Well, I woke up today super excited thinking that I could start working on my new tiny tiny tiny (did I mention tiny?!) classroom and then it happened. Bombshell! Breaking News (said in my best Nancy Grace hysterical voice!) People. We cannot get into our room until July 22. Maybe a bit earlier. People. Teachers report on July 29. People. Student report August 1. People. ALL. OF. MY. STUFF is piled in the cafeteria and our garage. Can you tell I’m a bit panicked???????
People I am accepting volunteers to come help me in my moment of crisis.
OK, now that my mild hysterics are over now onto Teach Like A Pirate!
If you aren’t already reading this book, go to Amazon and order it. Seriously, this book has upped my drive and motivation even more!! When I read it at night I get so excited and almost giddy. It’s hard to contain that excitement while the Mister is sleeping!
Today’s chapters are all about music and art and crafts as hooks to get your students engaged in learning and keeping them engaged in learning! Here is my favorite quote from these two chapters:
I am so thrilled to have this kind of encouragement, support and PERMISSION to do art and allow my students to be creative. If you read this blog you know that we do art or craftivities almost daily in my classroom. I get a lot of less than supportive looks and comments from higher ups about the amount of art that my students do. However, I know this art is helping them be better readers, better writers, better at math and all around better people. Nearly all of my craftivities are tied to academics and if they’re not tired directly to academics, I add in a writing component.
I love that we can use art to teach every skill we learn from letters and sounds to addition and the life cycle of a butterfly. I love that my students work is what adorns are classroom and hallways. I love that there is such an academic component to that art work that we’re required to strip our work during testing time. I love that my students BEG for art projects and never “get it” that they’re learning at the same time. And I love that they are always successful with their art because it’s their work and their project and it’s always a masterpiece!
Another art form that we use a lot is music. And I mean a lot. Every. Single. Day. Funny story about our music and singing and dancing. Right after I was forcibly moved to kindergarten 5 years ago, I told my best friend that there would be no signing in my kindergarten. I wasn’t going to sing those cute and silly little songs and that was that. Yep. Day one we started singing and we haven’t stopped yet!
My students arrive to music. We dismiss to music. We learn to music. We transition to music. And yes, sometimes we just sing and dance to have fun!
Our day starts with a mix of pop songs that are high spirited and upbeat to wake us up and get us ready! Some of my morning songs are: Firework (Katy Perry), Gangnam Style (KidzBop), Edge Of Glory (Lady Gaga) and Let’s Get It Started (KidzBop).
I also use music for activities that I want to students to do quickly such as getting out a pencil or cutting tihngs out. For these moments, I play the theme from Bonanza, Hawaii Five-O, Flight Of The Bumblebee and the William Tell Overture! These songs are FAST so it encourages the kids to work quickly!
We also learn the song Firework by Katie Perry and Born This Way by Lady Gaga over the course of the year. I chose these two songs because of the message they teach my kids. We are all special, we are all amazing, we all matter and we are all fireworks! There is nothing better than 17 kindergarteners belting out the song Firework at the end of the school day!
And of course, we use music to clean up and transition. This year our clean up and transition song was Monster Mash because we were Mr. Greg’s Little Monsters! This year my theme is mustaches (I’m thinking “Mr. Greg’s Little ‘Staches!”) so I need a good clean up/transition song….
SO…let’s have a give away! Leave a comment with your favorite classroom songs. And if you can think of a good song to use with my mustache theme even better! I’ll pick a winner tomorrow and you’ll win my new mustache calendar set and this awesome Secret Code bundle from my amazing friend Nicole at Lanier’s Lions!
(this will be on TPT and TN later tonight!)
The winner of my BlogLovin give away is : Regina Berns! Check your email Regina!
And one more huge favor! My friend Becky just started her blog, A Flip Flop Kindergarten! I would love it if you would head over and show her some glittery mustache love! She has a great emergent reader freebie today! She is going to rock the blog world! Stop by and say hey to her!
