I’ve only been to California once, but I always dream of going again. This famous song, California Dreaming by the Mamas and the Papas, from the 60s gets played over and over and is a hit in the classroom.

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.

California dreamin symbolsong click here for free downloadable pdf sheets. For obvious reasons the song itself cannot be provided here, though it can easily be found through all the normal outlets.

Please find a snapshot of this symbolsong below.

From left to right, top to bottom: Denny Doherty, John and Michelle Phillips, and Cass Elliot. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)