Friday, March 20, 2020

Educational songs: States and presidents

I am convinced we have a superhero for a classroom kindergarten teacher. In the last two months, she taught every kid in her class (26 kids total! 20 of them are boys!) the two songs below. Now my 6-year-old knows every state name (in alphabetical order) and every US President (in chronological order). 

States song
The "50 States That Rhyme" is one of many versions out there. I like how the video shows the outlines of each state along with the name of each state.


Here are some basic activities you can do with this video as a starting point:

1) Memorize it!

What better time to play a song on repeat :)

2) Alphabetize it 

Today my kids alphabetized the states using this song. They each had a piece of paper and paused the song at each state name. So, they were practicing writing, spelling, and geography (and they were working together to share one iPad, another great life skill).

3) Map it

Find each state on the map. Print and fill out one of these free printable maps. Learn state abbreviations.

4) Game-ify it

Use index cards, cut up cardstock, or even cut up notebook paper to make flashcards. Create a big "flashcard map" on the floor, putting each flashcard where the state is roughly located in relation to the rest of the country.

5) Research it

Choose a state to learn more about. Lots of choices here.

I'll share more specific ideas about larger projects in a future post.

Presidents song
There are a lot of these songs, too, but this happens to be the one my kid memorized.

I would recommend similar activities with this song as I would with the states song. Knowing all the US Presidents in order is an amazing party trick -- I still haven't mastered it myself. It's also going to make learning AP US History a lot easier in high school. My heart bursts when my kindergartener reminds me that Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President or that Grover Cleveland was President twice (but not in a row).

What educational songs do you love on YouTube? Please leave a comment to share ideas!

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