Present Perfect and THE LEMON TREE song, by Mª Tamara Civera

 

The activity I have designed is intended to be a nice introduction to the use of Present Continuous with 1^st year students.

We tell the students we are going to watch the story of a friend of ours who feels very sad about something. At the end of the activity, students will have to suggest possible solutions for our sad friend.

It has got 3 different graded stages:

1-      Listening to the song and watching the official videoclip. (Higher level students)

a.      Try to identify, write down and provide a definition for some of the actions being mentioned in the song.

b.      Identify the underlying grammatical structure.

 

2-      Listening to the song with lyrics.

a.      Identify the actions being mentioned in the song and guess their meaning

b.      Try to find the most repeated grammatical structure.

 

3-      Listening to the song with lyrics and a glossary and grammar reference. (Lower level students)

a.      Underline the actions being mentioned in the text.

b.      Find examples of the given structure of present continuous.

 

When everybody gets the meaning of the song, they suggest things our friend can do to feel better, either with full sentences or infinitives or single words referring to an activity.

 

*Additonal activity:

In groups, pupils can change the lyrics and make their own song by using the same melody, which is quite easy to play by a student who plays the piano or the guitar, for instance. It is also a great activity to create an interdisciplinary activity with the Music subject.

Lyrics

I'm sitting here in a boring room
It's just another rainy Sunday afternoon
I'm wasting my time I got nothing to do
I'm hanging around I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens
And I wonder

I'm driving around in my car
I'm driving too fast, I'm driving too far
I'd like to change my point of view
I feel so lonely, I'm waiting for you
But nothing ever happens
And I wonder

I wonder how, I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the
Blue, blue sky
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning, turning, turning, turning
Turning around
And all that I can see
Is just another lemon tree

Sing dah
Dah-dah-dah-dam, dee-dab-dah
Dah-dah-dah-dam, dee-dab-dah
Dab-deedly dah

I'm sitting here, I miss the power
I'd like to go out, taking a shower
But there's a heavy cloud inside my head
I feel so tired, put myself into bed
Well, nothing ever happens
And I wonder

Isolation is not good for me
Isolation, I don't want to
Sit on a lemon tree
I'm steppin' around in a desert of joy
Maybe anyhow I'll get another toy
And everything will happen
And you wonder

I wonder how, I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the
Blue, blue sky
And all that I can see
Is just another yellow lemon tree
I'm turning my head up and down
I'm turning, turning, turning, turning
Turning around
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree
And I wonder, wonder

I wonder how, I wonder why
Yesterday you told me 'bout the
Blue, blue sky
And all that I can see
And all that I can see
And all that I can see
Is just a yellow lemon tree