I forgot my wireless speaker yesterday. Usually, the week before our Winter Break, my students enjoy listening to Christmas/Holiday music. Our new computers don’t have C.D. players, so I have a few playlists on my phone. However, the phone doesn’t sound very good without a speaker.
Podsnack to the rescue! During my planning time, I quickly put together a playlist of virtually all of the same songs I had on my phone. When the students returned to class, the songs were ready to go. Click here if you would like to access my Holiday Playlist. (The Straight No Chaser songs are a huge hit with the students, by the way!)
Podsnack is a free service. You can access public playlists that have been shared by a link without even registering. If you do register (for free), you can create your own playlist by adding tracks from your computer (not iTunes), Dropbox, or YouTube. There is a Premium version of the service, but I haven’t needed that.
Of course, make sure Podsnack is not blocked if you are using it in your classroom. And always preview the songs before playing them to make sure they are appropriate for your particular group of students.
Podsnack is great to use in the curriculum as well. You can read about one great idea from my friend, LeAnne Hernandez. She won the Teachers are Givers contest this summer with this lesson plan.
Below, you can see some of the creative thinking my 4th graders did yesterday while they were listening to our Holiday Playlist. Their assignment was to “adapt” Santa’s sleigh to a different environment. If you are interested in more ideas like these, check out this post.
