Plants Adapt

Happy Thursday!
Many of the classrooms I serve in the public school setting have been learning about plants.  We sing about the parts of a plant (find it here), and the needs of a plant.  For our middle and high school students, we also sing about photosynthesis, (which I'll be sharing soon!).  Earlier this week I recorded two additional songs about plants.

Today I'll be sharing one of those songs:  Plant Adaptation.
Researching this topic was very interesting.  At the same time, I found it challenging to keep the song short and simple.  After many drafts, I finally finished writing the song and decided on a jazz chord progression for the accompaniment.
(Warning:  This song is catchy and it may get stuck in your head!)



The repetitive chorus is intended to help students learn the main idea:  plants adapt in order to live.
The chorus can also be used to engage students who use a voice output device.  They can sing along with this repetitive part if it is prerecorded on their device.

Stay tuned for another song about plants next week!

The Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Spring is in full bloom here!    

I love this time of year because students can learn and observe so much while being out in the beautiful  weather.  

Many classrooms that I work with are learning about life cycles. The past two weeks in particular, we have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly.   Today I want to share a song I wrote about this with you!

The vocabulary in the song includes the following key vocabulary words:  

butterfly

eggs

caterpillar

chrysalis

I kept this song simple and allowed for repetition within almost all of the verses.  I also searched and found signs (ASL) for the four key vocabulary words listed above, as well as the following words:  fly, hatch, eat, spin.  I use these signs while singing the song so students have a motion for each part of the life cycle.  

The students have picked this song up very quickly and many of them are singing along on the repetitive phrases and mirroring the signs as well!

What other butterfly songs do you sing with your students or groups?

As always, thanks for stopping by!