I want to make some toilet roll shakers for a song on the British council’s web site called “Chocolate cake”http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/chocolate-cake and use dry rice and peas inside the toilet roll shakers as the words of the first verse of the song is is “chicken, rice and peas”. Actually I really had fun with a group of 3rd grade EFL students and this song but we didn’t make the shakers. Instead we used ready made percussion instruments such as castanets, triangles and tambourines but making them is better and take away too and cheaper if you don’t have percussion instruments. I also made small posters on lollipop stick for the kids to hold up when we say the words of the song and I changed the words of the song to suit travel and around the world theme, You can download these images for lollipop sticks here.FOOD SONG BRITISH COUNCIL
So after modifying the song for my needs I substituted these different food words and tied them with a country, and then mirrored the flavor of the country with percussion instruments.
I will teach this in small groups and assign a country with its relevant lollipop food image sticks and percussion instruments.
“Yummy yummy yummy, put it in my tummy,” hands up who like the British Council for kids
http://voices.yahoo.com/3-musical-instrument-crafts-using-recycled-materials-3345150.html?cat=24 Here is a link to making musical instruments. Match the activity to another song from the British Council for kids site and a song called “Shakey Shakey” …http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/sounds/shakey-shakey 
So now I get the chance to put to use the 100 or more empty toilet rolls I have collected.
The sounds, or words as I chose to focus on in this song are, “rain, falling down, sea, wave, shaker, rain, leaf, trees,” Make a memory game as another activity to teach the vocabulary as well as the song from the digital on line memory game from the British Council. Click the words game directly under the printable words pdf link. The British council has a flashcard maker under the “Teaching English” resources. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-resources You do need to open a free account to access this resource. So I made myself a memory game with various combinations of themes that can be played in groups after I printed off a few sets on bristol card. Don’t forget to check your printer’s setting are on ”portrait” for printing because for some reason this link prints landscape automatically and then you cant use them.
