This classic song was written for the original musical ‘Wizard of Oz‘ in which a young Judy Garland played the part of Dorothy. Not only did this song become one of the most well-known songs of all time, but it also catapulted Judy Garland to international stardom.

The symbolsong technique is an alternative to the gap-fill activity that often accompanies a song. At first the students have no idea what the symbols mean, but slowly you will hear gasps of delight as some students start to guess the words.

The students are firstly given a handout of the symbol sheet which represents the song, and after trying to decipher as much as they can, they then listen to the song and compare with their ideas. The full lyrics can be shown to the students for further comparison before they listen a second time.

For obvious reasons the song itself cannot be included here, but it is widely available through the normal channels.

Over the Rainbow symbolsong: click here for free downloadable pdf sheets.

Please find a snapshot of this activity below.

Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, 1938 Sixteen-year-old Judy Garland wore these sequined shoes as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)