Getting Mathy With Musical's

We are back from London with loads of exciting stories and a hope to return for a much longer stay.  There were so many wonderful things we did on our trip. Seeing the show Matilda was definitely one of the events that stand out. The show was so extraordinary, and with a cast full of kids it has a way of pulling at your heart strings. The girls have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat and have expressed interest in performing one of the numbers for the end of the year talent show. Seeing as how they are 5, they may change their mind, but with excitement and enthusiasm over the idea and their new talent for speaking with an English accent, I decided to give them what they wanted....

with an educational twist of course.

We started with some rhythm, counting and math games set to a metronome, because timing is everything. We started with a simple game of pass the tap. With the metronome providing a steady beat, we sat in a circle and went around the circle tapping our sticks on the beat.

We then added numbers, each person counting and tapping on their number.

Next we added choreography building 2 beats at a time until we had choreographed a tapping rhythm stick dance to count of 8. We went through this choreography while counting with our loud clear voice.

Next week the counting will become more challenging as we incorporate addition math drills.

We spent the majority of our class time working on a piece from Matilda the musical titled "Naughty."  Each girl has been given a solo and must remember to listen and count to the music so they can stay together in their steps. We are having fun with this piece, but I must remember to bring chairs for their size so that we have an easier time with choreography.

At home we continued our lesson with some musical math drills. A part of our assignment was to work on these drills with a timer. The timer was more of a distraction and they kept loosing their focus, checking on the level of the sand. We tried 3 or 4 times each with the same results and honestly I wanted to put the darn thing down the garbage disposal as I broke out into sweats having flash backs of timed tests in elementary school. I think it is really good for kids to be able to know their math drills by heart, but I have to be honest and say that I still don't know all of them by heart, but I have become a very fast counter. So to help them (and me) I decided to take a song that they loved and re-wrote the lyrics. We now have daily karaoke party as we sing about adding 2's.

Song we rewrote:

"Footloose"

Been working so hard
at using flash cards
addition math drills
Oh tell me how much more
I've got this feeling
math drills are just not my thing
I've got to sing it
for it to mean anything

2 + 1 = ( e e e equals) 3
2 + 2 = 4
2 + 3 = 5
2 + 4 = 6

Your adding so cool
obeying math rules
somewhere inside your mind
your learning learning
all you need is to sing them
to a really good song
and soon adding
won't slow me down

2 + 5 = 7
2 + 6 = 8
2 + 7 = 9
2 + 8 = 10
(music change)
speaking: 2 + 9 is 11
2 + 10 is 12

You've got to turn them around
and then turn up the sound
gotta learn to add by 2's

OOOOH - OH - OH

10 + 2 = 12
9 + 2 = 11
8 + 2 = 10
7 + 2 = 9
6 + 2 = 8
5 + 2 = 7
4 + 2 = 6
3 + 2 = 5
(music change)
(speaking)  2 + 2 is 4
2 + 1 is 3

EVERYBODY ADD BY 2'S

note: Some kareoke versions differ from track to track so you may need to adjust accordingly.

Hope you enjoyed our song. Feel free to adjust lyrics to the math drills your child or students are working on.