The Power of Music

I love music. I have been listening to music and have enjoyed singing for as long as I can remember. I picked up the guitar in college, and for several years in my twenties, I was in a band. Music has played a significant role in my life.

I know the power of music and I wanted to incorporate it more into my teaching this year. I have done more singing and dancing with my students, but wanted to write some memoriable and catchy songs related to our units. Easier said than done.

Now we are looking at the Earth and learning about the continents. The studnets had been having trouble remembering their names and suddenly I remembered that there is a continents song. I went on Youtube and found it. I am amazed at how much they like it, and how quickly they remembered the vocabulary.

I really need to write a song for my next unit.

For Them

Today was our sports day. It was a half day of fun outside playing games. Parents came, teachers participated, and the kids had fun. I think we could have gotten a lot done this morning based on what we did in the afternoon.

But we did it for the kids.

I spent a few hours tonight going through the two hundred and some pictures I took today. I had to sort through them, edit them, and move them so I can access them tomorrow.

While I was finishing up I thought of the other things I could have done with my time. But then I thought of the kids faces when they watch the video of themselves having fun. I thought of the memories they will have of today.

It was for them.

Digging Up the Past

I am trying to incorporate more hands-on activities this year; more building, more constructing, more tinkering.

To demonstrate how paleontologists retrieve bones from the ground, I put some plastic dinosaur bones in some plastic trays and buried them in dirt.

I had the trays out for a while before we did this, so the students all knew what was in them after digging in them themselves, but the purpose of this activity was not to find what was inside, but rather to be scientists and to use the clues we find to paint a picture.

I was also able to show them how to make a grid, as shown below, so they could record exactly (or as accurately as first and second graders can) what they saw.

	1	2	3
A
B
C

I have more bones buried in the garden which I want to use as an activity to build on this one. That is, if the weather ever clears up.

Field Trip to the Past

Yesterday we went on a fild trip for our unit Finding Out About the Past.

In our inquiry into how the Earth changes and the different animals from the past, we talked about how scientists find clues in the ground and piece together a story.

I wanted the students to see an actual site, and fortunately there are several historical villages around Sendai and the Tohoku region from the Jomon Period.

 This was the first time I took them out on a field trip, and they had such interesting questions. Next time we go I think I will have them either write them down, or better yet, record them so we can talk about them later.

Since we are currently studying geometry, we discussed the shapes they saw in the houses. The highlight of that was when they drew the houses, one girl drew a heart on hers.

The world needs more hearts.

Rearranging

There is not enough time in the day. There is too much to do. There is so much more I want to do with my students.

I find myself saying this a lot lately. I am not sure where the time goes. I certainly do not feel like I am wasting classroom time, but I do feel like I could be spending it better.

We just returned from autumn break, and during that time I reevaluated our weekly schedule. I decided to try adding more time for Language Arts during the week, and then have bigger chunks of time on Fridays for Unit Studies.

Today was the first day I tried it out, and it was refreshing how much I felt like we got done today.

It is funny how rearranging classes can have that affect.