The One Great Text I shared with my student is a poem called My Pet Germs by Kenn Nesbitt. Kenn Nesbitt is an author of humorous poetry for children, including the books My Hippo Has the Hiccups and Revenge of the Lunch Ladies. I thought this one poem was really cute and funny while also explaining some patterns of germs. The poem also uses good vocabulary such as “epidermis.” The end of the poem leaves the kids with a question that should make them ponder on how many germs there actually are.
I have a half a billion germs
I keep as tiny pets.
They’re cute and clean and never mean
and give me no regrets.
They spend all day engaged in play
upon my skin and hair.
They’re on my clothes, between my toes
and in my underwear.
They dance and shout and bounce about.
They run and jump and slide.
My epidermis teems with germs
who party on my hide.
I never fret about the pets
inside my shirt and socks.
I love them there but wonder where
they keep their litter box?
My student absolutely loved this poem. She laughed throughout the reading and wanted me to read it again once I was finished. She understood and said that “Germs make you sick because they are tiny and we can’t see them.” She also said that “Germs are bad, but I don’t think they go in your underpants and have a party (haha).” I feel like even though the poem was humorous, Ingrid understood the point of the poem. She giggled about three times while also responding with insight! I would recommend this poem and more Kenn Nesbitt poems to use in the classroom!
The One Great Text I shared is an article entitled “Gloomy Underpass Transformed Into Awesome Kids’ Park” that I found on the website, TeachingKidsNews.com. This website is a great resource that provides articles on current events written in language understandable to elementary-age children. I shared this particular article because I hoped it would be interesting to my case study participant. The article is about an amusement park that was built underneath an underpass in Toronto, Canada. I would use this article in a science lesson about the different careers that scientists go into, such as engineers that help build parks like the one in the article (TEKS 3D).
When I read this article to my student, he said that he thought it was interesting because it reminded him of “parks that are really beautiful” and you can see “the cool stuff.” He also liked the picture provided because “it looks really familiar” like the underpasses in Austin.
Eat Your Math Homework is filled with delicious recipes created especially to teach math concepts to children of all ages and levels of cooking experience through real world application. This special cookbook does an exceptional job of introducing new math vocabulary and give students a chance to practice measurement skills. It also includes fun math facts and follow up activities! If you don’t have access to a sink, oven, or microwave the recipes available for use in your classroom may be limited, but either way this is a great text.
I first saw this book in the homeschool library of a family I frequently babysit for but after talking to the kids I realized they had either never used it or hadn’t in a very long time. We flipped through the pages and decided to make probability trail mix. I liked that the recipe could be altered to fit what they had in the pantry and realized that both kids could benefit from learning about probability, despite their differing prior knowledge. We mixed the trail mix together and created charts to estimate the likelihood of pulling out each ingredient. Both of the kids wrote down their estimations and after reaching into the mix ten times (and eating along the way!) we compared the numbers. The kids had fun and didn’t seem to realize that math was involved despite my emphasis on the vocabulary.
I would definitely consider using this text while babysitting, tutoring, or in a traditional classroom. If you’re interested in learning more check out free teacher guides and other related resources at www.eatyourmathhomework.com
Schoolhouse Rock is a educational series first produced in the 1970’s. They are short animated videos set to catchy music that have inspired generations of kids to learn math, history, grammar, science, economics and civics. Schoolhouse Rock endeavored to teach kids content during the Saturday morning cartoon line up on the ABC network. The series taught an entire generation of kids that “Knowledge is Power,” and today they still are used to inspire learning threw engagement and repetition.
In 2009 Schoolhouse Rock created an entire new series reflecting recent current events called Earth Rock, which will continue to inspire the next generations of kids to learn about recycling, global warming, and energy. Many of the videos are available for free access on You tube and Teacher Tube or the 30th Anniversary collection can be purchased on Amazon.
I choose to post the Schoolhouse rock video Counting by fives, because it is one of my favorites. It is part of the math series which I remember from my childhood. Along with impatiently waiting for the clips to air when I was watching cartoons as a child, my parents bought me the record Multiplication Rock. I would spend hours listening, singing, and dancing around to the record, not realizing that I was learning my multiplication tables at the same time. As scratched and warped as this record is today, it is so loved that 35 years later I still own it! Recently I bought the entire series on DVD so I can share the fun and magic with the future students in my own classroom.
My 10 year old niece was recently visiting me in Texas from Minnesota. As she was rummaging through my videos she came across the Schoolhouse Rock DVD, across the house I could hear her squeals of delight as she came running to me exclaiming, “Auntie can we watch this video? I love these, my teacher uses these. I love the math and conjunction ones!” She sat (directly in front of the TV) singing while automatically remembering the words to many of the songs. When the Counting by Fives video ended she told me that when she plays hide and go seek outside with her friends, she convinces them to count by twos, fives or tens as they all scurry to find hiding places. It is inspiring to find a resource that kids not only can be prompted to learn by, but a resource that they are motivated to use in their daily lives.
Web comments about Schoolhouse Rock:
“When My son was in College in a Business English class, the Professor asked the class what an Interjection was……silence! Leave it to my son; he started singing the Schoolhouse Rock jingle of Interjections! He proudly told me as I am writing this, “I got it right!” with a smile in his voice. He also said he was embarrassed, but he was the only one that got it right!”-Kathy Pukeko (home school teacher).
“I recently picked up the Schoolhouse Rock! retrospective DVD for my five year old and we got hooked into watching all 46 lessons. Beyond being hit by a nostalgic blast from the past, I was struck by how, after all these years, I instantly remembered all the songs and was able to sing along. But what really blew me away was the shows effect on my son. He was completely riveted and now, after watching just a couple of times, he walks around singing his times tables, telling everyone how the nervous system works, and reciting the preamble to the Constitution.”- Inspired Parent
“One idea to try with your students is to let them watch a particular video three or four times. For example, when my third graders were learning their times tables, they used the “Three Is a Magic Number” to help them out. I divided them into groups and let them come up with a routine to the song, and they made “music videos” to go with each song, which I recorded with my flip camera. They did an awesome job, not to mention mastered their three’s times tables!” -Kelly Hines 3rd grade teacher from NC.
