Kindergarten teacher Sarah engaged her students in a songwriting experience to create a piggyback song (where new words are created to a familiar melody) to apply knowledge of the backwards counting progression of numbers from 1-10. Integrating math and music standards, Sarah's class expanded the autumn song Five Little Leaves, to become Ten Little Leaves. Students demonstrated their understanding that numbers followed a predictable progression and generated their own artistic work. Their rhyming and counting skills were both strengthened, and in her reflection on the lesson, Sarah noted that "the students were able to show me a very solid grasp of the number sequences from 1-10 and back." Even better, one of her most music-averse students felt so comfortable with the song the class had created together that she chose to sing with her classmates in the class when they performed the song to create a class recording!
