Songs for teaching kids

I just have to say that every day that I play music in the classroom, we're all in a better mood and the day goes much more quickly. I realized the power of music for teaching when I had to teach Spanish to my third graders. It was on their report card and we didn't have a Spanish class or materials, so I felt obligated to teach them something meaningful if I was going to grade them on it. Luckily I had taken three years of Spanish in high school. I also taught students who spoke mostly Spanish as a first language when I student taught and in my first two years in second grade.
However, I had a very challenging class that year in third grade - 12 of my 22 students received a special service - from Resource Room with an IEP (4 students) to a 504 for ADHD (2 students) to OT (4 students) to Pt (1 student) to ESL (1 student) to speech (1 student) to basic skills (4 students)... As you could probably tell, some students received multiple services. I didn't include pull outs for gifted and talented or instrumental music in that either! Needless to say, I hustled up and finished my Masters degree in Special Education that year!
So anyway, back to the music....one of my students who had an IEP for a specific learning disability sat there during the Spanish test on colors and stared into space. His mom assured me they had studied, and that he should be okay since they spoke Spanish at home. I had taught the students little strategies, like rosa = red roses and verde = very green and we listened to a song about the colors over and over. It wasn't until I hummed the tune of the song that he started to work very quickly...and ended up scoring 100%!

I'll keep updating my Pinterest with more songs and videos...but for now, here are a few of my favorite cds / song resource pages...do you have any to recommend?

Spanish-Book-Twin-Sisters-Productions

http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/memory-boosting-mnemonic-songs-for-content-area-learning
The cool thing is you can preview a lot of it before buying...the bad thing is there isn't a cd, so you have to figure out the pacing (they give you the tune and tell you the song it was modeled from) AND you have to sing out loud with the kids! (My old roommate even used some of these for her HS history classes - the kids got a kick out of the presidents song!)
Stuck in my head:
"Noun names person, place or thing
office, doctor, school, or ring
school or ring, place or thing
ohohohoho!"

http://www.songsforteaching.com/index.html

Organizing Teacher's Edition and Classwork Materials

First and foremost, a disclaimer: Please forgive me for my well-worn materials....even though they aren't that old, they are dragged around everywhere with me between my classroom, the faculty room, the copy machine, to the airport, and they even come with me when I get an oil change...cause to be honest, there's never enough time to get everything done!

Here's what I do to organize my Journey's reading teacher's edition book. It's like most basal-based reading programs, so there is one book for each unit (5 stories each), and 6 units for the year.

The top of each lesson has a post it on it that shows where each lesson planner is. Journeys is really cool because it's a new program so it includes the Common Core Standards and makes lesson planning easier.

I used a black and white scroll sticky tab to show where our vocabulary word cards are in the book.

I used a pink and white polka dot sticky tab to show where the beginning of each story is.

I used a yellow and white polka dot sticky tab to show where the spelling words and sentences for the pretest and test are.



For each day of the week, I use a certain color folder to hold that day's materials.

I keep homework, tests, and other materials on the left and classwork (which tends to be the bulkiest) on the right side.

I can get a week or more ahead with copying because I have it down to a routine and I have several sets of folders that are the same color as the ones I use for the current week.

I keep a binder with all of my originals. Post-Its with the lesson number and story name help me figure out what is where.



For guided reading, I use these folder pocket charts from Really Good Stuff. Students keep their guided reading books and worksheets in a Ziploc bag inside the pocket. They can easily put the bag in their homework folder and bring it to and from school!

See my other post on guided reading organization here.


What do you do to keep reading materials organized?

National Baseball Hall of Fame

I visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown this weekend. It was a perfect way to get ready for the postseason (Let's Go Yankees!) and to collect some pictures for our upcoming Journey's reading story, Roberto Clemente, Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  I often use baseball adages with my students, such as the fact that a player who gets 3 hits in every 10 at bats is considered a success! My students have also been blown away by the story of one handed pitcher Jim Abbott and struggle of Jackie Robinson. Here are some notable pictures from my trip:

Doubleday Field, site of the Hall of Fame Game

Built in 1920, and site of the reunion game scene from A League of Their Own

Women's Professional Baseball League uniforms circa World War II - Rockford Peaches!

 National Baseball Hall of Fame

"Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the earth..." -Lou Gehrig, dying of ALS

The Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig's uniform

Ruth and Gehrig struck out back to back by a 17 year old girl!

Record for most stolen bases in a season, 201, held by a woman.... the bases may have been closer in women's baseball, but she had to hit, run, and slide in a skirt! The closest male player had 138.

 Babe Ruth's plaque in the Hall of Fame

Babe Ruth's locker and uniform

Babe Ruth's bat and ball from "the called shot."

Babe Ruth hits the first All Star Game Homerun - 1933

The House that Ruth Built

Babe Ruth Central

Babe Ruth as Santa Claus

Jackie Robinson

Jackie Robinson Breaks Barriers video

Jackie Robinson Brain Pop video

Henry "Hank" Aaron exhibit

Hank Aaron Homerun Balls

Hank Aaron bats - 600th homerun and 3,000th hit

Hammerin' Hank Hits Homerun #715 to break Babe Ruth's record (video)

Old balls from the 1800s - they look like concrete!

Roberto Clemente:

12 time All Star, 12 time Gold Glove Award winner, 4 time batting champion, 2 time World Series Champion, 1961 NL MVP, 1971 World Series MVP

Roberto Clemente statue and picture at the entrance to the Hall

Pirates / Roberto Clemente memorabilia

MLB Roberto Clemente Award 

PNC Park

Roberto Clemente Jr. and Roberto Clemente bridge in Pittsburgh, PA

Roberto Clemente podcast

Roberto Clemente video clips

Roberto Clemente's 3,000 hit

 Ted Williams memorabilia

Ted Williams' predicted batting average when the ball was pitched in different areas of his strike zone - even ball players use math!

Joe DiMaggio - always give it your best!

Roberto would want you to remember...

...there's no crying in baseball!

What's in the Cat's Hat?

I just came across this Dr. Seuss What's in the Cat's Hat game when I was visiting with a friend this weekend. She bought it for her 3 year old daughter's birthday, and I thought it was a great game to use in the classroom with all ages.  All you have to do it open the velcro area of the hat, place an object inside, and then show students how to use the cards to guide them in asking questions that will help them guess what's inside the hat.

 It's great for a 1-2 kids, a small group of children, or use at Morning Meeting. There are little velcro flaps around the hat, that allow you to do things like smell, see (through a colored material), and touch the object inside. The pictures on the cards help non-readers figure out what to do and there is a sentence under the picture for readers. I am definitely putting it on my classroom holiday wish list!

Math Activities - Problem Solving

Here are a couple of samples from my new Teachers Pay Teachers product, Scott Foresman Grade 3 Math Problems of the Day and group activities. You don't have to use the program to use these sheets. In most cases, the only materials you need are these sheets and a pencil! Activities are simple enough to use with second graders and challenging enough to use with fourth graders. Enjoy!

Lesson 1.9 - number patterns

Lesson 1.10 - rounding to the nearest ten or hundred

Click here to download my Scott-Foresman-Grade-3-Chapter-1-Math-Activities at Teachers Pay Teachers!