Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to environmental celebrations, raging storms, educator awards and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

nor’easter — a type of macro-scale storm that happens along the East Coast. Named because the storm travels…

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Learning about the Bard doesn’t have to be boring. You’ve seen how Flocabulary can spice up math facts and history stories. Now check out out what we can do with literature! We’ll share six ways to have fun with Shakespeare here, and don’t miss our fifteen different Shakespeare songs to get your kids rocking and learning!

1. True or False?

Test your knowledge of the life of William Shakespeare!

• Shakespeare lived to be an even 52 years old, since he was born and died on April 23. T/F
• Some of Shakespeare’s descendants have survived today and are also famous English playwrights. T/F
• Shakespeare’s grave was cursed by

…

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5 Ways to Celebrate the Bard’s Birthday…

Or to Throw a Shakespearean Party for Yourself

Happy Birthday Bill! Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. Celebrate William Shakespeare’s 448th Birthday (with your students, with your theater group, or on a quiet night at home) with these 5 fun Shakespeare birthday activities. Or if you’d like, use these activities at your own birthday party! They’re educational, too. We’re not talking about Pin the Tail on Puck (though, that isn’t such a bad idea…) Celebrate Shakespeare this year with “Words, words, words”!

1. Write a Birthday Sonnet.

Write a sonnet about Shakespeare…in the Shakespearean sonnet form. Remember to use iambic…

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Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to failed rocket launches, international summits, famous TV personalities and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

debris (noun) — the remains of anything broken down or destroyed

Why it matters? Last Friday North Korea shot a long-range rocket into the air. It exploded,…

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Teaching writing doesn’t have to be a struggle. You’re already using Flocabulary to spice up vocabulary instruction or make math facts fun… so why not writing, too? We’ve got plenty of ways to get your students pumped about putting pen to paper.

1. Write Academic Rhymes

Guide your students to develop higher-order thinking skills by writing their own rhymes. It doesn’t have to be part of just the language arts curriculum. Writing rhymes can help students master content knowledge in all subject areas and write effectively across the curriculum. See our Writing Academic Rhymes lesson sequence here.

2. Improve Essays With Transition Words

Transition words…

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Do you fear the number 13?

If you’ve looked at your calendar today you’ve noticed that today is the 13th. Friday the 13th. Are you cowering under your comforter? If you’re one of the millions of people that fear this day, you have triskaidekaphobia.

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. The word comes from Greek roots; tris meaning “3″, kai meaning “and”, deka meaning “10″ and phobia meaning “fear” or “morbid fear.” Triskaidekaphobia became so common that many architects and city planners let it affect their work. Some cities don’t have a 13th Street or 13th Avenue. Airports will skip the 13th gate. Hospitals and hotels often won’t have a 13th room. Tall buildings were also…

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Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to controversial murder cases, big money, planes falling out of the sky and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

second-degree murder (noun) — non-premeditated killing, resulting from an assault in which death of the victim was a distinct possibility

Why…

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Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week!

When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to perfect basketball teams, controversial Supreme Court decisions, mind-reading devices, dyed animals and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense.

THIS WEEK

incomparable (adjective) — without an equal

Why it matters: The Baylor women’s basketball team was the first in history to finish with a…

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When we’re creating The Week in Rap, we often need to make tough decisions about what news stories to include. How much should students know about a real world where nightly news stories would almost certainly garner an R rating in a fictionalized version? This week we cover violence in Syria, a school shooting in Oakland, the legality of strip-searching and 750,000 deaths in the Civil War. We also talked about Day-Glo chicks.

Should students always get the real deal? The crusade to make students feel more comfortable at school is nothing to scoff at. Nobody wants a student to feel sad or…

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An Educator Guest Lesson

Here at the Flocab HQ, whenever we see an email from JoDee Luna–an innovative educator in Lancaster, California–we know it’s going to be good. Luna is always dreaming up creative and fun ways to get her students involved, and she recently sent us this great lesson plan to go along with our Word Up vocabulary song, “How To Be An Entrepreneur.” This lesson gives students experience writing application letters and interviewing, while also teaching 15 vocabulary words. See some student examples from Luna’s class at the bottom. We liked one so much that we hung it up on our office wall!…

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