Flocabulary is a website, similar to BrainPop!, that features videos of basic content and concepts performed as hip-hop songs. They're a little cheesy, but, boy are they catchy!
Today in class, we watched a video about the elements of short stories, embedded below. The song features famous stories like Jack London's To Build a Fire and discusses the plot, theme, character, setting and conflict in short stories. The songs also feature a repeated refrain that I am still hearing kids humming in the hallway. Given that we are in the midst of a unit on short stories, this fit perfectly into our class.
Just to prove how catchy these refrains are, when asked what the five story elements were after watching the video, each student said them, often unintentionally, in the same order as they were listed in the song, and usually with the same rhythm! Obviously, the song was still swirling in their heads.
Flocabulary is, for the most part, a paid subscription website, though it is very reasonably priced. The site has hundreds of free videos, however, and all of the videos come with accompanying lesson plans and lyric sheets. Each of videos I have watched so far have been among the free selections.
While surfing the site, I came across a video about the area of a triangle, a concept that is fast-approaching in our math unit. Who knows, maybe next week the kids will be singing "area is one half base times height" in the halls instead of the five story elements...
Click here to check out the videos on Flocabulary.
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