David starts with "D"

Welcome back to More with Music!

I hope you are having a great week!

I've had a good week so far and am still enjoying this cool fall weather.

Today I'm sharing a song about spelling students' names.

In many of the classrooms I serve, the students are in the early stages of learning to spell their names.  Some of them are just starting to recognize letters in general, so one of the goals is to recognize the first letter of their name.  This skill is reviewed daily and then students are asked to find their first letter of their first name from a choice of two letters.

Today's song was written to target that goal specifically.
I record this song for as many students that need it and then we use real letter visuals (letter cards or the letters that come from the puzzles at the dollar store), and I also create a visual using Smart Notebook software.

The first slide you see below on the left, is the slide where the student will see the first letter of their name, and the teacher can click a speaker icon on the page and the song will play.  The next slide below on the right, features two letters, one correct and one incorrect, for the students first letter of his/her name.  The song is inserted on this slide as well for repetition and then the student is asked to find/touch the first letter of their name.  If they press the correct letter, they will hear applause (sound effect inserted), and if they are incorrect, they will hear a foghorn sound.

I've already seen several students improve their letter recognition with the first letter of their name using this visual/musical aide!  The daily review the students receive in their classrooms combined with the song and interactive visual is spelling success for so many young students already.  :)

If you would like this song personalized for a student or child you are working with, please email me at morewithmusic@gmail.com  Each personalized song will only cost 1.00 and I will send you the download link.

Hope the rest of your week is awesome!

Stay tuned for more song posts here at More with Music!

Autumn Leaves Are Falling Down

Welcome back to More with Music!

I'm so glad it's fall!  Cooler weather, low humidity, leaves changing colors and bright, sunshiny days can stay around all year as far as I'm concerned.

Today's post is about fall and the leaves that fall down from trees during this season.
I love to sing this song during the fall season for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that the students absolutely love to sing this song and the repetitive lyrics make it easier for them to participate from the beginning.    The second reason is that you can incorporate color identification and communication so easily within this song.

The main lyrics are:
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down.

Then the song sings about the following leaf colors:  red, yellow, orange and brown.



I made a visual for this song that features a tree with the different colored leaves on it (all are laminated and leaves are velcro-ed on the tree).

With the more severe students I work with, our goal is to either give them opportunities to interact within the song like, "What color leaf falls down next?" (and the students would either eye gaze/point to the leaf they want.  You can also give them a choice by pulling 2 different colored leaves off the tree for them to choose from.  And yet another idea would be to assign leaf colors to different students and/or ask them, "Do you want a red leaf?" and let them answer Yes/No with an iTalk 2 voice output device.  You can also ask questions like, "Is this leaf brown?"  and possibly gauge their color identification skills like that.  With other students, we use scarves and assign different colors to different students and when their color is being sung, they can move to the music as if they are fall leaves falling.  Sometimes songs like this with scarves are very calming to students  and help them stay focused.

The possibilities are endless with communication opportunities.
This song is definitely a favorite with many of the students I serve in a public school setting.  I hear so much sing and vocalizing while when we sing this song! :)

What are your favorite fall songs to sing?

Stay tuned for more songs here at More with Music!

The Water Cycle

Welcome back to More with Music!

Yesterday, I posted a song pertaining to the water cycle:  "When the Raindrops Fall"
If you missed it, just scroll down below and you will find it under this post.

Today's post is about the different parts of the water cycle:  Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Collection.

I found this song online, and after changing the key, and adjusting the tempo, I formed my own version.  This song is only used for educational purposes and can be shared by clicking the Download button below.



When I sing this song with students, I teach them motions to go along with each part of the water cycle.  Sometimes we stay in our seats, and sometimes it is great to get them up out of their seats and let them stretch within this song.

The motions are:

1.  Water travels in a cycle:  bend arms and hold fists in front of you, fists facing each other.  Circle fists around each other, creating circles
2.  It goes up as Evaporation:  Hands out to sides, palms facing up, raise hands from sides and stretch up high
3.  Forms clouds as Condensation:  Hands still stretched high, curve arms and hands outwards to form a circular cloud shape on each side...arms look like this above head:  (   )
4.  Falls down as Precipitation:  Arms straight up, and as you bring them down, fingers "spider crawl" down in the air to mimic raindrops falling down.


Stay tuned for more song posts here at More with Music!

When the Raindrops Fall

Welcome back to More with Music!

Here where I live in North Carolina, many elementary classrooms are talking about the water cycle.  I love to sing about the water cycle with its various parts:  Evaporation, Condensation, and Precipitation.

With the Water Cycle, many teachers discuss each part separately, and then put them all together to create and explain the cycle.

Often, I begin with songs about the rain first, because students usually have a lot of experience with that word.  In many science lessons, students learn that rain makes everything wet.  So, I created a song precisely about rain making everything wet, and added a few extras along the way.

"The Rain Makes Everything Wet" talks about raindrops coming from the clouds above and falling on various places as it comes down:  on your head, on your shoulders, on ground, and on your shoes.  You can ask students to touch different places as they are sung, or you can also use a visual of a pre made picture of a child perhaps standing under a cloud and give a raindrop picture to student/students and they can put the raindrop(s) in the correct places (on the cloud, on head, on shoulders, on ground, on shoe).  Either way, following directions and listening are the main goals with this activity.

What are your favorite songs about the rain?  

The Back to School Batch, part 6

Welcome back to More with Music!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Things are staying busy for me.

First of all, I have decided to share song sheets by request.
My focus in blogging here on More with Music is to share songs and ideas to help others.

If you would like song sheets for songs you hear on this blog, please send me an email at morewithmusic@gmail.com.  As always, the songs sheets are free and give you the song lyrics with the chords used for each song.

Today, I'm sharing another song that is a part of the Back to School Batch.  Today is your lucky day because this song is FREE!  That's right, it's free! :)

The song is about the people in our communities: the Community Helpers.  This song was written to help students identify the different roles of people in their communities.  The following community helpers are in this song:

Firemen
Policemen
Librarians
Nurses
Doctors
Veterinarians
Teachers
Dentists
Principals
Construction Worker
Mailman

Many classrooms across the country study community helpers in order to learn about different jobs in the community as well as the different roles that people have within a community.

What other songs do you use to help teach community helpers?