Conjunction Junction!

I can finally say that I am going home in LESS THAN ONE WEEK!  But of course this week is dragging by…  On a bright note, I found out we are getting out of school at noon on Friday instead of our normal early dismissal time of 1:30.  I am going to see my Mamá Tica this weekend before I fly out!  Yay.  I saw her on my way in, but our visit was short.  This time, though, it is a little longer.  I can’t wait to see her and my the rest of my familia tica and then my familia Americana! 

You would have thought that since I now live in the same country as her that we would see each other a little more frequently, but that’s not the case.  You see, I live in the middle of nowhere.  Far from anything and everything.  And I am a slave to the bus system. 

Now, to the original subject of this blog entry:

Do any of you remember School House Rock?  The original series is from the 70’s, I believe, but I watched a few episodes during my time at Lake Mary Elementary back in the 90’s.  I still remember the tune and the chorus of the song “Conjunction, Junction.”  What’s your function?  Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.

I really don’t remember what grade we watched that episode in, but I certainly remember the song.  So when writing my lesson plans a few weeks ago, it only seemed natural to introduce conjunctions by showing that fabulous episode of School House Rock.  I figure if I remember the song after 15 or so years, then hopefully it will stick in the minds of my little children.  I was right, because they loved it!  They kept singing it and singing it days later.  I just love hearing my little Spanish-speaking students sing this song!

 The original song only introduces the coordinating conjunctions; however, I wanted to cover the correlative conjunctions in my lesson, too.  They loved it so much that I decided my students could write a cover of the song.  The kept the tune and the melody, but changed the conjunctions and the examples.  They were so pumped and excited about their song, and I have to say that I feel like it helped them understand how to use correlative conjunctions.

We have exams this week, so I won’t be surprised if my students break out in song during their English exam on Thursday.