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The Top 5 GoNoodle Songs Every Camper Needs to Know

6/25/2019

*This post was sponsored by GoNoodle. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*

Cabin pranks, bonfires, hikes, and camp songs. Each rank at the top of my favorite summer camp memories. Life has come full circle as my eldest son, Grayson, is preparing for his first overnight camp. And, coincidentally, he’s going to the same camp I went to many moons ago. When we received the registration information, and the infamous “what to pack” list, my motherly worries escalated - Is he going to remember to put on sunscreen before swimming? Will he put on clean underwear every day? Ugh! Regardless, I know he will have so much fun hiking the mountains and singing camp songs in the dining hall.

As Grayson and I talked about camp, he was surprised that singing songs was such a big deal. “Of course,” I replied. But, for all the camp songs I remember, GoNoodle has cataloged so many of them on Moose Tube®. So we logged on to GoNoodle on our Apple TV, and sang and danced to my top five GoNoodle videos to help familiarize Grayson with some of the songs he may be singing with his fellow campers in the dining hall.

If you’re also sending your child off to camp, whether it’s a scout camp, church camp, or day camp, share these GoNoodle videos with your camper! And if your kids aren’t old enough to go to camp, they are also great for family dance parties! So without further ado, here are the top five videos every camper needs to know!
1. Boom Chicka Boom: This is one of the newer videos on the Moose Tube channel, but you can’t beat the repetition of the song! Kiddos will catch on quickly and will love singing and chanting in silly voices.

2. The Pirate Life: This is a great song to get everyone moving! I remember our camp counselors asking us to come up with things we did at different ages to complete the rhyme. It was always funny to hear the outrageous ideas!
3. Purple Stew: Ranked number one in Grayson’s book, Purple Stew is another fun song where you can invite campers to come up with purple objects to go into the stew. Those people who decided on the purple objects jump into the middle of the circle, or “the Purple Stew”.

4. Fish & Eggs & Vinegar: As a kid, I always thought this was an extremely random idea! Why were we singing about a fish dinner? And, were people really throwing their trash in someone else’s backyard? Nonetheless, it was funny, and I loved that it could be sung in a round. So there we would be, singing at the top of our lungs about fish and eggs and vinegar, hoping that people wouldn’t throw trash in our backyard!
5. Professor Ding-A-Dong: There are many versions of this song, but Moose Tube stayed true to melody and motions of the camp favorite! It always ends with everyone laughing and jumping about hysterically.

While you are familiarizing your camper with these Moose Tube videos, be sure to have them also check out the How to Address an Envelope video. They will have no excuse to not send you a letter sharing all of the fun camp activities!

And for the little ones staying at home, don’t leave them feeling left out! They can tune in to GoNoodle GoSummer for even more fun! GoNoodle is free on the web or by downloading the free app for iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, or Amazon FireTV, giving you many options to get those wiggles out!

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What if You Had Animal Parts Extension Activity

3/28/2019

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If you have read any of the What if You Had Animal Teeth, Hair, Ears, Nose, and Eyes books by Sandra Markle with your students, you know that your kids will automatically begin thinking about which kind of part would be best for them. They love hearing the interesting factual tidbits shared about each animal, and picturing what it would be like if they really had that animal part. But what would it be like if they combined all of their favorite parts from each book? When I posed this question to my kids, they were intrigued...and a little grossed out, so I decided this would make a fun writing activity!

Every time we read one of the What if You Had... books, I had my students pick the animal teeth, hair, nose, etc. that they thought was best for them. They wrote down their pick and then developed reasons for each of their selections. We continued this process after each book. After we got through all the books, we turned it into a story and wrote our final copy.

After our final copy is complete, then we get to build our faces with these animal parts. To make sure they draw a face big enough to fit all of the parts they wrote about, I guide them in drawing lines on the side of the paper, to make a big "U." We then focus on adding one part at a time until our face is complete! (I have a 1:1 iPad classroom, so my kids were able to take pictures of the pages to help them generate ideas for drawing/creating their animal parts.) After that, they add a poster to the side naming the animal parts they picked. Before handing it in, my students also take a picture and record themselves reading their story on Seesaw, sharing it with their family members at home as well.

If you would like to do this activity, you can grab all of the reproducible materials here for free, just by signing up for our newsletter/email list! I hope you and your students enjoy this activity and have as much fun reading, writing, and creating their animal people as my students!

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Honesty and Openness From a Teachermom

8/26/2018

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Honest and Raw. That’s what this post is.

It’s the here and now.

My family never really expressed emotions growing up, so this doesn’t comes easy for me. Sometimes, people see these perfectly posted squares on Social Media, and have a skewed image of our reality. And while I keep going back and forth about whether I should in fact write this post, I know there has to be someone else experiencing this same thing.
. . .
Many of you know that I am a first grade teacher, and that I have two boys. Grayson is now in third grade, and Urban in first. I also shared that Urban has sensory processing disorder and anxiety. On a good day, he is the boy version of Junie B. Jones…witty, funny, and exhausting. Other days are filled with tears, yelling, and high stress…and even more exhaustion. And, honestly, my relationship with Urban is tough. He prefers to be with Greg and lets it be known.

Last year, my first grade class was an absolute dream. They were my escape from the stress-filled evenings and mornings at home. I always felt that if I wasn’t loved by one of my kids at home, I have 23 other kids waiting for me at school. This year has not started off the same way. While I enjoy my new kiddos, my stress level has remained high all throughout the day. We also had some new changes at the building level that have taken extra time away from us.

After the first week of school, I was looking forward to some time to rest and enjoy some family time. What started out as a fun day turned into one of tears and disappointment as Urban couldn’t hold it together. The stress that I was trying to escape just didn’t seem to go away.

And when you’re in the thick of it,
it is lonely, exhausting, and defeating.

(I’d even venture to say it can feel this way in the classroom when in tough situations.)

As teacher mamas, we never seem to get a break. Add a special needs or mental health need, and it can seem like there is no end in sight. Yes, I chose to be a teacher, and I chose to have children, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t feel extremely stressed.

And it doesn’t mean that I have to keep it all to myself.

I know there have to be other moms in my same situation. It’s ok to feel this way...

…you are not alone.

You see, as a teacher and a mom, our brains never stop thinking about our kids...all 25, 30, or 82 of them. Our kids and our school kids are all of our kids. Their problems become the things that keep us up at night. Their accomplishments become our proudest moments.
. . .
These kiddos are only 6 once. They will get bigger, more mature, and, if all goes well, things will get easier. But for now, this is life. It will be OK.

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The Top 5 GoNoodle Songs Every Camper Needs to Know

What if You Had Animal Parts Extension Activity

Honesty and Openness From a Teachermom

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