Music in the Classroom

I LOVE music. I love singing at the top of my lungs (WARNING: I am tone deaf). I love singing in the classroom and making up songs. I wish I had a dollar for each time a child laughed at me because my voice was so horrible. But hey...they are Laughing and LEARNING! They may think I'm CRR-A-ZZZY but whatever works, right!?!  So, you can imagine my excitement when I came across Amanda's post from Teaching Maddeness when she created a Linky Party all about MUSIC! I am thrilled to share with you some of my musical inspirations in the classroom!

Music in the Classroom Guru: RON CLARK

Almost 2 years ago, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to visit the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. My OH MY was that a life changing event! We had professional development on creating songs! Connecting songs the students are listening to and creating new content for the different beats. If you have never heard of Ron Clark STOP what you are doing and youtube, google, facebook him NOW!

The video below if from the students from the Ron Clark Academy signing a current hit with mathematical lyrics. What better way to ENGAGE students than with something they LOVE. Ron Clark is my teaching hero!

Independent Work: CLASSICAL MUSIC

Another CD that I SWEAR by is "Classics for Quiet Time." I use classical music in the classroom because it soothes the students and sets a calm tone while they are focused. 

Morning Routine: I use classical Music. It sets a CALM tone for the day so the students don't come in all WILD & CRAZY and allows them to get into the groove of the day quietly.

 While students work independently during guided reading, guided math, writing workshop, etc...I ALWAYS have classical music playing. It really allows them to focus and provides an EASY classroom management tool. The nuggets know their voices should never be louder than the music during independent centers, writing, etc. 

Educational Music: MUST HAVES!

Have Fun Teaching- I am ALL about the title of this website because I love to have fun and I love to teach and those works are synonymous to me! (And I'm sure if you are reading teaching blogs at home, the same is true for you!) My students and I fell in LOVE with this site. Our favorite song was the adjective song. We even came up with hand motions to remember all the words! 

My kiddos LOVE songs during phonics time, too. Here is one that engaged one of the boys (who made his mom play it on repeat after school for like a month...)

To help the sweet nuggets skip count, they loved all the Have Fun Teaching songs! 

My students also went crazy every Friday because our principal would download the latest and greatest (Justin Bieber) songs and play them during lunch. It was a GREAT incentive for the students (some students were devastated when their behavior wasn't up to par....no music on Fridays! This ended quickly when the found the correlation between music and behavior! ;)) 

I incoprorated this positive behavior management into my classroom also. If the students had a great day, we would do their/MY FAVORITE dance at the end of the day...THE WOBBLE! I mean, who DOESN'T love to wobble?  

Ok, I won't judge...put the computer down and get up and WOBBLE!! It's summer and you deserve it!

How to you incorporate music in the classroom? Link up with Amanda to let us know!!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway below!