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"I'm Ready For My Close Up, Mr. DeMille!"



I recently completed the mother of all school shopping trips at my local Dollar Tree.  "What was in your cart?" you ask...

FEATHERED BOAS, FUNKY SUNGLASSES, FUN HATS, AND OTHER SPARKLY THINGS!

Why? Two words: Math. Workshop.

Imagine this: It is the second week of school and today is the day we are kicking off a graphing unit in math workshop.  Students are seated on the carpet, dutiful little soldiers awaiting a "normal" math lesson. When suddenly, it's LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION! The custodian, the principal, and myself enter the room  wearing pink, feathered boas, disco sunglasses, and funky hats.  I sing lead with my "microphone" in hand, and get my funk on and belt out, "Oh you survey, and you poll, and you watch the data roll, and you graph it!"

My back up singers (principal and custodian) jump in with, "Graph! Graph! Graph!" and "Oh baby!" The kids are spell-bound.  The recess drama is forgotten, any math angst is put aside, and they are HOOKED!  Hooked is my favorite student state-of-being. Hooked is when the magic happens.

After the song concludes, and the back-up singers take their bows, students delve into learning the song themselves. We explore graphing vocabulary: Survey, poll, data, collect, sort, report.  We discuss situations where we've encountered these words.  We discuss what we know. We discuss what we don't know.  And, our minds are primed for graphing. This is my unit kick-off.

"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." Henry David Thoreau

Often, teachers can be intimidated by singing in front of their students.  They needn't be.  Students don't care what their teachers sound like.  And in all honesty, have you ever listened to your students warble a tune outside the music education classroom?  Many sound like drunk sailors...adorable and endearing drunk sailors, but drunk sailors nonetheless.  As teachers, we want our students to be positive risk-takers, to reach beyond their learning anxieties and learn.  Shouldn't we be pushing ourselves to do the same with our teaching? 

Incorporating learning songs into your lessons is a great way to do this! After you've tried it a few times, you might even write some of your own with your students.

I would love to hear about how you've used music in your classroom! Please share in the comments section!

You can find the graphing vocabulary song and lesson at the link below. It even includes a demo video! Be sure to follow me at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Wild-Child-Designs/ for more educational songs.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Graphing-Song-2003826

5 comments

  1. Welcome to the blogging world! I started in March and still feel like a newbie!
    Christine Maxwell Hand to Heart

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    1. Thank you Christine! I'm liking the writing it is motivating me to do!

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  2. Love your way of engaging students with fun and music! Great way to "Hook" them! Great post!

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  3. I LOVE how you introduced the song and got the kids' attention with your back up dancers involved as well!! That makes learning SO memorable!!

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