Ms. Jamie Harmon, a 3rd-grade teacher at Kiker Elementary school in SW Austin, Texas, recently posted a video on Facebook of her students singing and dancing along to a song she created for her lesson on capacity — measurements, tons, and ounces. The video has been viewed almost 1 million times, and it’s no wonder because it’s pretty awesome!
“When your students beg you to write a song to the beat of Thunder by Imagine Dragons, you write them a song! There’s flossing, a ripple dab AND a saxophone solo ? I love these kids.”
In an interview with Bored Teachers, Ms. Harmon mentioned that through research, she’s found that incorporating music and movement into the classroom is not only fun and engaging but helps her students remember the concepts being taught.
“I have always used songs in my classroom, whether I wrote them myself or used the amazing Bethany Humphrey’s songs!” she said. “For this song, I knew all year the kids wanted me to write them a song to the beat of “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons, so it was just about finding the right concept and their needs. We were in the middle of our capacity unit and a student comes up to me and asks if I have a Capacity song since it was difficult for some of my students to remember all the units, and then that day I started writing this song!“