As someone who absolutely LOVES music, I just naturally brought it into the classroom with me. Through trial and error, I figured out a couple of fun ways that music could play a big role in making my classroom successful. I'll be sharing 8 of those ways over the next few weeks. Feel free to subscribe to my feed or follow by email (in the sidebar) so you don't miss any of them!
Oh this one is one of my favorite teacher tips!
I would often take a well known tune (Mary Had A Little Lamb, for example) and add my own words to it. It didn't even have to rhyme for the kids to catch onto the words, so creating a tune was pretty simple.
I'd create songs that taught about the European explorers to the New World, facts about Rome and Greece, the battles of the Civil War, etc. It was a lot of fun to hear my kids singing them as they walked in the hall or played on the swing. As a bit of a bonus, I would often say (begrudgingly) "Oh-kay, I will let you sing a few explorer songs if you can get your book bags packed up in 30 seconds. You know, if you want to." It was amazing what a huge incentive that was for my kids.
Check out the rest of the series 8 ways to use music in your classroom:
#1: Start the day off in a calm way
#2: Clean your room in 3 minutes
#3: As a free and easy reward
#4: To lower your stress
#5: To keep the room quiet
#6: To Teach a set of facts
#7: Create smooth transitions
#8: Grab students' attention without yelling
My team likes to take songs and make up our own lyrics too!
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