Learn about the sounds of the night. Mary and Mike stay up late to explore the magic and music of nighttime. We sing songs about the beauty of the night and a young pianist plays Clair de Lune under the light of the moon. Our friend, Dr. Lerdau, teaches us about nighttime creatures who are making music of their own: owls, crickets, and even plants! Enjoy a lovely evening with us as we discover the simple beauty of our surroundings.

More About This Resource
Presented by VPM.

Songs and Stories with Mary and Mike uses music and story as the joyful pathway to learning for young children while integrating and modeling the state's new EC learning standards for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning as well as the National Standards for Music Education. The show forges connections across the greater community by featuring guest teachers, artists, musicians, authors, and community members. With every music selection, book selection, and guest spotlight, Mary and Mike strive for a rich, diverse, beautiful representation of all people and cultures. The message to beautiful learners is clear: they are loved, they are valued, and they can do amazing things.

Story circles can be used to build a sense of community in the classroom. The technique was pioneered by the late John O’Neal, a civil rights activist and theater artist. He developed the story circle process while moderating audience discussions after performances. He found that audience members listened more and found common ground by telling personal stories instead of trying to persuade and argue their points.

The videos here demonstrate how a story circle works. A facilitator offers a prompt, and then individuals have a set amount of time to respond with a relevant story from their lives. No one interrupts. After everyone has a turn, the group talks together. From the individual stories, the group then creates one story or takeaway.

In these videos, Bob Martin, a community arts specialist in Eastern Kentucky, facilitates a story circle, adapted to an online format because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first video, Martin explains the ground rules and quotes O’Neal: “Share the story that comes from the deepest place.” He gives the group this prompt: Tell a story about a time when you were unexpectedly proud of your place or your community.

This blog offers a wealth of realia (realia is real life material meant to be used to aid language study in classroom situations). It has an index on the right hand side that will take the viewer to relevant selections in the blog's archive. Many of the archived items are images, but there are also videos, children's books, news media, and other items. Some of the links, especially the video links, are no longer functional.

In this lesson students will create a paper face and a paper face book.

In this fun activity, students and teachers will watch short clips and try to decide what will happen next. The purpose of this activity is to build speaking skills as well as vocabulary.

Students take classes and work all week to produce a Friday radio show that goes live on air. Every student presents their weeks work (reviews, commentary, investigations) on air. Watch as students work with their peer teachers to perfect their work before Friday.

Great speaking and listening lesson about a girl who overcomes barriers and succeeds against the odds through pure determination.