Multi-Sensory Videos with Rock N Learn

 In March, a fellow blogger friend came to visit.  Jennifer from Stories and Songs in Second won over the hearts of my two little girls with her kindness, gift of books, but most of all, music.  Using my guitar (the one that she had to clean and tune because I have no idea how to use it), Jennifer sang the songs that she shares daily with the students in her classroom.  It got me thinking...

There is so much research behind the power of a multi-sensory approach in the classroom.  I remember learning in college how motivating and engaging music is to children.  They promote rhyme and rhythm.  I immediately went out and bought a keyboard because it was going to be used everyday in my classroom.

It has never been used.

I don't know what happened.  Somehow the music got lost.

But Jennifer reminded me of the importance that music plays in our little ones' lives.  I witnessed it again this year when my partner Jess introduced a shape song and a doubles fact song.  I would catch them singing these songs ALL the time and pretty soon they were also stuck in my head.

 A few weeks after this realization, Rock N Learn contacted me about trying out their Musical DVDs that are skill based.  How odd that this opportunity arose when it did!!  I jumped at the chance to add more music into our lessons.

After viewing these different DVDs, Jess and I decided that the time songs would be most beneficial to our firsties at this time in the year.  In first grade, we study time to the hour and half hour.  Immediately, I examined the table of contents for the DVD.  I really liked the way that they have time skills broken up.  It allowed us to show only what was needed and not the entire video.

The DVD teaches the skills with animated characters, songs, a rhythm, but also a lot of practice.  The video visually shows what it means to be half past the hour.  Modeling and explaining the different positions of the hands on the clock provided an excellent support to the lesson that we were teaching.

As we moved on with our classroom lessons and activities, what struck me as being most beneficial was the repetitive nature of the video and song.  It asked the students to tell time over and over and over again.   My firsties got to practice telling time to the half hour multiple times during this short segment.  Here is a short sample of the telling time DVD:

The DVD provided us with a quick, efficient, and engaging review but also a multi-sensory support to our lessons.

After we tried these video clips out, we have decided to begin the year off with the addition and subtraction Rock N Learn DVD.  It will provide another support to our little learners.

Rock N Learn has offered a 25% discount to all my readers (contiguous U.S. residents only).  The coupon code is KR8822.

You can also enter below for a chance to win the Early Math 3 DVD Collection.

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I can't wait to hear about how this tool works for your students!