Two Little Dickie Birds for ESL

I have been teaching English to babies and toddlers for eight years now and "Two Little Dickie Birds" is always very popular. It is one of the first rhymes I teach and works well with other "Peek-a-Boo" activities.
This is how I use it in my baby and toddler classes.

I put my hand to my ear and ask What can you hear? Tweet, tweet....What can it be?



I open up the drawstring bag and pull out a feather. I blow on it, then blow it and let go and exclaim Oh,a feather! I continue with other feathers and encourage the parents and children to do the same. We play with the feathers for a while, touching them, stroking each other with them and trying to blow them up in the air (great for developing muscles around the mouth and eye tracking movements). I describe what is happening as the children play.

I then put on a finger puppet and tweet hello. We ask the bird's name and he introduces himself my name's Peter. This is repeated with the second finger puppet, my name's Paul. We say hello to them.















I produce the Duplo wall and ask Peter and Paul to sit on it. Look! I say, They're sitting on the wall. I then ask them to fly away and one by one, I fly them around and hide them behind my back. Where are they? Paul, Peter, where are you? Come back Peter! Come back Paul! They fly from behind my back and sit down on the wall once again. Children love this and it helps with developing the idea of object permanence. The older children like to sneak behind my back when the birds are hidden to see where they have gone! 

I introduce the rhyme.

Two Little Dickie Birds

Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall,

One named Peter,

One names Paul.

Fly away Peter,

Fly away Paul.

Come back Peter,

Come back Paul. 

We repeat this a few times until the parents are confident with singing it. I continue to do the actions with the finger puppets flying them away behind my back and bringing them back round to sit on the wall once again. The parents use their index fingers to do the same.

I encourage the parents to lay their babies on the floor/mat facing them. As the parents sing the rhyme they move one finger then the other very s l o w l y in front of the babies eyes and then behind their own backs. Peter, Paul where are you? Bring fingers back slowly encouraging babies to follow the index finger with their eyes. Older babies and toddlers can begin to do the actions themselves.

We often make it more active by being the birds ourselves. Toddlers and parents crouch down on an imaginary wall as I ask them to sit on the wall and then they fly away around the room (you can use scarves as wings). Children and babies can be scooped up high in the air by their parents (babies cradled close and older ones being held around the waist). They can be flown high/low/fast/slow or round and round but listen carefully for when it's time to come back.

With older children you could change the names and encourage just two children at a time to fly away and come back when they hear their names.

We come back down onto the mat and sing the nursery rhyme a few more times accompanied by some simple instruments (shakers, bells and tambourines).

I like to finish the session with the book Hide and Seek Pig by Julia Donaldson.

Main Language Aims

• Listen to spoken English, develop an awareness of other languages spoken 
• Begin to mime actions in a song
• Enjoy listening to nursery rhymes
• Begin to repeat words, phrases and parts of a nursery rhyme
• vocabulary: two, little, bird/s, sit on a wall, fly away, come back, a wall, what's your name? Where are they?