Making up songs to teach

I sing a lot in my classes.  It doesn’t matter if I am teaching English to blind students or 5th grade math in Texas.  I sing and dance…making up songs and actions for the songs to help my students remember and understand what they are learning.

My students this year need to use tactile as much as possible since they are blind.  I have been struggling this year with what exactly to teach my students and how to teach them.  Many of them are very low and are working on learning their ABCs and phonics.  However, they also need to learn basic English conversation.  So I made up some songs about some simple early English conversations.

The first song is sung to the tune of “London Bridge”.

Hello, hello, how are you? – wave hello and then hand out gesturing “how are you”
How are you? How are you?
Hello, hello, how are you?
I’m fine thank you. – put hand on your chest

My name is Angela (they of course say their own name and not my name), – put hand on your chest
Angela, Angela, Angela,
My name is Angela,
Nice to meet you. – shake hands with your friend or partner

With my students, they didn’t understand not to say my name and say their name instead.  So we went around the room and sang each student’s name.  They loved it when it was time to sing their name.  They would smile really big and get to shake my hand.  It was so cute.

The next song I made up is sung to the tune of “Are You Sleeping”.

How are you? How are you?
I am hungry. – rub stomach as if you’re hungry
I am hungry.
I am hungry.

Repeat with:
I am cold. – shiver
I am hot. – fan yourself
I am tired. – sleepy hands next to face
I am happy. – happy face
I am sad. – sad face
I am good. – thumbs up
I am great. – hands up in the air
I am OK. – give the OK signal

I am hungry

I am cold.

I am tired.

I am happy.

I am great.

I am good.

I am OK.

He loved the songs….much more than I thought he would.  Now I get to think of more songs to create!

Do you use songs in your classroom?  Do you even make up songs to use in your classroom?  I’d love for you to share them!

I have added several products to my TPT Store!  Check them out and let me know what you think!

My first product to share with you is my Math Choice Boards.  I used these last year when I taught 5th grade math.  It was so difficult to work with small groups when the rest of the class wasn’t on task.  So I created some fun projects for them to work on, projects where they were able to show what they know in activities that they got to choose.  They LOVED being able to choose which project they would work on.  Some of them loved to create games, so they got to choose “create a game”.  Some of them were really great at computer projects, so they were excited about being able to be creative using the computer.  My students stayed on task, they were into what they were doing, and they really were able to show what they learned about each objective.  It was a win-win.  Click HERE to download Math Choice Boards.

I also added the project, Costa’s House of Questions.  I went to a workshop last year and learned about Costa’s House of Questions.  It’s another way to look at the Bloom’s Taxonomy, and I absolutely loved it.  Bloom’s has 6 levels and is sometimes hard to distinguish between the 6 levels.  If it’s hard for me, then I know it must be hard for my students.  Costa’s House of Questions only has 3 levels, with the 3rd level being the highest level.  It was SO much easier for my students to understand.  I created a huge bulletin board in my classroom for us to use in our lessons.  Click HERE to download.

The last product I added was my Collection of Checklists.  I’m one of those teachers who strives to be super organized.  Now it doesn’t always turn out that way, but I do strive for it.  One of the things I use to stay organized is checklists.  I use a checklist for anything I can think of.  I included several checklists in the collection and even several blank ones for you to use however you want. Click HERE to download.