FLocabulary!

Okay, it has been awhile. I have had two sick make that three sick kids including my husband but they are all on their way to recovery now. Thanksgiving was great I am thankful for so much but right now I am going to be thankful for my job. I have been modeling lessons in classrooms and one thing that I found to be successful in the kindergarten classrooms was music and math. I sorted my math songs in itunes into one playlist. It was comprised mostly of Heidi Songs and Have fun Teaching.

We played several games that I will post later that involved physical movement with the songs. I wanted to expand this so I looked through my 4th grade lesson plans to see how I incorporated music in 4th grade. I found a good old friend, Flocabulary. I have been preparing my next set of modeled lessons to include Flocabulary.

 Now, let me tell you all the reasons why I love it.
1.First, I have used it before but since I am a traveling teacher I did not purchase a subscription this year and Flocabulary generously has let me have subscription to use in all my classrooms.

2. The songs on Flocabulary are really catchy and well written and appeal to even the coolest of cool kids. They hire professionals to write the hooks and lay down the tracks and it is very clear when you listen to the songs.

3. It it so much more than just a song to engage students.  Now, you can print the lyrics for the your kiddos to go home a learn or sing along with the streaming video.

4. I was at a training with several of my teachers and one of the most frequently asked questionswas" What do you do if they do not know their math facts?" So I began to research and found a couple of neat books that I will post about later.
Mastering the Basic Math Facts in Addition and Subtraction , By Susan O' Connell and John SanGiovanni I previewed the book online and loved that it focused on both fact fluency and conceptual understanding. When you add Flocabulary to these lessons you have a 21century lesson based on conceptual understanding and Common Core Standards.
Here is an example of a Common Core aligned math Flocabulary video

This lovely video is about basic math fact adding 0. 

• CCSS.Math.Content.1.OA.C.6 Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 – 4 = 13 – 3 – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 – 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13). 
• This hits this CCSS pretty clearly. Then I found Chapter 3 of Mastering basic math facts had a series of conceptual lessons about Adding pretty dang cool alignment. 
• 5. I went further in Flocabulary to find many other resources as well, like problem solving test using algebraic thinking.  There is an abundance of resources on Flocabulary well beyond these it also has ideas on how to teach the creation piece, how to get kids to both analyze and create their own interpretations of the Flocabulary videos. Thusly it truly is bringing Common Core into your classroom.

Okay, so those are just 5 reasons I have many more but I would like you to see and listen for yourself. 

Here is one of their great math videos on youtube! Check it out These are so fun!

Happy Teaching!