Are You Looking For Fun Educational Project For Your Students? Join Our Harmony Projects Today!

We have a very exciting announcement from Cantata Learning!  

It is called Harmony Projects!  Cantata Learning Harmony Projects connect your students to the global community, encourage creativity and collaboration, and provide students with a hands-on learning experience.  

Please visit the Cantata Learning Harmony Projects page to learn how to participate.

Our current Harmony Project is the Rhythms and Rhymes Global Project. 

For this project, pick a nursery rhyme with your students and create something special.....an art project, sing it for a music concert, act it out, retell it with LEGO's and stop motion, use the 3D printer to create the characters, have them get into groups to write their own....the list is endless.

Once they have created a project, send it to us and we will compile it into a global nursery rhyme eBook to share around the world.

And to get a little inspiration and wonderful nursery rhyme stories and music, visit this Symbaloo to find lots of nursery rhymes from Cantata Learning.

You can sign up for the Rhythms and Rhymes Global Project here.

Follow @CantataLearning and our special hashtag #harmonyprojects on Twitter and Instagram.  You will also find Cantata Learning on Facebook.

The Cantata Learning blog is a wonderful place for even more ideas, projects and exciting news throughout the year.

And don't forget to visit the Cantata Learning Pinterest for AMAZING Boards....we are adding more everyday!

We are very excited for what these global connections with the Harmony Projects will bring and we can't wait for all of you to get involved too.

Please let me know if you have any questions or want my help with your projects...I'd love to!

What A Special Celebration We Had Today For Poem In Your Pocket With Emily Arrow, Robert Forbes, Blake Hoena and Mrs. P With Students In Iowa, Texas , Virginia & Around the World!

Today was such a special day.  We gathered together in libraries and homes to celebrate one of our favorite annual celebrations, Poem In Your Pocket Day.

Children in Iowa, Texas and Virginia gathered together in school libraries with their teacher librarians, teachers and others for this wonderful Google Hangout.

And we brought together four very special guests to celebrate along with us too.

Emily Arrow, Blake Hoena (Cantata Learning), Mrs. P and Robert Forbes joined us and all had something to share during our Poem in Your Pocket celebration.  

I had the honor of bringing everyone together and introducing our schools and special guests.

Emily kicked us off by singing her song Poem In Your Pocket.  It was such great fun to rhyme and sing words with her.

Blake was next and shared several of his books from Cantata Learning including Muffin Man and Oh, My Darling, Clementine.  

They all loved it when he read On Top of Old Smoky and listen to his connections of growing up on a farm and exploring when he was young.

For the last several years, my dear friend Robert and Mrs. P have joined myself and several friends for our Poetry Summit during Poetry Month.

Therefore, it was perfect for them to take the second half of our GHO celebration by sharing, creating and singing poetry together.

After they all shared, the schools all had a chance to ask questions from Van Meter Elementary in Iowa, 

Brazosport ISD in Texas, 

Katy ISD in Texas,

and Bettie Weaver Elementary in Virginia.

I loved seeing how much the students, teacher librarians and teachers in the GHO were enjoying our Poem in Your Celebration.

And to see how much our guests loved it was really neat too!

They encouraged the children to put poems in their pockets, in notebooks and in their heads so they could share them all year long.

Emily even sang her sweet song again but put in words that we talked about throughout our celebration.

That was amazing to hear what they all came up with as they sang along with Emily one last time.

Since this was a LIVE Google Hangout, we were able to share the link other schools around the world.....and WOW, it was awesome to see dozens of others joining in too.

You have to see some of the special tweets below....

 

You can watch our GHO below....I promise it will be something you will enjoy sharing with your students too!  

Sing and Read "People Who Help At School" To Get Ready For Teacher Appreciation and School Lunch Hero Day That We Celebrate Next Week!

One of my favorite books from Cantata Learning is being celebrated this week as the Cantata Learning Song of the Week! 

It is called People Who Help At School and is part of the People Who Help series.  

It happens to be very timely with School Lunch Hero Day coming up on May 6, 2016 and...

Teacher Appreciation Week on May 2-6, 2016. 

Within People Who Help At School, our little readers take a journey through a school day to visit all kinds of people in school that help them out including the principal,

 teacher,

 nurse,

 teacher librarian,

 and others who make them feel loved, safe and happy at school and throughout the day.

Like every Cantata Learning book, these stories are paired with fun and engaging songs which are included in the back of the book on a CD and free to stream or download online.

You can also find the music online here to stream or download.

The sheet music is available in the back of every book....

 along with the Song Lyrics. 

I really love the Guided Reading Activities especially when they engage our children in activities that ask them to be creative and use the knowledge they have to create their own products.

In this book, one of the activities asks them to Finish this sentence:  When I grow up I want to be a...Now draw a picture of what you want to be. 

Just think how fun this will be to see what they come up with and create!

The Song of the Week is part of a four book series called People Who Help from Cantata Learning.  

They can read about people who help in the neighborhood, people who keep them healthy, and people who help animals.  They will enjoy everyone of these wonderful books and songs.  

You can learn more about the People Who Help series from Cantata on the Capstone website here. 

I wrote about School Lunch Hero Day in the post Celebrate School Lunch Hero Day on May 6th With Jarrett J. Krosoczka and Other Lunch Rooms Around the World.  

You will find lots of ideas and resources there.  

Brianna and I also created a Teacher Appreciation Pinterest Board filled with amazing ideas, projects and resources.

So pull out the Cantata Learning Song of the Week and learn the song People Who Help At School so you are all ready to celebrate teacher librarians, principals, teachers, lunch ladies, and all of those who help at school this week, next and all throughout the year.