Flocabulary- learn through hip hip

Ever used Flocabulary? If you have not, you should definitely give it a try! Flocabulary is website that gives teachers access to curriculum-based concepts through hip hop music. Nowadays, it seems like the only music on the radio is hip hop, hence why the kids LOVE this. As an elementary educator, I basically sing on a daily basis anyway so finding beats and rhythms that the students can relate to helps out the classroom in a big way. I mainly use this resource to reinforce concepts after whole group instruction by assigning the lyric video to students to watch in a technology station during reading centers. They can listen through twice, and then work on the activity assigned to them as practice through the site as well. My only complaint about the site is that there is little to no differentiation in the assignment pieces to accommodate all students, but the song piece is typically enough. I have students that log on at home and watch the videos over again. If the students really relate and gravitate towards the song enough, I turn it into a community building activity by learning the song together as a class. Group sing-a-alongs are my favorite!

Let me walk you through the site. Luckily, it's pretty easy to navigate. Once you reach the home page (link above), you think must look in the top right corner and either log in, or sign up for an account. Yes, you do have to pay for this service, but you can sign up for a free trial first to check it out. The task bar at the top looks like this:

                                                                                                                                            ⇡ look for this

Once you click free trail, you then put in your information and get 30 days to play with and access all of Flocabulary's content. It will tell you how many days you have left in your trial so that you will NEVER get charged unless you opt into a subscription.

From here, you can search through all of the lyric videos made based on subject categories, or you can just search a topic in the search bar. One of my students favorite videos and songs this past school year was about prefixes. So in the search bar shown above, you could just type in "prefixes", or you can look through "Language Arts" and then the subcategory of "Grammar". Then you will see the following screen once finding the video:

Right now, the main part of the screen is showing the video ready to be played. You can display this on the projector for the whole class to watch at this point. Towards the bottom of the video, there is a "Discuss" option. If you turn this on, the video will pause at key moments and ask questions and present topics for discussion. This would be a tool to use if you are utilizing the videos as introductions to topics. Along the side are other options you can use as extensions after the video as whole class review, or individual assignments. If you want to wait for whole group and just have the students watch it individually, or want to assign any of the extension activities as exit tickets/assessment, you can click the purple "Assign" button in the top left corner. Unfortunately, you have to subscribe for a paid account to use the "Assign" feature. However, you can look through the side bar options for extensions and complete them as a whole group on your free trial. I will show a few options!
This is the "Lyric Lab" option on Flocabulary for the video on Prefixes:

This extension activity gives students an option to show their knowledge of the skill through creativity and writing. Students can pick a song beat at the bottom of the screen to start with. Then towards the top of the activity window, a purple box is shown that features "steps" to follow. These steps are to steer students towards writing song lyrics about that specific topic, and to the given beat. This can also serve as a collaboration tool in the classroom. Kids can come together and collaborate on verses, or even whole songs dependent on the time you want to give them. But I will tell you now, the kids have a blast writing this, especially the kids who have a love for music and the arts.

I also want to display the extension feature "Vocab Game". The side bar never disappears, as long as you stay with the same video. So on the left side, click "Vocab Game" and this screen should appear:

Kids can play the game with the Prefixes song playing, or without it playing in the background, which I believe is a great option for kids that are still not there yet with mastering the concept. The game for this specific video looks something like this. One feature that is also nice is the tab for "Vocab Cards". It's a simple way to review a vocabulary word quickly with a visual. Below is a view of the "Vocab Game" window, followed by the "Vocab Card" window.

There are so many musical strategies to explore through this site! I recommend you go and play around and see what videos your students might enjoy. But for now, here is an example of some of Flocabulary's work to fill your ears and your brain. Sorry if it gets stuck in there...