Lessons and Ideas

The 1920s were a fantastic decade of new music, new fashion and new ideas. Learn all about it in Flocabulary's Jazz Age rap song. Also known as the Jazz Age, the Roaring Twenties popularized jazz, flapper fashion and new dances like the Charleston, where people moved their whole bodies, not just legs and shoulders. The radio helped spur these musical trends, allowing Americans to enjoy this new style of music without physically visiting a jazz club. It was not all music and dance, however. The Jazz Age was also the time of Prohibition and organized crime. Many Americans thought that…

Our brand new Ancient Egypt video includes rapping (and unwrapping) mummies, hieroglyphic-decoding explorers and a tour of the pyramids. And behind the beat on the hook, we included an actual relic from Ancient Egypt. The sound you hear at the end of the song comes from King Tut's trumpet. While unearthing King Tut's tomb in 1922, archaeologists found a lot of cool stuff that belonged to King Tut: the first-ever sofa bed, 30 boomerangs used for hunting, and two beautiful trumpets. One trumpet was silver, the other was copper. Both were decorated with ornate carvings. In 1939, someone decided they…

In our yearly circle around the sun, Pi Day comes but once a year. Pi Day is March 14, or 3.14, to celebrate the first three digits of everyone's favorite irrational number. (Do places that write the date Euro-style celebrate it, too? Or do they celebrate Pi on 31/4? Hmmm, that isn't a date.) Celebrate Pi Day with these activities: 1. Watch the video at the top of this post. One person made a massive domino spiral celebrating pi. Have your students use pi to estimate how many dominos are in the spiral. (10,059, according to the creator.) 2. Bake…

Are you in need of a transition word? They will certainly help make your writing clearer. Here's a list of common transition words and phrases: first, nonetheless, consequently, indeed, meanwhile, then, equally important, immediately, of course, so, such as, despite, on the other hand, to conclude If you need help to remember any one of these transition words, listen to this song, in which we tell the history of video games using transition words. Here's a snippet: Kids wanted to play. Consequently, Machines appeared all over the place, Indeed Atari fulfilled lots of orders, And made 2 billion dollars in quarters. Meanwhile, you have…

Prepositions demonstrate temporal, spatial or logical relationships of a word to the rest of the sentence. That's a mouthful, right? In this prepositions song, Flocabulary breaks it down for you. Here's a story about a boy, his dog and a would-be bully. Can you spot all the prepositions? I woke up. Got out of bed, Put my favorite cap on my head. Grabbed my dog's leash in my hand, While I tied the other end to him. Got onto the skateboard, I hopped, And my dog started running down the block. My dog moves fast like a bobsled, At least that's what my mom said. How many did you get? Let's count them…