What Could You Do With an Author Highly Associated with Music, Poems, and Writing?

Do you have one or more students who are reluctant writers, and seem to be having trouble finding what interests them? We have come across these students in our classroom, and wanted to find out how to make writing more interesting. How do we connect these student's interests to their writing? To writing in general?

Author studies. And I don't mean just any author of any book, we have to find authors whom are highly associated with music, poems, and writing. In doing this, students will be able to connect to writing in a different way, and understand that writing can take all sorts of forms. Namely, the form of poems or music!

After being introduced to the musical talents of author Shel Silversteen, we felt that so many students can connect to music in today's world, so why not encourage or promote their writing to do the same if they feel compelled?

After seeing the video of Shel Silversteen singing and playing the guitar, I was quickly reminded of a children's songwriter whom we rely on very often in our Pre-K classroom- Patty Shukla! Though she is not an author, and may not connect students with the writing experience through music, I have found an even more interesting way to incorporate a language study through her videos!

I came across this video around the beginning of March...

Every morning, my students and I watch this video and learn how to sign basic things that we can use in our classroom every day! After watching this for the first time, I sat down with my Pre-K students and explained to them that sign language is a language just like English or Spanish or Korean (the languages our students in our classroom use). We talked about the fact that languages are used to communicate with other people, and sign language is a silent way to communicate.

Their reactions were so cool!

One of my students mentioned that she has to use sign language with her mom because she's "hard of hearing".

We have been able to use these basic signs throughout our day in order to communicate silently, and my students really seem engaged with this new language.

What kinds of languages do you use in your classroom?

Love,

Ms. Verner