Teach with Poems Set to Music = Songs!

Grab an inexpensive instrument, like a pair of maracas, tap out a beat and set a poem to simple music. Kids will be all eyes on you.

Hi and welcome back to Attentionology for K – 5 Teachers!

Pull Kids in with Poetry is the title of a popular post that I’ve published.

Now, here in the fall heading into the holidays, poems come to mind again for their power to catch and keep children’s attention.

Poems set to music can have an even bigger draw because poems set to music = songs!

Children love songs. Songs, of course, are part of music instruction in all grade levels of elementary education.

But, I’ve always thought that all teachers could use songs more often to help students master K – 5 curricula.

The trick…connect kids with poems set to music – songs…in age-appropriate ways.

The good news…you don’t have to be an accomplished musician to grab an inexpensive instrument, like a pair of maracas, tap out a beat and set a poem to simple music.

Eloise Greenfield wrote a poem about music, titled Way Down In The Music that references some specific American music groups, but the soul and sound of the poem are universal.

See if you agree. If you do, add this poem to your teaching resources. Way Down In The Music is from her collection, Honey, I Love and Other Poems (1978, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon; winner of the Recognition of Merit Award).

 Way Down In The Music

I get way down in the music

Down inside the music

I let it wake me

take me

Spin me around and make me

Uh-get down

Inside the sound of the Jackson Five

Into the tune of Earth, Wind and Fire

Down in the bass where the beat comes from

Down in the horn and down in the drum

I get down

I get down

I get way down in the music

Down inside the music

I let it wake me

take me

Spin me around and shake me

I get down, down

I get down

Get down to the business of teaching through poems set to music – songs – by offering students the opportunity to help you complete subject-based compositions. (more…)