The repetition of chants can burn new language into the kids’ minds and bodies better than practically anything else. If the instructor can just get the words into the kids’ bodies via a good gut-based chant, it will, via the repetition, work wonders for retention.
In my view, chants are better than songs because they are shorter and more visceral, far more easily understood, and hence may go deeper into the part of the mind and body where languages are actually acquired.
The key thing about chants is that they can occur anytime, and that they are never pre-planned. They are a gut reaction of the instructor to a certain quality of language that is being expressed in class, one lying deep in the recesses of the human experience, one connecting words and rhythm and community together in an almost unconscious way.
So try to become aware of any moments when you and your students can take a nice break from the story and allow the students to connect with their bodies during the school day by cutting loose with a chant for about 30 or 40 seconds. The alert teacher will pounce on the right phrase at the right time.