Whew!....What a whirlwind of a week. Last week, I had the opportunity to spend my Spring Break in Swaziland, Africa. For ten solid days, I was a on non-stop adventure. I was fortunate enough to learn so much about a country I had only known through my sister and her family. I had only read about "third-world" countries but never really understood what it meant until I lived it. I have spent the last ten days holding, loving on, caring for, and praying for children who crave any attention that they can get. Being the kindergarten teacher that I am, I found that even though we couldn't understand each others languages....one thing that we could share was singing songs. It didn't matter whether I was singing in English, or the children singing in siSwati...we could learn from each other through songs.
As I left the country of Swaziland last weekend, I began to think about just how effective songs are with children and learning. I use songs daily in my classroom to teach different concepts and skills. I began to search out more resources for teaching specific skills that correlate with the kindergarten curriculum. I found some wonderful resources that I am eager to implement into my class routine. This is a website that I have found that is wonderful.
Songs For Teaching
This site is filled with songs that address all aspects of the curriculum. Reading, math , science, social studies, and character education are some of the content. Although some of the selections must be purchased, many of them are free.
Another resource that I currently use in my classroom daily is found through www.schooltube.com.
I have found some really great teaching songs on this site. My favorite link is The Alphabet Song.
There is a song for every letter of the alphabet. I always show the video on my Smart Board so that it is large and easy to see. The students love this site. They beg to do "just one more" song everytime we visit the site!
As I continued to research for this blog post, I ran across this video on YouTube, Music and Learning. It offers a look into the benefits of implementing music into the classroom curriculum.
Using music and songs to teach skills is beneficial to all students. Students with special needs, ELL, and those typical kindergarten students can learn through the repetition, memorization, and rhythm. There are so many resources we can find on the internet today to reinforce, introduce and remediate our students through songs and music. As I learned from my recent travels...it doesn't matter who you are...where you live...or what language you speak....Music is universal and everyone can learn from songs!
Michelle...I know you touched many hearts on your trip to Africa. I am glad you made it home safe and sound, as I was thinking of you during your trip. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of music, chants, and poems in the classroom. In my first grade classroom, we began every morning with songs. They are great for learning sounds, content, and oral literacy skills. I even used songs during transition times in the classroom. It helped with the flow of our day. In preparing my ALEX lesson plan, I couldn't resist adding a link to songs for the lesson plan.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing these wonderful websites. I have added them to my favorites and plan to visit them often. We share the same opinion on the benefit of music in the classroom.
Using songs to teach concepts is a wonderful strategy. I teach 6th and 8th grade classes and even in middle school songs help students remember the lesson. I have used songs before to help students learn prepositional phrases and Shurley Method rules. The sites you posted were very beneficial in finding new song strategies to use with my low readers. Too often during remediation with my exceptional education students I repeat myself over and over again trying to help students to remember pronunciation rules for reading. However, songs would come in handy because I think my students would participate more in the instruction due to the fun aspect of the songs and rhymes. I am glad to hear you had a safe trip and made it back with some memorable moments to cherish.
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