Listening: A Wonderful World

I first learned about this activity while taking the CELTA course in NYC. Since then, I've added elements to it and have had a tremendous success with this activity in High Beginning ESL classes. It truly has creates "a wonderful world" in the classroom.
Enjoy!
Juli
www.teacher-juli.blogspot.com

Activity: Listening, drawing and mingling activity based on the lyrics in ?What a Wonderful World? by Louis Armstrong.

Objective: Students will draw the vocabulary they hear in the song and discuss drawings with classmates.

Materials:
-Picture cards of vocabulary from song (baby crying, blue sky, green trees, red roses, earth, shaking hands, etc.)
-song: ?What a Wonderful World? by Louis Armstrong
-CD or MP3 player
-markers and construction paper

1. The teacher tells students that they will be listening to a song called ?Wonderful World? (The title is shortened to make activity easier). In pairs, Ss discuss what they think the song is about. Possible questions to facilitate discussion include: What makes a wonderful world? What are people doing? What things do you see? What colors do you see? This is followed by a group discussion.

2. The teacher reviews key vocabulary words from song with picture cards (e.g.: world, hands shaking, blue sky with clouds, rainbow, red roses, tree, baby crying). Ss describe pictures with as many words as they can.

3. The teacher gives students construction paper and color markers. She informs students that they are going to hear the song ?What a Wonderful World ? three (3) times. The first time they will only listen. The second and third time, they will draw what they hear described in the song.

4. Once they?re through with their drawings, the teacher will instruct students to all stand up and walk around the room, describing their drawings to their classmates. Students will then choose their favorite drawing and explain why.