Creating Magic: Music in the Classroom

Raise your hand if you hate music....anybody? nobody? Yeah, that's what I figured.  Music speaks to the soul.  Music is therapy.  It's a way for humans to relieve stress, to let go, to be silly,  Besides all that,  music is also a way to get your students engaged in the classroom! Incorporating music throughout the day can be a great way to teach content or even take a quick brain break! Today I'm going to share how you can engage your students in the content with music.  Another day I'll share how you can use them as brain breaks!

Engaging the Content:

I enjoy writing my own songs because it makes the song mine and I get to share it with you guys- but some people just don't like that. And with the amount of no time we have (Get what I did there?) - when do you even have time to write them? I love borrowing songs!  Are you also not into writing your own songs? That's OK! There's tons out there. I use so many that I've just found. You can search google, Youtube, blogs.. seriously - I bet you'll find one that will fit your needs.  Most recently we've been singing Ron Clark's Bone Song.  The kids love to "Put your hands on your hips and shake 'em!"   Between our 2 classes, a few others include Skip Counting to a Tune, Multiplication Funk, Text Features Rap , and I found myself some Text Features.(All credit to the awesome song writers!)

Justin's class has been singing the one below!

(Their disco ball seems so much better than mine! I'm jealous)

I've got this one on my list - we've been learning all about the difference parts of speech and they will LOVE this one.

Can I just tell you how quickly my kids have picked up on their multiplication facts thanks to this song? I mean seriously!! We sing this almost daily. It's awesomesauce.

And who doesn't like a little funk? Factor and product? Equal Groups? They got it!

I recently found this one that is so cute and would be perfect for providing text evidence!! Can't wait to introduce this one to my kids.

Do my students memorize every single one of these songs? No, not really. I print out the lyrics to the songs and they keep them in a folder.  I wish I had them keep a "Song Folder" but I didn't think about it.  Next year, definitely!  When we sing, they quickly whip out the song and read along as they sing (Fluency practice - score!) After a small handful of times, a lot of the songs they really do begin to commit to memory and they'll be able to use them for a long time!

So, go ahead- try it! Build some music into your lessons. Your intros.  Your closings.  However it may fit best and see how engaged your students will be!