Song: 65 Roses
Artist: The Wolverines
Year: 2002
Nationality: Australian

Classification: Ballad
Theme: disease, science, perspective

Celtic knots. Fascinating as they never end. On a personal level I absolutely love all things Celtic and therefore it should come as now surprise that I finally got an activity into the classroom.

When thinking about using music in lessons I am very particular about the artist and song I use. I strongly feel this is especially important when working with junior primary schools (reception to grade 2). For example, at a school I worked at in a junior primary class the combined school performed for parents a couple of times a term. At one such performance a grade R/1 composite class performed a Katy Perry song. I felt this was inappropriate given the content of many of her songs which are targeted at a much older audience than ages 5 and 6 years old. The teacher in question justified it by saying the "kids listen to her all the time" and "they love her". I doubt though that every student and every parent however would agree. Despite voicing my opinion it went ahead and leadership said nothing. As a parent I would be horrified if I had a 5 year old who was singing one of her songs. It doesn't matter what students are listening to at home - that is up to their parents to decide - but I feel in the classroom we should be striving to use songs that are appropriate and relevant.

This therefore is the first in a series of post about different songs that can be used to complement work being carried out in the classroom. All posts will have the label "song selection" to locate quickly.

Looking for some teaching ideas to use with "My Two Blankets"?
You've come to the right place!

I wanted to teach students about using colours in a different way. I would usually choose pencils but my class had begged me to buy oil pastels at the beginning of the year (anything messy just isn't to my liking but it was a new medium). This project was completed towards the end of term 1.

Grade 3 example of using cool colours. Work in progress.