Months March song

Lyrics:

Ready … March!

January (January)
February (February)
March (March)
April (April)
May (May)
June (June)
July (July)
August (August)
September (September)
October (October)
November (November)
December (December)

Everybody … Stop!

Ready … March!

January, February, March,
April, May, June,
July, August, September, October,
November, December.

Everybody … Stop!

Gestures and activities to use with the “Months March” song

The actions are very simple for the song:

If you have a large room with plenty of space for everyone to march around:

1. Get everyone to line up facing forwards.  Everyone must stand to attention like soldiers (chin up, chests out, perfectly straight and still)
2. Start the music and get everyone to march in time to the music on the command “Ready … March!”.  Everyone needs to march in a perfect line, arms swinging up to the horizontal.
3. The first verse of the song is a call / repeat style: the singer calls out the months and everyone repeats.  Have everyone marching up and down the classroom shouting out the months.
4. On the command “Everybody … Stop!” everyone stops and stands to attention, perfectly still.  Then start marching again on “Ready … March!”.
5. This time there is no repeating.  Students have to remember the months and shout them out as they march.

If you only have a small room or don’t have much space:

Follow the same steps as above but get everyone to march on the spot.

Using the Months March song in class

Learning all the months in their correct order is not the easiest task, but using the song regularly helps a lot!  The first time you use the song, follow these steps for teaching the months:

1. Teach the months of the year vocab. Start off by looking at a calendar with everyone (and English one, if possible). Have some fun with the calendar first: ask students to point at holidays such as Christmas and to point out their birthdays. Ask what month their birthdays are in and point to the month word (e.g. January) at the top of each month. Start to teach / elicit the English words for months as you discuss their birthdays. Ask what month it is now as well as the following (using the calendar):

   – the month Christmas is in
   – months other holidays are in (e.g. Easter, famous national holidays – this depends on the country you are teaching in!)
   – months for different seasons (e.g. summer months, winter, spring and fall / autumn)

2. Play “Put the months in order”. Before class, prepare some colored rectangles of card and write the months of the year in thick marker pen on each rectangle of card. You’ll be putting students in pairs so make enough sets for each pair. Also, if each month can be written on a different colored card it will help the students to quickly identify each month. Put your students in pairs and give each pair a set of mixed up cards. By referring to the calendar, have the pairs put the months in order on the floor or table. Then get everyone to touch each card and repeat after you as you chorus the months of the year paying special attention to the fist letter of each word (e.g. “J” for “January”). Run through a few times, getting faster and faster. Finally, get the pairs to mix up the cards and tell them they are going to race to see which pair can put their cards in order first. Say “Ready, steady, go!” and let the students put the cards in order.
3. Play “Wall Touch”. Give each pair some Blue-Tak or something to stick the cards on the wall with. Ask everyone to randomly stick their cards all over the walls around the room. Then bring everyone into the middle of the room. Shout out “January” and everyone has to race over to a January card and touch it. Then “February” and so on (in the correct order) until you make it through all the months. Play another round, this time faster!
4. Sing the “Months March” song. Put one set of months cards on the board in the correct order (or use our song poster). Get everyone to stand to attention, like soldiers, and then follow the steps in the “Gestures and activities” section above. If this is the first time to sing the song, play it at least twice and let everyone enjoy marching around.
5. Do a “Months of the Year” worksheet. To finish off this section of the lesson, give out worksheets based on the months of the year. As your students are doing the worksheets, ask questions (e.g. “What month is it?”, etc.). You can also give a worksheet for homework. We have two good worksheets: Months Scramble and Months Order.