Language focus: "Are you hungry?" "Yes, I am." "I'm full!" Foods (banana, watermelon, french fries, spaghetti, ice cream). Yes/No question intonation.

Classroom benefits: This is a great song for teaching the phrases, “Are you hungry?” and “Yes, I am!” You can use it in combination with any number well-known children’s books, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Preparation: In keeping with our philosophy of making the language in the songs learnable through gestures, the food we’ve chosen for this song are foods you can easily mime eating. You can quickly introduce the food items before singing by teaching the gestures and/or showing pictures of these foods.

This song can be sung in a call and response format, meaning the children just listen and then repeat. It's VERY simple.

Lyrics and actions:

Are you hungry? (Shrug your shoulders and then rub your tummy.)
Yes I am. (Thumbs up gesturing “yes” and/or nod your head “yes”.)
Are you hungry?
Yes I am.

Mmmmm, a banana! (Gesture peeling and then eating a banana.)
Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum!

Are you hungry?
Yes I am.
Are you hungry?
Yes I am.

Mmmmm, a watermelon! (Gesture holding a big slice of watermelon and then eating it.)
Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

Are you hungry?
Yes I am.
Are you hungry?
Yes I am.

French fries! (Gesture eating french fries one by one.)
Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

Are you hungry?
Yes I am.
Are you hungry?
Yes I am.

Spaghetti! (Gesture twirling spaghetti with a fork and eating it.)
Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

Are you hungry?
Yes I am.
Are you hungry?
Yes I am.

Ice cream! (Gesture licking an ice cream cone.)
Yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum yum.

I’m full! (Pat your tummy with both hands and puff out your cheeks.)

Activity ideas:

This song is great for teaching a variety of foods. Don’t just stick to the items sung about in the song, think of other foods and come up with gestures for them. When you sing the song, the teacher can just call out the different food over the voice on the CD. You can work with your students to think of new gestures for different foods, or you can use sign language (American Sign Language or the sign language native to the country you live in). You can find many great sign language dictionaries online to teach you the signs for different kinds of foods.

This song works great with all kids, but it’s especially satisfying to see pre-verbal youngsters or children reluctant to speak communicating their hunger using the gestures learned in this song. Kids can learn to express, “I’m hungry” by rubbing their tummies. Or they can reply to a caretakers question, “Are you hungry?” by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down.

With older three-year-olds and up, try playing food charades after this song. Pretend to eat some kind of food and the children try to guess which food you are eating. Then have each of the children try. Show one of them a food picture, and have them mime eating that food. The other children try to guess the food.

Your ideas:

Richard Millette from Rick's English House in Iwate, Japan sent along this great idea for using "Are You Hungry" with older kids (Grade 5 and up). He plays the song and everybody sings. Then, everybody has to listen closely to what is said in the line, "mmmmm, a banana" and draw that food as quickly as they can during the "yum yum yum" part and finish before the next "Are you hungry?" verse starts again. The teacher can turn down the volume on the CD player and call out a different food each time. After the song, everyone can laugh at their drawings!

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