Building Brain Power with Music Rhythm, Rhyme and Rap

One day I was asking my kids to tell me the days of the week. One kid, that I knew knew the days of the week, just looked at me with a blank stare. So I said to him, “You can sing them if you want.” Once I said that, the kid began to sing, “There are seven days, there are seven day…..” It was a simple song that I had taught my kids to tell me the days of the week.
Chapter 11 reminds us of the power of music in a classroom. As a kindergarten teacher, music has always been as much a part of our day as pencils, paper, and crayons. But…..I was lucky enough to visit my friend’s, Hope King, classroom at the Ron Clark Academy. She teaches 5th grade…and sings with her kids! As I observed her teaching her children about plot, the kids all suddenly jumped up and started moving as they sang a song about the elements of plot. Then, just as quickly they set back down! Wow! All of  her kids knew the information!
Marcia Tate tells up “Whenever students put content to music, they stand a better chance of remembering it.”
Here are a few of the ideas we use in our rooms:

I love Shari Sloane’s song, Vowel Bat. I promise you, my kids all know the vowel sounds.

My sweet husband actually made me these vowel bat capes that my kids can wear while we sing the song!

I made little music books to go with songs from Shari’s School is Cool and Get Ready Cd’s. We use these when we sing the songs together, but I also have them in a special basket for our music center.

Here is a little song I wrote to the tune of  “All Around the Mulberry Bush” to teach my children what plants need.

And here is a snake that I made by sewing the fabric together to make a large “pillow case” snake. The children can get inside the “snake”. As we sing the song, “I’m being swallowed by a boa constrictor,” the snake swallows up the children! They love it! A great way to teach poetry, rhyming, sequencing, body parts, prosody!!!

So head on over to  "What the Teacher Wants" to see what other teachers are doing to use music in their classrooms.