We Skyped With A Rapper, Produced A Movie & Gave Back To The Community In Van Meter Today For The Cantata Learning Harmony Project!

I started out my day with a few of my 5th grade friends and their teacher Katie Seivert in Van Meter, Iowa.  

They are participating in the Give A Shout Out To Your Community Harmony Project with Cantata Learning.  

On Monday, they participated in our second People In Your Community Meet & Greet with author Michael Dahl.   

You can listen to this with your students too....just go to this link. 

                               

This was the perfect way to kick off the Give A Shout Out To Your Community project.  

After listening to Michael, the students talked about what type of project they wanted to create to celebrate their community.

Ms. Seivert's class got into three groups and all week they are working on their part.

One group is creating a video about Van Meter.

One is creating a rap about Van Meter.

And the third is responsible for creating a fundraiser for the How I Help My Community Contest, which is part of the Harmony Project.

The group writing the rap had a very special visitor on Skype today.

They worked with our new friend Desdamona, who is a hip-hop and spoken word artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota, on writing and performing their Van Meter rap.

We learned so much from Desdamona as she talked to the kids about what goes into writing a rap and songs in general.

She stressed the importance of including all 5 senses when writing a rap because it paints a picture for the person listening.

She told them when you write a rap they are usually made up of 2-3 verses with 16 lines each and a chorus of 8 lines.  

The video above is one idea they came up with for the chorus.  It is called a Call and Response.  

You have to listen to this...it is so much fun.  

Desdamona also suggested writing Where I'm From poems as they work on their Van Meter rap, which will get them focusing on the details and feelings of their town.  She even read one of her own to us.

Over the next few days, this small group will work on their rap together and in a Google Doc they started today.  They have included Desdamona and myself so we will be able to help them along the way.  

I can't wait to hear the rap, see the video and celebrate the impact of the community service project.  

When they have finished their projects, Ms. Seivert will go to the bottom of the project page and click on Submit Your Project. 

This will take her to the Google Slides presentation we have set up.  

The directions are included on this first slide.  

She will add it to a new slide.  Please make sure you include where you are from, the age of the students, and what you teach.  

She can add as many slides as needed for their project.  

When the project has ended, I will take this presentation and upload it into FlipSnack to create a flippable eBook that we will publish and share online globally.  

You will all be able to see what the Van Meter 5th graders have created.  

These 5th graders are making an impact in their community and globally with the work they are doing. 

We want your students to do the same so please join our project and Give A Shout Out To Your Community too!