Music in Math

I love music.  I love it not only for my own pleasure, but in my classroom as well.  There was almost always music playing in the background during free time, during lunch time, and I often played jazz or classical during work time; during my circle time we used music every single class.

Some of my favorite background music comes from my time as a Gymboree Teacher.  For almost seven years I enjoyed the wonderful music Gymboree had to offer, and when they added music to the program it was even better.  The music they put together is all content and age appropriate.  They offer a bunch of CDs with each CD being a different genre of music.  I love playing the African CD during free playtime.

My all time favorite for ME is the Surfin Music.  Here is one that is for sale on Amazon: Gymboree Music: Surfin

Other music I use, to teach a specific skill, comes from many sources.  Wee Play offers an abundance (I bought most of mine at Costco) of finger plays and rhymes that I was able to make flannelboards to go with them.

Everyday Mathematics offers a music CD to go along with their curriculum.  Maybe yours does too?

A parent gave me a copy of the CD Movin 2 Math by Jack Hartmann.  I used track #3 Let's Get Fit (Counting to 100 by 1s) almost daily.  Even my three year olds, who could not count to 100, loved doing the exercises.

One song I used soooo much in the springtime is Five Little Butterflies.  I heard it on Barney once, and thought it was adorable.  I made these cute flannel boards to go with the song:

I added the flowers cause my butterflies needed to fly over something.  Anyway, here is the song:

Apparently this comes on a CD too.  Not a big Barney fan, but the kids love the song when I sing it.  So I just don't tell anyone I saw it on Barney. :)  Shhhhhh.....

What music do YOU like to use?

Kathy