Two Great CDs for Writing Workshop

Do you play music for your kiddos during writing workshop?  I always do.  It truly sets the tone and soothes the soul! My first year (way too many years ago to count!) I played music with WORDS.  Um.  No.

Don't
do
that. 

It makes it nearly impossible for the kids to concentrate. You'll get bopping heads and lots of singing and disrupting the others. And then the kids will imitate you and the other teachers :)

Trust
me.

So I soon switched to playing lots of classical music with Vivaldi's Four Seasons being my favorite.  But then this year, I was introduced to these gems:

 

I actually found the Beatles CD online for $1 including shipping.  How cool is that?  While I like the Beatles, I'm not one of those crazy fans that thinks all things Beatles are as good as gold.  But, this is BETTER than gold!  Magic!  The kids are transfixed and write, write, write, and write some more when this is playing.  Simply fantastic results.

Mentioning this to one of the parents, they sent in the Simon & Garfunkel CD above.  Again, love it BUT not for brainstorming or drafting stories.  It's much more upbeat.  It's actually a great motivating CD (first few songs) so I play this one when we are editing our work.  I'll challenge them to circle five silly mistakes that they want to change before the song is done.  Because of the tone and rhythm of the music, they tend to focus and look more intensely for their mistakes.  It's almost Rocky-ish as they race through their writing finding all of their errors.  It seriously has upped our game!

This year?  My friend, Kelly, swears I'll love her Grateful Dead Baby CD.  :)