The Hello Song & The Goodbye Song

Download songs from ESL KidStuff: The Hello Song & The Goodbye Song

The Hello Song

Song Theme: Greetings
Target Vocab: Hello, How are you?, I’m fine, thank you, And how about you?
Song length: 1:02

This is a great song to start your lesson with younger learners.  Here is a sample:

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Lyrics:

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
Hello, hello,
How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Gestures to use with The Hello Song

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

• Wave as you sing the “Hello, hello” parts.
• Gesture to others as you sing “How are you today?”
• Point to yourself as you sing “I’m fine, thank you”
• Hand gesture towards another student as you sing “And how about you?”.

Using The Hello Song in class

Use the song each lesson as the warm up to the class.  Here is a suggested warm up routine which you can use in each of your young learners’ classes:

1. Greetings: Greet the students by name as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. It’s a good idea to have a cushion for each student (and parent if also taking part) as this makes sitting arrangements easy to organize. Try and arrange the cushions beforehand spaced out in a fan-shape around you.
2. Name Tags: Before class prepare some name tags (stickers or pin-on tags) with each student’s name written on in lower-case letters. Sit down with your students and lay out the name tags in front of you. Pick up each tag and call out the name. Try and encourage each student to put their hand up and say “yes”. Hand over the tags and help to pin / stick on.  Later on as your students recognize their written names you can have each student in turn pick out their own name tag.
3. Glove Puppet greetings: Use a glove puppet (such as a Sesame Street puppet) to greet the students. Keep him in a cloth bag. Bring out the bag, open it enough to see in and shout into the bag the puppet’s name (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Then move your ear to the opening to listen – nothing. Go to each student and encourage them to shout the puppet’s name into the bag – each time nothing happens. Finally, get all the students together to shout the name at the same time. This time the puppet wakes up and jumps out of the bag! The puppet then chats to each students: “Hello”, “What’s your name?” “Goodbye / See you” before going back into the bag and back to sleep.

   In later lessons (as the students learn the words to the Hello Song) you can practice using the target vocab via conversations between the puppet and each student (E.g. Puppet: Hello, how are you today?  Student: I’m fine, thank you.  And how about you?”).

4. Sing “Hello Song” (or a Review Song):

   Sit in a circle and sing along to the song. Encourage students to clap along, pat their laps or use gestures in time with the music. The Hello Song is a good song to start the lesson with, especially as it has an accompanying Goodbye song to sing at the end of the lesson.

5. Homework check: Check each student’s homework set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “what color is it?”), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker or a stamp – I draw a smiley face). Tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.
6. Do “Exercise Routine” activity: Say the following and have the students follow your lead: “Stand up (teacher stands and so does everyone else), “Hands up / hands down” (x 3-5), “Jump” (x3-5), “Run! / Stop!” (x3-5), “Turn around! / Stop!” (x3-5), finally “Sit down”. Throughout the course you can introduce other commands, such as “Hop”, “Star Jump”, “Wiggle”, “Crouch” and so on.

   Extra activity: Once your students have got to know these exercises you can play “Teacher Says” using these actions.

7. Review past lesson vocab / structures / games / songs / etc.: Reviewing past lessons is very important – students need constant practice of new vocab, structures, songs, games and so on. Always review your last lesson as well as some parts from other previous lessons. You can spend 5-10 minutes reviewing – it’s fine to recycle games and activities from your past lessons to review as kids enjoy playing familiar games (although be careful not to play a game to death).

The Goodbye Song

Song Theme: Saying goodbye
Target Vocab: Goodbye, See you again, It’s time to go, See you next time
Song length: 1:01

A perfect song to end the lesson with.  Here is a sample:

(Members can log in to download the full song)

Lyrics:

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.

It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Gestures to use with The Goodbye Song

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

• Wave as you sing the “Goodbye, goodbye” parts.
• Hold your hand above your eyes (as you would when you are looking into the distance and keeping the sun out of your eyes) and look at another student as you sing “See you again”.
• Tap watch (or imaginary watch) and then point to the door as you sing “It’s time to go”.
• Point towards another student as you sing “See you next time”.

Using The Goodbye Song in class

Use the song each lesson as the wrap up to the class.  Here is a suggested wrap up routine which you can use at the end of your young learners’ classes:

1. Assign Homework: Each week give out a homework worksheet for your students to take home. Hold up the homework worksheet and model how to do it. Give out the worksheets and say “Put your homework in your bags” and help them to do so – this is important as they will probably want to start coloring them right away.

   Note: If possible, encourage the parents to help out as much as possible with their child’s homework – it is a great way to have your students practice the target language outside of class.

2. Say Goodbye to glove puppet: Take out the bag again and get everyone to wake up the glove puppet by shouting its name into the bag (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Bring out the puppet and go through the same routine as in the warm up – go to each S and say hello, ask their name and the say goodbye / see you. Then put the puppet back in the bag (back to sleep).  After the students get to know the Goodbye Song then the puppet and students can use some of the target vocab when saying goodbye (e.g. See you again, It’s time to go, See you you next time).
3. Sing “Goodbye Song” (or a Review Song):

   The “Goodbye Song” is a good way to sign off the class. Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along or use the song gestures.

4. Do “Quick Check”: Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students. For each student check one new word (e.g. hold up a color or fruit and ask “What’s this?”). For very young kids you can hold up one of the worksheets you did in the lesson and ask them to touch an object (e.g. “Touch the apple”). When they give you an answer say goodbye (and say a target phrase, such as “See you next time”) and let them leave.