SMART Board Goodies A Resource Blog by Amber Coggin 

Here is another fun interactive eCard that I found while browsing Delicious that would be fun on the SMART Board. Just click on the noses to make your own tune, or choose a song and be guided. Look through the rest of their collection as well for other fun Christmas cards.

Have some Friday fun with Hands Symphony from the American Heart Association. Just click on the hands to make your own music track. You can also send your track to a friend or share it on a number of social networking sites. Have fun!

Sphinx Kids is an awesome interactive site that is an extension of the Sphinx Organization’s Classical Connections program which brings classical music into undeserved schools. On this site, students can learn about classical instruments, composers (awesome section on minority composers, too), and even create their own rhythm band! Check it out!

I love rap music. Even at 30 years old and while driving in my mini-van. I stumbled upon Mr. Duey last year and was able to introduce him to my students last quarter through his Fractions video on TeacherTube. They.loved.it. They all laughed when I showed them a preview on the SMARTboard, and even though I gave them other fraction alternatives that day, they all chose to visit Mr. Duey first. I actually had to MAKE them stop watching it, and many students had already learned most of the words after watching it a few times.

This week, one of our 4th grade teachers brought to my attention a song entitled “44 Presidents” she found on an Inaugural resources site I had e-mailed to her. This lead me to the Educational Rap website. This group offers rap songs for Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies.

Here is an excerpt from the website:

Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, LLC (RRR, pronounced “Triple R”) is a production house and online media company founded in 2006 in Cambridge, MA. We currently focus on producing the most entertaining and effective educational music on the planet.

Four versions of each song!

In response to teacher feedback, our albums come with four versions of each song, each of which makes use of a different educational technique to assist the learning process:

• The Original Track presents the complete song at its normal tempo.
• The Downtempo Track presents the complete song at a reduced tempo.
• The Recall Track™ feature eliminates key words and phrases from the lyrics.
• The Instrumental Track provides a karaoke-style version without lead vocals.

As a bonus, the group offers free live streams of nearly 10 songs (lyrics included) for each subject. This is a great way to test the songs out on your students before you buy to determine if they will meet your students’ needs.There are 3 ways to purchase: Amazon, iTunes, and directly from Educational Rap.

If you have used educational rap in the classroom, I would love to hear about your experiences. I will report back with comments from the 4th grade teacher at my school who plans to use this in her classroom.