Learning Through Song
“Butterfly, Butterfly, you’re so fine, flyin’ up and down all through the sky. The life cycle just goes on and on, now listen up to our butterfly soooooooooooong.”
Last month, the DAA kindergartners studied Butterflies. They learned about their habitat, life cycle, and predators. In proper EL fashion, we also had live butterflies so the kids could learn as the butterflies grew. To commence the butterfly unit, we taught the kinders a butterfly life cycle song and they performed it at our light leader ceremony.
When Mrs. Brophy and I discovered the song from Youtube, we instantly fell in love and knew the kids were going to love it, too. To our surprise, they learned it very quickly and they sang it NON-STOP! Parents told us that they would sing it, on repeat, at home and in their sleep. During lunch, snack, and recess, the students would sing the butterfly song as LOUD as they could. They were so excited about the butterfly life cycle that they couldn’t stop thinking about it.
As we teach more insects, Mrs. Brophy and I refer to some of the lyrics of the song, in class, and students are instantly able to make connections between the butterflies’ life cycle and the life cycle of many other insects. We found that our students were able to learn about metamorphosis in a fun and memorable way. I am currently looking for a Ladybug and Firefly raps for my students to learn at the end of this expedition.
Learning through song is a research-based approach to memorization. This is a practice that I firmly believe in and I am always putting into application. You can always walk by my classroom and hear us singing insect songs, days of the week, perseverance songs and even Michael Jackson.
As I end this blog post, I want to encourage you to, “SINNNNNNGGGGGGG A SOOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGGGG.” It would not only brighten your mood, but you might store more things into your working memory.
Singing, flying, and teaching,
Ms. Johnson