Alice the Camel - Christmas song for young ESL learners

Alice the Camel has five Humps was the first ever Christmas song my class performed when I started teaching 20 years ago! It's a great song for helping children to count to five and back.

I usually start by playing a few counting games to 5. Listen and repeat, tap thighs and count, bounce a ball or tap a tambourine and ask children how many bounces/taps there are. Sometimes we stomp our feet or click our fingers or perhaps turn around slowly (or quickly) 3 times, 4 times etc.

I introduce counting backwards by holding up 5 fingers then curling down one. I ask the children to curl down one finger and ask them how many fingers there are now. We then join fingers together one at a time; the two thumbs together, index fingers etc counting up to 5 and then undoing them while counting backwards from 5 to 0. This is tricky and takes pactise! 


I Introduce a 5 humped camel by revealing a picture very slowly (I used this song poster over at Sparklebox). I first show the camel's head and ask what it is. I gradually uncover the picture to reveal a hump and repeat the question. After they've guessed a camel I reveal not one or two but five humps!! How many humps has it got? Let's count. Have you ever seen a camel with five humps? That's so funny isn't it?

I used a foam camel with removable humps. You could use a laminated one with velcro strips or a felt one too. (I used this worksheet: How to draw a camel over at  Activity Village to draw my camel).
What is it? It's a camel. What's her name? Her name is Alice. How many humps does she have? Alice the camel has 5 humps. Take one away. How many humps has she got? Repeat until she has no humps. 

Then it's time to sing.

Alice the Camel

Alice the camel has 5 humps,

Alice the camel has 5 humps,

Alice the camel has 5 humps,

So, go, Alice go!

boom, boom, boom

Alice the camel has four humps.
Alice the camel has four humps.
Alice the camel has four humps.
So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has three humps.
Alice the camel has three humps.
Alice the camel has three humps.
So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has two humps.
Alice the camel has two humps.
Alice the camel has two humps.
So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has one hump.
Alice the camel has one hump.
Alice the camel has one hump.
So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has no humps.
Alice the camel has no humps.
Alice the camel has no humps.
Because Alice is a horse!

I LOVE this YouTube version from Miss Nina

We all have a giggle when we discover that Alice is really a horse!

Repeat the song a few times, introducing the mimes. Have the children stand in a circle, bending knees when singing the number and then on boom, boom, boom have the children wiggle their hips from side to side.

As a follow up children could play our Alice the Camel number game. I cut out four foam camels each with 5 removable humps. The children take turns to roll a dice, count the spots and then remove that number hump. When they have no humps left they shout out "Alice is a horse!"

The children could also draw a camel with 5 humps, roll the dice and colour in a hump.

They could also make some cute Christmas cards with a thumb print for the body and then adding other body parts with a black sharpie pen. 

As part of a performance, children could make simple brown headbands with camel's ears stuck to the side.

Have fun! 


Main Language Aims

• Begin to mime actions in a song
• Enjoy listening and singing a simple Christmas song
• Responding to simple questions; what's her name, how many humps are there?
• Vocabulary: a camel, a horse, a hump/s, counting to 5 and back.

Other aims

• Begin to understand how Christmas is celebrated in the English speaking world. Alice the Camel is sung by children during the festive season.
• Revising body parts.