It’s time for MUSIC! This week’s galaxy mission is all about music in the classroom. I was very excited about the topic because I have always loved music - but I wasn’t sure how to incorporate it into a lesson plan.
Let’s start with a little history lesson from MY past! As a child, memorizing stuff was hard (and now that I’m in college, I’m learning why it was also not the greatest thing!). I wasn’t able to memorize my states and capitals, I had difficulty remembering the order of the planets, and memorizing poetry was out of the question. I could, however, memorize songs. I was a fan of all types of songs. I would record my favorites onto a cassette tape from the radio (yes, I’m that old) so I could listen to them over and over until I could repeat them when I had no music to listen to! My Mom was a smart women, and she knew my strengths. When I struggled, she would either find a song (YouTube didn’t help back then because it wasn’t a thing) or we’d make up one. There were plenty of educational shows and cartoons that helped by using SONGS!
Now let’s flash forward to today’s world. Now, obviously, we have to be aware of what we are showing children but there are SO MANY resources!! Our professor mentioned Flocabulary as a resource, but I got to experience it first hand 2 semesters ago in my practicum! The third graders were learning about the different types of rocks (igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary.) When they began science class for the day, they watched the video together. The lesson was taught, and then they used their Chromebooks to complete some “knowledge checks”. Many of the students were watching the Flocabulary video AGAIN. I was able to experience a few days of this lesson throughout the week and by the end, the entire class was singing the song at the start of each lesson! To me, THAT is powerful. These students knew the lyrics word-for-word! Coincidentally I was also studying rocks at this time in my Geology class and FYI I did great on that test because of this video ;)
Some of my readers may know this, but in case you don’t, I work at an Elementary school with the After-School program. I’m in charge of 12-15 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders each afternoon. We have a different “rotation” each day and today’s was MUSIC. I was timid, but also excited because that was this week’s class topic! My supervisor taught music at her previous school so she was able to give me some exciting activities. She had a BINGO musical instrument game, a coloring sheet (that did look very young) and then she mentioned (Google) Chrome Music Lab! https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/ My students had been begging for Chromebook all day and I will only allow it if they are doing something educational so this was the perfect opportunity! My students had an absolute blast making songs, playing piano, hearing their voices get changed and so much more. It was very exciting to them! Every single student was on the website and engaged. After we spent some time on the Chromebooks, I brought them into the MPR Room and we turned on some GoNoodle which is another website I enjoy with the kids. I know all the material is appropriate and our supervisor has an account so we can save favorites and have unlocked content. I first turned on some guided exercise songs but they weren’t enjoying it and wanted some actual songs to dance to. I found the NTV (Noodle TV) section which is essentially children dancing to popular songs with easy choreography. The third graders were doing the moves and the fourth graders were making full-on dance routines! They had so much fun we stayed there for about 40 minutes just hearing and dancing to a bunch of songs!
Next week is all about movement and getting kids to move around isn’t that hard considering I constantly have to tell them to sit in their seats correctly! Getting them ALL to work on the same movements at one time is a lot harder. Movement is important because it jump-starts your brain! I’ll talk more about that NEXT week, though. It’s time for bed and I’m ready to listen to some calming music!!
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