End of Year Video Song List and Music in the Classroom

What kind of music do you like to listen to?  Do you play music in your classroom?  I LOVE music and I find that I am playing it at all times! Instead of the TV going on full blast in our house-it is Music Choice, a set of music stations that play uninterrupted songs based on our favorite musical genre.  In our house, it is the Pop station or 320. My husband might argue that the songs that my children and I sing at the top of our lungs are NOT his favorite choice of music, but regardless, we listen, we sing, and of course, we dance!

At this time of year I am always in search of the perfect songs of the year to add to the End of Year Video I always create for my 6th graders that are moving onto middle school.  I take pictures throughout the course of the year, and at the end, using Windows Movie Maker, I create a video with the best songs I can find to celebrate our year together.  The video is played at the end of our 6th Grade Promotion Ceremony and wraps up all of the hard work, activities, field trips, and day-to-day moments that made our year so special.  I LOVE putting this together because it helps me to reflect on all of the work we accomplished and all of the fun memories we will always share.  I guess I am a bit of a sap...

If this is a task you want to tackle, I highly recommend it-it truly helps me to see my students in the most refreshing light, even if it has been a stressful or challenging year.  To make your life easier tackling this fun project-here is a song list I created to put all of your fun memories of this school year to music...

If you have no interest in creating a video, each of these songs is perfect for classroom listening, so add them to your classroom playlist and enjoy!

If you need a classroom brain break-I love this video! Get your kiddos up and watch'em dance!

Classroom Party Game! "UNWRAP A PARTY" BALL...

Holiday parties are events that students really look forward to at EVERY age. Even my 6th graders LOVE celebrating holidays with one another throughout the course of the year.  I am one of those teachers that loves to have fun, too!  It can be a bit pricey and time-consuming to coordinate it all, however!

I am ALWAYS on the hunt for new ideas...I have seen this "UNWRAP A PARTY" BALL idea on Pinterest and decided that I HAVE to give this a try.  Because I have the fun task of planning, organizing, and implementing a game at my son's third grade classroom holiday party, I thought this was the perfect time.  So here is a very simple "how-to create" this and I will keep you posted on how it all goes down...

I bought the following items:

• Saran Wrap-200 sq ft.
• Clear Mailing Tape
• clear tape 
• 1-Ring Pop 
• 2-bags of candy (Smarties and Laffy Taffy) due to peanut allergies
• 1-box of candy canes
• 3-bags of holiday erasers and bouncy balls

To CREATE:

1. use Ring Pop for the center/core
2. wrap a layer of Saran Wrap and tape 
3. tape candy or trinkets to the Saran Wrap
4. layer over the candy/trinkets with more Saran Wrap
5. tape over that with the Mailing Tape
6. repeat until you run out of goodies or until your ball is the size of a soccer or basketball

Supplies for creating!

Almost complete!

How to PLAY:

1. Students will sit in a small group.  The student with the birthday closest to Christmas goes first.  Then the game goes in a clock-wise order.
2. The first student will roll a pair of dice.  In order to begin trying to unwrap the ball, the player with the dice must roll doubles.  Once the player with the dice rolls any doubles, he may begin unwrapping the ball.
3. The player may continue trying to unwrap the ball until the next player rolls doubles.  Each treat that is acquired can be kept by the student that unwrapped it.  
4. The ball continues to be passed around and the dice are rolled until the teacher calls time.

I wrapped this things up REALLY well, so it will be pretty challenging to get to each and every layer.  I will keep you posted on how this goes!  Please share any games you love to play with your middle grades to upper elementary students.

One of THOSE weeks...

I am grateful to be a part of the blogging community because it was one of THOSE weeks...

I am not a pity-party-person.  I struggle with complainers, and I have a hard time with people that are unable to see the glass half-FULL!  Truly there is ALWAYS a bright side-sometimes the search is just a bit harder than finding the wrong, annoying, frustrating DARK side.

So luckily I came across my blogging friend, Megan's post on http://teacher-wife.blogspot.com/2012/09/dear-teacher-who-feels-like-she-is.html...Megan, you have no idea how much your words meant this week when things were a bit annoying, aggravating, maddening, and overwhelming.  Please check out her post, especially if you had one of THOSE weeks, too!

Rather than focus on the annoying, aggravating, maddening, and overwhelming, I thought countering with the best things about this week would be the most ideal way to feel rejuventated/reinvigorated for next school week.  Thanks to my students for this much more positive perspective...

Here goes:

#5: When students came in this week and were getting organized for the day, while the music was playing-I could here students singing along to Mat Kearney's Ships in the Night.  I had to stop straightening, organizing, and preparing just to watch them bobbing their heads, working, and singing.  I even had a 6th grade boy tell me that he had memorized all of the words to an Enya song-who would've thought...

#4: Since we finished our music video on Friday and I told students that it would be posted and ready to view over the weekend, those without internet access couldn't wait to see it and were begging to see it first thing Monday morning.  Thanks to my awesome 6th graders for taking such pride in a fun experience.  I am so glad you were as excited as I was to see the finished piece.

#3: These are a few of my 6th graders working on their end of book projects for the novel Crash.  Look at their diligent faces and the incredible "photographs" they created to go along with their thoughtful descriptions.  I LOVE when students are excited, engaged, and producing their best work.

 Cody taking time to produce his best illustration.

 Taylor adding colorful details.

 Sam working on her rough draft.

Dylan making sure his football players look just like he visualized.

#2: This parent comment: "The music video is very cute... They did a great job... The boys really got into it... This was our entertainment this morning at work." 

#1: Connor, one of my 6th grade students, couldn't wait until I was finished DRAing a student.  He was BEGGING to have me read his "Spend A Day" project.  When I finally had the opportunity to read his work, it made me so proud of him.  The words, "I haven't written this much in my whole life" were music to my ears.  It made me realize how essential these interactive writer's notebooks are for my students.  Glad I incorporated them into my instruction this year! 

While some weeks are filled to the brim with WONDERFUL and MAGICAL days, not every week can be rainbows and puppy dogs, as I always say.   So rather than waste energy on the craziness-choose those BEST things that are happening and take the time to focus on them.  Thanks again, Megan!