Chant Writing

In case some of you want to try your hand at writing chants, start with the niehs website.  On that website, there is a section on games and songs.  That is where you'll find the MIDI files for the music.  Here is the direct link to that part of the website:

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/games/songs/index.htm

When writing a chant, start by pulling out the academic information from text or content-area. Make sure you have all the vocabulary words that need to be included.  Try NOT to write things down in complete sentences so that you have the flexibility of using whatever music is available.  

Then select the music by sampling the MIDI files on the NIEHS website.  The children's songs and popular songs are good places to start. (If you are teaching adult students, these are the songs that they will probably be exposed to from their children.  This adds a "culture" component to the activity.)

Finally, go to RhymeZone and get to writing.  Switch the words around to make the best rhymes, but songs don't always have to rhyme if they have rhythm. 

Hope this is helpful!