'Round up your rhythm sticks!

Welcome back to More with Music!

On this last day of May, I'm slipping in one more song post.

This song, entitled, "Where will we go?", helps students understand and practice different directions, or positional words.  Positional words are words that describe the location of something, often in relation to something else.  Students hear these words everyday, but many need to put them into practice (especially the kinesthetic learners) in order to grasp what these words really mean.

I've had a lot of fun singing this song this month with many students (and many different age groups).  I use rhythm sticks with this song and the students have been tapping away!

When first introducing this song, I visually show students each direction/positional word and we say the positional word aloud while tapping.  Next, we give it a try with the song playing and me modelling the directions/positional words as the group leader.

The students love to take turns being the leader as well, so I always try to incorporate this as part of the song.
I lead the first time, then we do the song a second time with a student leader.  You could also assign individual students certain positional words to lead as they are sung in the song.

As always, I'd love to hear what you think!   Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for more song posts!  

What would you buy?

Welcome back to More with Music!

My three most  recent song posts featured songs about our needs and wants.  Today I will be sharing a song that fits within those topics.  What do we all need to purchase our needs and/or wants???  Money!

I wrote this song this year for students in the kindergarten through 5th grade classrooms I work within.  They really liked it!  It's very catchy and some of the students request it as "the money song".  :)

I used visual aids with this song to show different stores and asked the students, "What would you buy at the book store?", or "What would you buy at the grocery store?"  Many of the students identified the store fronts on the pictures and were very engaged when sharing what they buy (or their parents buy) at the different stores.

When singing this song with the students, I used egg shakers.  Each student was given a shaker and I modeled "Shake slow" and "Shake fast".  On each verse of the song where it sings about a store, we shake slow and find the beat.  When the chorus is sung ("You need money, money,etc..), we shake fast.  They really like shaking fast, trust me!

Isn't it catchy?  :)  This song is also a great song to sing and warm up the students to talk about money and in particular coin values. How could you use this song?

As always, thanks for stopping by and check back soon.  With summer quickly approaching, I'll have more time to post! :)

Welcome back to More with Music!
In the past two posts, I've shared songs about needs and then wants.  Today I'm sharing a song that groups the two together.

This song is really a simple song that helps students understand that needs and wants are two different things.  The song defines a need as something you must have in order to survive.  A want is something you'd like to have.  It is also something that you can live without.

The song lists the four basic human needs and then lists a few examples of things students might want (iPads, video games, TVs).

I'd love to hear what you think.  

Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a catchy tune!

Our Wants

Welcome back to More with Music!

My last post was about the four basic things humans need in order to survive.
Today's post will be about wants.

After students learned the four basic needs, I introduced this song to them.  The students were very engaged as I showed them different pictures of toys, candy, stuffed animals, instruments, and games.  These categories are all mentioned in the song.

I also incorporated sign language with this song.  We all signed "I want" along with the song at the beginning of each verse.  After singing the song and showing my visuals, I went around the group and asked each student to tell me something they would want.  It was very interesting to hear their answers.  This was also a great way to encourage students to answer questions and speak in full sentences (i.e. "What do you want?" "I want legos.").

So, without further delay, the song is below.  I'd love to hear what you think!



Thanks for stopping by and check back soon for more song posts!


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We all have Needs

Welcome back to More with Music!

In some of the classrooms I've been in recently, the students are learning about the differences between their needs and their wants.  Sometimes, this can be very tricky to explain.

Our basic needs as humans are food, water, air, and shelter.  These are the things we must have in order to survive.

When I sing this song with students, we first count the four basic needs with our fingers (or with picture cards, and/or augmentative communication devices set up to sequentially count with each touch from the student).  We count to 4 and then I ask the students to help label each need, and why we need it.

We talk about food and sign the word food.  We sign the word water, then talk about different ways we use water every day.  We take deep breaths of air, and then sign the word house to talk about shelter and needing a place to live.  The students (verbal and nonverbal), are very eager to sign along with me as we sing the song and about each of the four needs.  Some students are able to sing along with the song and others are able to sign each need as we sing.

I've really enjoyed this song because of it's simple and repetitive nature and hope you will enjoy it too!




As always, thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for another post about the opposite of our needs-our wants!