CONTENT

ACTIVITY

Type : Song Title : Old Macdonald had a farm Genre : R & B

Procedure :

1) Ask pupils about the animals that they know that live in the farm. 2) Show a video of Old Macdonald had a farm song and paste the lyrics on chalkboard. 3) Teacher sings the song while showing flash cards of different animals. 4) Divide pupils into six groups and name the groups as duck, pig, cow, dog, cat and horse. 5) Give different printable mask outlines

Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh! And on that farm he had some ducks with a quack quack here, and a quack quack there, here a quack, there a quack everywhere a quack quack Old MacDonald had a farm Ee i ee i oh!

Old MacDonald had a farm, Ee i ee i oh! And on that farm he had some pigs, Ee i ee i oh! With a oink-oink here, And a oink-oink there Here a oink, there a oink, Everywhere a oink-oink Old MacDonald had a farm Ee i ee i oh!

to each group and ask them to decorate it using collage technique. 6) Cut the mask and wear it while singing. 7) The pupils do turn-taking by singing the stanza following by the sound of the animal that they represent. 8) Teacher makes the sound randomly and asks pupils to guess the animals.

Cows moo moo Dogs woof woof Cats meow meow Horses neigh neigh

Old MacDonald Had a Farm is an R & B song which is very catchy as it is the combination of rhythm and blues. This song can be used to teach the topic of On the farm which is contained in the World of Knowledge theme that focused on the language artsbased activity. Intermediate year two pupils are the most suitable target for this activity to be carried out as the song and the activity itself is easy and can be done in 60 minutes.

The language used in this song can be understood easily because it contains only simple words and sentences. Although the lyric is long, there should be no problem since the song contains repetition. It keeps repeating the same sentences and only changes the animal and its sound. Whether it's putting away shoes and jackets when they get home or learning the difference in meaning and spelling between 'there' and 'their,' repetition is the one thing that will help anchor information to kids brains (Ben Glenn, 2010). Indirectly, repetition helps a lot in attracting pupils attention toward the song and makes them understand and remember the words better because practice makes perfect, and repetition makes permanent. As they hear the same thing over and over, they will begin to say the words that they remember. The variation of animals such as duck, pig, cow, dog, cat and horse with different sounds actually is the interesting elements in this song as pupils are already familiar with those animals that can be found in their own country, Malaysia. Besides, it helps in adding the good qualities of pupils by helping them to appreciate the beauty of the living things around them. At the end of this lesson, pupils will be able to show up their creative work by doing the arts activity of colouring, collaging and cutting masks of animals characters which will help in enhancing their aesthetic values.

In addition, to encourage pupils to activate their imagination and interest, they will be asked to prepare their own masks. This activity can develop their creativity and also their fine motor skills that are used to colour and cut the mask. Teachers should be creative enough to attract young learners to learn language by providing a non-threatening atmosphere, likewise said by Lo and Fai Li (1998). Teacher can expand this learning activity by having the pupils repeat the animal sound and asking what type of food do the animals eat. Language arts through songs are a dynamic platform to learn language as it helps children to express themselves by not only moving their body and clapping hands but by learning English as an entertainment rather than fleeing away from the class. For this activity, the resource used is a video file of a song that is easily accessed and can be downloaded from the YouTube.