We love music in 1st grade. We sing in every transition, in all of our spare moments, and in our efforts to master tough skills. Music is perfect for focusing, energizing, and setting the pace within the classroom. This week we’ve launching our Compare and Contrast reading/writing unit, and I was so frustrated when I couldn’t find any video or song to practice our learning. I ended up writing my own song and wanted to share it with you all today!
Right now, we are singing this little ditty 3-4 times a day. During reading and writing, and then, during a transition. If we sing it twice, it is just long enough for all of our friends to clean up their choice and make it back to the carpet.
I’ve included a snapshot of the song being sung in our classroom. You can use it to teach yourself or even use it as a model in the classroom. It may help my musically-challenged teaching friends! 😉
So friends, do you create your own songs for the classroom? If you do, what are your favorite tunes to pull from? Do you have your own Compare/Contrast song? If so, I’d love to learn it. 🙂
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Christa Swaney says
March 4, 2016 at 6:38 amI want to be in your class! I love what you do!! Thanks so much for always sharing!!
Christa
sweetlifeofsecondgrade
Melissa Hutchison says
March 6, 2016 at 12:47 amWhat other songs do you sing during your transitions?
Katherine says
March 6, 2016 at 4:20 amSame question!
And thank you for sharing the little sound clip- how sweet! I could not figure out how to sing it to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, so that was extremely helpful! 🙂
Kate says
March 11, 2016 at 11:33 pmMelissa – We sing a lot of songs from Hedi Song (our favorite is Elements of a Story), we also love Ron Brown Intelli-Tunes. The Learning Stations has some great basic songs for general skills that I don't explicitly teach but students need to know (time, money, days of the week, months of the year), and The Bazillions have some hard-core context songs that my friends love (Silent E, Contractions).
Heather Cotts says
March 11, 2016 at 1:28 amLove it! I would also love some other songs to sing during transition. I use a lot of "Have Fun Teaching" but would love some more ideas 🙂
Kate says
March 11, 2016 at 11:33 pmHi Heather! Ron Brown Intelli-Tunes, Hedi Songs, The Learning Station, and the Bazillions are all favorites of my 1st graders. 🙂
Christine Myers says
March 29, 2016 at 1:38 pmDid you sing with your 5ths too? I teach 4th, the kids give me that you're-so-funny-look when I sing.