All About Elvis

THAT'S ALRIGHT MAMA: Today MPA was all about celebrating a birthday - the birthday of a man gone long before CJ and Annabelle were born, but one whose mark on America is indelible.

"Before Elvis, there was nothing." - John Lennon

"Elvis changed everything." - Bono

"Elvis is my religion." - Bruce Springsteen

Without telling the kids what I was up to, I just cued up "Jailhouse Rock" on YouTube and blasted it through my computer's booming sound system. The kids wasted no time in spontaneously grabbing guitars and the trampoline and getting their groove on.

Not a bad way to start the school day. :)

Next up was "That's Alright Mama." I told the kids Elvis cut the track on July 5, 1954. Born on Jan. 9, 1935, Elvis was only 19 years old when it was recorded. The song was on the radio two days later and the rest, as they say, is history.

We took a break in the dance party to learn a bit more about the man behind the music.

First we hopped to BrainPop's biopic of The King. It was cute, informative and pulled no punches (explaining that in the end Elvis was reclusive and a drug addict). The kids took a quick quiz about the video's contents, and completed a word search puzzle involving Elvis-related terms.
Next, I gave them an Edhelper.com story, "The King." It had two characters (a pair of spiders living in Graceland) and a lot of dialogue, so I had them read it as a play. They really enjoyed that. At the end of that story, there was a comprehension quiz, which they aced, and a couple of questions.

One of the questions was "Elvis got his first guitar when he was 11 years old. Would you like to play guitar? Why or why not?" CJ wrote, "Yes I would and I have one!" Annabelle wrote, "Yes. I would if I had one, which I do!"

Another question was, "Would you like to become a famous singer? Why or why not?"

Annabelle wrote, "Yes. I would if I ever get good with my instruments." CJ wrote, "No thank you. I can't come up with songs."

Imagine CJ's surprise when I told him that Elvis never wrote a single song. :)

TOUR TIME: Next up, we visit took a couple of video tours of Graceland. We started with the "Visit Graceland" video to be found on the front page of Elvis.com. When the camera panned through the room with Elvis' jumpsuit collection, Annabelle blurted out, "I want to go there! I want to go there! I want to go there!"

I told her that makes two of us. :)

We also enjoyed the "Graceland for kids" video on the kids portion of Elvis.com. There, we also found a children's activity book (PDF), in which Annabelle found a couple of coloring pages. She also did some of her own artwork later in the day. Love the hair. :) At the suggestion of a lesson plan found on Elvis.com (PDF here), we talked a bit about goals and confidence and what the two have in common.

I played this video of Elvis singing "Confidence" from "Clam Bake."


The kids really liked it (and asked to watch it again). I think part of the appeal was that Elvis was interacting with kids in the video.

After viewing it, I asked the kids what they thought 'confidence' means.

"You have to have confidence because if you're in that kind of slide, there's no way out except sliding out," CJ said (referring to the girl in the video).

According to Annabelle, confidence means, "You have to believe in yourself!"

FIT FOR A KING: After a morning of learning, the kids were ready for a snack. But we wouldn't be having any ordinary snack, no siree. I told the kids they were going to make one of Elvis' favorites - a peanut butter and banana sandwich.

Don't let some knock off recipes fool you - Elvis didn't like the bananas sliced. They were to be smashed in with the peanut butter, so that's what we did. Then we spread it on bread and grilled it in butter, of course.

I cut it into quarters and served it to the kids. The reviews weren't stellar. "I think it's OK," Annabelle said with a curled lip.

CJ was more blunt. "I wish this never existed," he confessed.
ONE FOR THE MONEY: Even our math was Elvis themed today. Our lesson was inspired by a PDF math lesson I found on Elvis.com featuring story problems starring Elvis. For instance, one problem was, "Elvis worked at Crown Electric. He drove a delivery truck For $1.00 per hour. If he worked for eight hours for each day for five days, how much would his paycheck be for the week?"

I reminded the kids that math story problems were like mini mysteries. Listen to the story and you get the clues you need to solve the problem. Annabelle got it immediately. She said, "He makes $8 a day, times 5 ..." and knew the answer was within reach.

Another one I threw at them was, if it's 2011 and Elvis died in 1977, how many years has he been gone? Next to her calculation of 34 years, Annabelle extemporaneously wrote, "long time ago."

And I asked them, "If Mommy is 45 now, and Elvis died in 1977, how old was Mommy when Elvis died?"

"You were a 'tween," CJ said, after figuring out the answer was 11.

LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY: I was OK with all this Elvis until I made the terrible mistake of clicking on a YouTube video that included news coverage of Aug. 16, 1977, the day he died. I managed OK through that, but when footage of his funeral procession started, that was too much for me.

But as hard as it was to watch, it was impossible to look away. ...