3rd Grade Mali Song
Mali (SOL 3.2) is one of the third grade units that does not have as many resources as other units (although I do have some resources listed here), so it’s a great opportunity to plan some project-based learning lessons! I’ve already described one idea for making a Google slideshow, but here’s another one: make a song about Mali using GarageBand. The griots of Mali were famous for sharing their history through singing and oral storytelling, so why not have your students do the same thing? Your students can research a topic using the resources listed above, then they can write a song to convey the information. They can then record the song in GarageBand and add music to it. If you want, you can even add a video with a real or virtual singer. Your students could film themselves singing in PhotoBooth or create a virtual singer using Voiki or SitePal. They could use a screen capturing tool like ScreenToaster or Screencast-O-Matic to record their virtual singer. You can see a sample “Mali Song” with a virtual singer here and you can download a folder of pictures to use for your project here.