Music and Math!

There are so many opportunities for music and movement throughout the day!  We sing and dance to start our morning meeting, to practice and remember new skills in literacy and  math whole groups, to shake our wiggles out, to transition from one activity to the next, and to leave our classroom at the end of the day wearing a smile! In these photos, students are bouncing and balancing beanbags to the song "Bean Bag Boogie" from a CD by Greg  Steve...AND students are learning/demonstrating  positional words! 

I now have all of the Dr. Jean CDs ...this week we sang "Cool Bear Hunt" for positional words.. We include her songs during calendar, morning meeting, transitions, topics of study, etc! She has created SO many songs perfect for engaging young children!  If you do not have the CDs you can download her songs (fee) ..she does have some song and printable freebies on her website: http://www.drjean.org/

I have many Jack Hartmann CDs.. we use the songs to warm up before morning meeting and on inside recess days..and for silly songs before we go home like "The Silly Pirate Dance." He has made numerous counting, alphabet, rhyming, making words songs that are upbeat and keep the kids attention span.
Here is a link to all of his cds http://www.jackhartmann.com/music-cds/?sort=newest&page=1  Click on the title on the CD to view the list of songs... there are three pages of cds!

The Learning Station makes some fabulous videos (perfect for a  SMARTBOARD  shake break!)...and CDs .. some of our favorite music and movement songs are "Boom Chicka Boom" and "Wishy Washy Washer Woman!"
These are songs we usually sing at dismissal.
 Click on the link to their website http://www.learningstationmusic.com/ 
They even have a  ZUMBA video for inside day recess!

I recently ordered the Greg & Steve cds.. We've been using the "Kids in Action" and  "Shake, Rattle, Rock" cds.
Here's a link to their online store and sample songs http://www.gregandsteve.com/store.php

Another idea for positional words.. A teacher across the hall loaned me her new Lakeshore musical instrument set (which comes with more than 20 instruments by the way!)  The students practiced and demonstrated positional words as  I called out the directions.. above, below, beside..etc..

Also.. sometimes when my class is sitting in the hall ,and we have to be very quiet while waiting for specials, we play a quiet game... In this game, I select one student to be the leader.. he/she makes hand movements, ex. rolling arms, tapping head ..kinda like a silent simon says... and the rest of the class follows.. after a few movements the student picks another friend to be the leader.. you could easily add in whispering positional words along with the hand movements.. I learned this game from a mentor of mine during an internship and I have been using it ever since!  It gets some of  the wiggles out.. gets their focus off of bothering or touching each other while waiting on bathroom breaks in the hall... helps them to stay quiet.. 

Click on the link to view another post about positional words: http://prektweets.blogspot.com/2012/09/positional-words.html