COUNT ON ME Bruno Mars

Language Teaching points

Grammar: Future – If … will
Idioms and phrases (count on me, in the dark,
stuck in the middle) See Power Point file for
additional teaching resource

Other activities:
Visual analysis: Enlarge a copy of the lyrics. Cut this into key phrases. Give each student
on page to draw a representation of that phrase. These can be scanned, or photos taken and
stitched together using Movie Maker. See file for examples.
Sentence starters: Card set available – students select a card and finish the sentence
Theme: Friendship, relationships, support
Song Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2RpXYeawpo (subtitles)

General approach:
Step One: Make a note of what point of which teaching point you’d like to address in the pop song. You will
need to know what you must pay attention to.

Step Two: Play the video clip and carefully listen to the song WITHOUT looking at the lyrics. Get a feel for
the words and try to listen for the teaching point required for the exercise. Write down the words you hear.

Step Three: Use the gap fill exercise to listen again and complete the lyrics.

Step Four: Sing and enjoy.

If you ever find yourself stuck in
the middle of the sea,
I'll sail the world to find you
If you ever find yourself lost in
the dark and you can't see,
I'll be the light to guide you
Find out what we're made of
When we are called to help our
friends in need
You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can
count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
Cause that's what friends are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
yeah Yeah
If you toss and you turn and you
just can't fall asleep
I'll sing a song
beside you
And if you ever forget how much
you really mean to me
Every day I will remind you
Ohh
Find out what we're made of
When we are called to help our
friends in need
You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can
count on you like 4 3 2
You'll be there
Cause that's what friends are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
Yeah Yeah
You'll always have my shoulder
when you cry
I'll never let go
Never say goodbye
You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can
count on you like 4 3 2
You'll be there
Cause that's what friends are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
you can count on me cos' I can
count on you
If you ever find yourself _______
in the middle of the sea,
I'll _______ the world to find you
If you ever find yourself _____ in
the dark and you can't _______,
I'll be the ________ to guide you
Find out what we're made of
When we are _________ to help
our ________ in need
You can ________ on me like 1 2
3
I'll be there
And I know when I ________ it I
can count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
Cause that's what _______are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
yeah Yeah
If you toss and you _______ and
you just can't fall ________
I'll sing a song
beside you
And if you ever _________ how
much you really mean to me
Every day I will ________you
Ohh
Find out what we're made of
When we are ________ to help
You can ________ on me like 1 2
3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it I can
count on you like 4 3 2
You'll be there
Cause that's what ________ are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
Yeah Yeah
You'll always have my
________when you cry
I'll never let go
Never say goodbye
You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be ________
And I know when I need it I can
count on you like 4 3 2
You'll be there
Cause that's what ________are
supposed to do, oh yeah
Wooooh, Wooooh
you can count on me cos' I can
count on you
our friends in need

Online lesson suggestion from: http://waygook.org/index.php?topic=14391.0

So here is one-class lesson on Bruno Mars' song, Count on me. It's a really easy and
fun song, with no controversial lyrics or drama! It's good for my lower level HS kids,
as there are only a few verses and an easy chorus.

Attached are lyrics with gaps to fill in, and a PPT with some new vocab (taken from
the missing words in the song). The way I usually do a music lesson is thus: I play
the song once (no TV on, just the song) and have them scribble down all the English
words they hear, then we brainstorm for a few minutes. They like this a lot, oddly
enough!

Then I hand out the lyrics sheets and play the song again, twice. They usually have all
the words down by the second listen. I then go through the lyrics slowly, with the
help of the PPT, so explain all the words and phrases they might not know. There is
some Korean in there (My CT helped with those so maybe get yours to check them!)

I will then play the second video, which is the same song but done with animation
that matches the lyrics. It's really cute and very Asian in style, so they should like it.
I'll then have a general discussion about friendship, what you'd do for a friend, what
wouldn't you do, are you a dependable mate, etc...

My kids really like Bruno Mars, so this should work well. I'll try it out next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfNl8VGo5QA&feature=watch_response – has
small drawings to go with lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2RpXYeawpo original with lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbAUzcuvVYc&feature=related with drawings