Welcome to the Jungle

Day’s Topics: 

Rome Review

Objectives: 

Students will be able to recall facts about ancient Rome. 

Students will be able to move meaningfully to music.

Students will be able to burn a CD using iTunes.                                                               

SOL’s:

Social Studies 3.1 The student will explain how the contributions of ancient Greece and Rome have influenced the present in terms of architecture, government (direct and representative democracy), and sports. 

Social Studies 3.4 The student will develop map skills by

locating Greece, Rome, and West Africa;

describing the physical and human characteristics of Greece, Rome, and West Africa;

explaining how the people of Greece, Rome, and West Africa adapted to and/or changed their environment to meet their needs.

Social Studies 3.7 The student will explain how producers in ancient Greece, Rome, and the West African empire of Mali used natural resources, human resources, and capital resources in the production of goods and services. 

C/T 3-5.1 Students will demonstrate knowledge of the nature and operation of technology systems.

C/T 3-5.2 Students will demonstrate proficiency in the use of technology. 

use skills and procedures needed to perate various technologies such as scanners, digital cameras and hand held computers. 

identify basic software applications such as word processing, databases, and spreadsheets.

Music 3.4 The student will respond to music with movement. 

1. Perform line and circle dances. 

2. Perform dances and games from various cultures. 

3. Dramatize songs, stories, and poems. 

4. Perform choreographed and non-choreographed movements. 

Materials:

computer w/CD burner

iTunes

song lyrics

blank CD’s

Instructional Activities: 

Writing Block

Introduction: Students and teacher will practice the song a few times.

The teacher will ask students to share their ideas for movements to go with the songs.The class will work together to create a series of movements to emphasize and coordinate with the lyrics of the song. 

Students and teacher will practice song with movements.

Social Studies Block

Students and teacher will practice the song with and without movements.

The teacher will gather students together on the carpet close to the computer. Students and teacher will record song using the Audacity computer program or Garage Band program. The class will listen to their song, and if needed, do another take. The teacher will then walk the students through creating an MP3 in iTunes. 

Once the MP3 is created, the teacher will demonstrate how to burn a CD (having the computer hooked up to the SMARTBoard). Once this is done, the teacher will begin calling students up to burn their own CD’s to take home as a study tool. 

While students are waiting to take their turn CD burning, they will have free writing time.

Assessment: 

Students will be assessed on their participation in singing the class song. Students will be considered to have met objective 1 if they participate in singing the song.

Students will also be assessed on their participation in the movement component of the song. Students will be considered to have met objective 2 if they contribute to the movement creation and/or if they do the moves while singing the song. 

For the technology component, students will be assessed on their ability to burn their CD with support from the teacher. The teacher will let students attempt to burn on their own, and offer assistance if it is needed. Students will be considered to have met objective 3 if they successfully burn a CD.

Differentiation:

LD student: I will speak with the special education teacher to see if LaRon can join us for the movement creation portion of the song in the morning, since he is usually pulled for writing. I will also ask the teacher for work he can do while waiting to burn his CD, as his writing instruction is very different from that of the rest of the class.

Students who cannot participate appropriately will be given Rome worksheets to complete during the movement creation and recording pieces. 

MI: musical/rhythmic, bodily/kinesthetic

Why?

The song is being written as a tool students can use to remember information about Rome. Recording the song and making a CD of it makes the song more accessible to students; they can listen to it at home, in the car, etc. Also, burning a CD is a technological task that children should know how to do (and may already know how to do). Making the movements to go with the song emphasizes the information even more, especially for the kinesthetic learners.