Friday, July 27, 2012

Friday Dance Party!

If there is one thing I love, it's dancing! I also love to sing, and my students and I love to sing and dance whenever possible! In fact, my colleagues joke about how they can hear us rockin' and rollin' through the hallway. They also joke about how Randy might need to tell me that I'm a bit pitchy at times...lol! One thing I love about teaching kindergarten is that I can just let go and belt it out, and the kids don't mind a bit how it sounds!

This week, I have been reading Ron Clark's latest book, "The End of Molasses Classes." It's so inspiring! My head is spinning with new ideas, and my heart is soaring with hope for this upcoming school year! After reading about the songs Ron Clark's class wrote several years ago about the election (and watching them on YouTube, of course), my creative juices were flowing! We love to sing, and I always seek out academic songs already written by HarryKindergarten, Dr. Jean, Hap Palmer and other musicians. However, I started wondering if I could write my own lyrics...

The first order of business was to think of a song my students love. Duh....Justin Bieber! After choosing his song "Baby" (that I may or may not also love!), I had to choose an academic skill. According to the Common Core, kindergarten students are expected to fluently add and subtract numbers with sums and differences up to five. I thought that would be a pretty good skill! Once I had the song and skill, I started writing; and I don't think it turned out too bad! I was able to cover addition fact families up to 4 with sums of 9 or 10.
I was also able to find a karaoke version of the song on iTunes, which I purchased! It's going to take me a while to get the song down, but we will be jamming when I do! All that's left is to choreograph some dance moves....hmmmm. :)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful Friday, and don't forget to leave some comments!!


2 comments:

Sheila said...

Isn't that book incredible??? I had to read some, put down so I could process all he had to say, then read some more. I heart Ron Clark!! Your song is amazing!!! You've got talent!!! How about a song to Party Anthem? Question for you - what songs do you rock out to in K that you couldn't live without?

Mrs. Ziegler said...

This is awesome! I am your newest follower:) You just have to pop on over to my blog and hook up to the two linky parties I am hosting:

Favorite Classroom Songs Linky Party

First Day of Kindergarten Linky Party

This particular post would be great for the favorite songs linky party and I just KNOW you have some fab stuff ready for that first day:)

~Rachel
Teaching with Z