05 Mar 2013
Updated06 Jul2013

Download a new song from ESL KidStuff: Old MacDonald

Old MacdonaldOld MacDonald

Song Theme: Saying farm animals and animal noises
Target Vocab: farm, cow, moo, dog, woof, sheep, baa, duck, quack, pig, oink.
Song Length: 2:50

 

The classic song for learning farm animals and animal noises.  This version of the song focuses on the animals cow, dog, sheep, duck and pig. The final verse runs through all of the animals.  Here is a sample:

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Lyrics:

Verse 1:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on that farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O!
With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there,
Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo-moo,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

Verse 2:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on that farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-O!
With a woof-woof here and a woof-woof there,
Here a woof, there a woof, everywhere a woof-woof,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

Verse 3:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on that farm he had a sheep, E-I-E-I-O!
With a baa-baa here and a baa-baa there,
Here a baa, there a baa, everywhere a baa-baa,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

Verse 4:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on that farm he had a duck, E-I-E-I-O!
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, E-I-E-I-O!

Verse 5:
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!
And on that farm he had a pig, E-I-E-I-O!
With an oink-oink here and an oink-oink there,
Here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink-oink,
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

Verse 6:
(Ok! Let’s do all the animals!)

“Cow!”
With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there, Here a moo, there a moo, every-where a moo-moo.

“Dog!”
With a woof-woof here and a woof-woof there, Here a woof, there a woof, every-where a woof-woof.

“Sheep!”
(Sung): With a baa-baa here and a baa-baa there, Here a baa, there a baa, eve-rywhere a baa-baa.

“Duck!”
With a quack-quack here and a quack-quack there, Here a quack, there a quack, everywhere a quack-quack.

“Pig!”
With an oink-oink here and an oink-oink there, Here an oink, there an oink, every-where an oink-oink.

Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O!

 

Gestures and activities to use with Old MacDonald

There are a number of activities you can do as you sing along to the song:

  • as you sing “Old MacDonald” pretend to pull out your overall straps with your thumbs
  • as you sing the cow part gesture milking a cow
  • as you sing the dog part use your hands to make dog ears on your head
  • as you sing the sheep part gesture petting (patting) a sheep
  • as you sing the duck part open and close your hands in front of your mouth like a duck’s bill
  • as you sing the pig part push the tip of your nose down with your finger

 

Using the Old MacDonald song in class

All kids love this song, with its animal sounds and catchy tune.  Use it with your farm animal themed lessons.

  1. Use farm animal plastic toys for “play time”.  If you have a small class, start off sitting together playing with the farm animals and any other farm toys to go with them (buildings and barns, tractors, pens, other animals, etc.).  For larger classes, if you have enough sets you can put the class into groups with the animal toys to play with.  At this stage, you don’t need to do any direct teaching – just play with the animals and have fun together!
  2. Introduce the vocab. As you are playing, start saying the animal vocab and animal sounds.  E.g. “This is a pig – oink, oink!”.  As you and your students play with the animals tell them the animal names and sounds in English.
  3. Teach & practice the vocab. After playing for a while collect all of the toys and put them away, keeping the cow, dog, sheep, duck and pig out. You’ll also need the same farm animal flashcards. Put the flashcards on the floor. Hold up one of the plastic animals and chorus the vocab, as follows:

    T: “cow, cow, cow”
    Ss” “cow, cow, cow”
    T” And a cow says Moo.  Moo, moo, moo”
    Ss: “Moo, moo, moo”

    Then ask which flashcard (on the floor) is the cow.  Encourage your students to point or touch the correct flashcard.  Then place the animal on its corresponding flashcard.  Do for all of the animals.

  4. Play “Put the animal on the flashcard”. Now you have 5 animals toys sitting on their flashcards.  Pick up each animal toy and throw it somewhere in the classroom.  Call out different students to pick up an animal and place it back on the correct flashcard.
  5. Play “Flashcard touch” and “The missing flashcard” game.  Put the animal toys away.  Keep the flashcards on the floor.  Tell your students to sit around the flashcards on the floor (or on a table) and to put their hands up in the air.  Say a flashcard (e.g. “Pig”) and students have to quickly touch the correct card.  Play a few rounds. After that, tell your students to close and to cover their eyes. Turn over one of the cards.  Say “Open your eyes”.  The students have to shout out the missing card.
  6. Sing “Old MacDonald”. Either stick the flashcards in the order of the song on the board or use the Old MacDonald song poster. First, practice the gestures (above) for the farmer and the animals.  Then play the song and encourage your students to sing along with you as they do the actions.
  7. Do a farm animals worksheet. To finish off this section of the lesson, give out worksheets which have the vocab from the song.  As your students are doing the worksheets, ask questions (e.g. “what animal is that?”, “What noise does it make?”, etc.).  You can also give a farm animals worksheet for homework.

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