. 

Thanks to everyone who has read and contributed to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and All That.  

Enjoy the latest video from Super Simple Songs!

This year's event is especially large as it will also be hosting the 7th joint conference of the Pan Asian Consortium (PAC) as well as the 6th Asian Youth Forum (AYF), so there will attendees from ThaiTESOL (Thailand), KOTESOL (Korea), ETA-ROC (Taiwan), FEELTA (Russian Far East), ELLTAS (Singapore), and PALT (Philippines). 

I'll be presenting on Sunday, November 2nd at 9:15am with Troy and Tanja.  We'll be just one of the hundreds of presentations to choose from, so if you're looking to power up your teaching, we hope to see you there!

Once again this year, we're offering Knock Knock, Trick or Treat as a free download.  It's a really fun song and perfect for young learners.  Here's a clip of us singing it at our 2007 Halloween party:

Have a great Halloween! If you have any favorite Halloween songs or activities, please share them here!!!!

It's all there now.  Writing practice, fun phonics songs, mini audio lessons, easy-to-learn vocabulary items, pencil skill practice, review pages and songs, teacher's guide, gesture guide for the songs, activity bank, flashcards, mini-cards, printable worksheets, bingo games, completion certificates, and more!

Together the book/CD set and the Support Pack are everything you need to introduce the alphabet and phonics to young learners.  The goal of Super Simple Phonics is not mastery of the English alphabet, but rather to introduce young learners to the shapes and sounds of the English alphabet in a fun, confidence-building way. 

Have a look and listen and tell us what you think! 

Last week, after her Mom had lost consciousness due to a medical condition, 3 year-old Madelyn Eaves picked up her Mom's phone, dialed 911, and soon emergency dispatchers arrived to provide care. 

How did she know to call 911?  Her Mom, aware of her own medical condition, had taught Madelyn a simple song to remember in case something like this ever happened.  The lyrics to the song?  "911 green, 911 green." (Green being the color of the "Send" button on most U.S. cell phones).  When Mom collapsed, Madelyn called 911 and was able to give enough information to guide help to her house.

Is there some really important information you need your kids to know?  Put it in a song!  Make a song with just the digits to your phone number.  Or a song for your address.  Nothing will help a young child remember better than a catchy, simple song.

If you happen to be in Tokyo, come join us!  You can find details here or here (in Japanese).

If you aren't in Tokyo, or you are but you can't make it to the venue, you are still in luck.  You can sign up to participate in the workshop online!  Space is limited.  You can learn the details by following the above links.   See you there?!?!

The post features an enlightening interview with a music therapist (highly recommended listening).  At one point the interviewer notes, "If you sing the words you might say to a child, they are more likely to respond."  That's something that I learned early on when teaching young learners.  In teaching young second language learners in particular, the music plays a double role of helping to teach new language AND signaling transitions to children who may not otherwise understand the directions of the the teacher due to a limited vocabulary. 

Here are some examples of the Clean Up song from Super Simple Songs in action! (note that it works with puppies, too!)