From time to time, and to our great delight, we receive excited emails from Flocab teachers all over the country. They are teachers who love Flocabulary so much, they just can’t keep it to themselves. And far better than making us feel warm and fuzzy inside (which isn’t so bad…), these teachers are impacting students in amazing ways. So we wanted to share their ideas with the entire community and help everyone use Flocabulary in more empowering ways!

Leah, a teacher from Brunswick, GA, wrote us earlier this month, and kindly agreed to let us share her experience. Here is what she had to say about Flocabulary:

I am a 5th grade teacher in Brunswick, Ga. First, I am in love with Flocabulary. It has changed my classroom. My students look forward to learning vocabulary and reading, and their county-wide test scores have gone up tremendously. […] I think that not enough teachers know about the magic of Flocabulary.

 

We asked Leah to share a little more about the magic of Flocabulary in her classroom. She graciously allowed us a glimpse into how she implements Flocabulary over the course of the school week. Here is Leah’s Flocab schedule, in her own words:

Monday

Introduce the rap. Watch as a whole class — then watch the rap again. On the second viewing I pause when the vocabulary word appears. Then we read the lyrics and use context clues to put the meaning in our own words. The context clues are in our standards, and that is a very important part, that they can find clues to determine what words mean.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Work on pieces of the packet and check together. Some weeks I will have students add an illustration in the form of a picture or a cartoon.

Friday

Test from Flocabulary. I usually write the words on the board so students will be able to spell them correctly, since this is a vocabulary activity, not a spelling activity.

Additional Applications

I had my students make a couple videos about their favorite Flocabs. Mostly they like Dracula Junior, The Misunderstanding, and Shoes Match Your Shirt.

Flocabulary works really well for my 5th grade classroom. This year I am teaching special education collaborative, and last year I had gifted [students]. So, it works across the board. Raps and videos are a middle ground, everyone likes them and enjoys watching them. The packets are good, the reading is always something interesting that we can talk about. It usually leads into another conversations about the topic.

We hope that you’ve gotten some new inspiration from Leah’s ideas. We certainly did! And if you’d like to learn more about how to use Flocabulary, check out our How It Works section.

Want to tell us how you use Flocabulary in your classroom? Email info@flocabulary.com. You could be the next teacher featured on the Flocab blog!