Summer Book Haul # 2

Anyone who knows me also knows I am a huge fan of children’s literature in the music classroom. I use it constantly. To that end, about once a year I go to every thrift store in town and raid the children’s book sections. I get some funny looks, but I find great books! Here’s my haul from this week’s thrift store adventure. I’ll include a brief description of the book, an Amazon link if you want to check it out, and how I think it could be used in the classroom. (You can find the first book haul of the summer here.)

Holler Loudly, by Cynthia Leitich Smith

This is an adorable book about a cowboy who is naturally LOUD and finds that there is a time to holler and a time to hush. This lends itself well to loud/quiet and piano/forte, and could easily transition to crescendo and decrescendo. It could also be a fun way to introduce fortissimo.

Elephants Aloft by Kathi Appelt

This sublimely simple book is full of prepositions as you follow elephants in a hot-air balloon on their way to see their aunt. The art is beautiful as well. This book would make a great tone bar exploration activity, so students can explore what “above,” “below,” and “through” might sound like.

Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, by Eric Litwin

This fun book is part of the Pete the Cat series. It focuses on verbs and their appropriate locations (like eating in the cafeteria). This opens it up to be a fun locomotor movement activity. Where could you slither? If you were in gym class, what is a movement you could be doing?

Bear AboutTown, by Stella Blackstone 

A book focusing on the days of the week, Bear About Town opens with, “Bear goes to town every day. He likes to walk all the way.” Each day has a new activity Bear does. The opening sentences could easily be a refrain, and the various activities could tie to a song or be group compositions. There is also a map of Bear’s town in the book, which could be used to extend the activity.

Where’sSpot? By Eric Hill

Where’s Spot? tells a story every parent is familiar with: looking for their kid. Each page has a hiding place for Spot to be, and a flap to open to reveal if Spot is there. This could be a great book for kids to play a “drum roll” as a way to explore drums (or any new percussion instrument, really.) Kids love to play fast, and this would give them a productive way to do that so later we can move on.

HungryHarry, Joanne Partis

Poor Harry is a frog who just wants a meal, but every critter he encounters can’t be eaten for one reason or another. Different animals could be represented by different instruments. “You can’t eat me!” could become a sung refrain.

The VeryHungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

A classic! I want to do an Eric Carle unit with my kinders, and this fits right in. All students could play their instrument to match the number of items the caterpillar is eating, or students could be split up into each food. (With the green leaf counting as only one, there are 16 kinds of items, 26 total, on the caterpillar’s menu.)

Down by theCool of the Pool, Tony Mitton

This is a great book. Frog and his friends jam out with different movements, and the book is very rhythmic. There are great opportunities for refrains, too.

Yo Ho Ho!A-Pirating We’ll Go, Kate Umansky

I am collecting any primary poetry book I can get my hands on, and this one is pirate-themed. I would really like to use these for a group project to close out a unit. Students could use instruments to show sound effects that go with a poem, use the words as a basis for a pentatonic melody, transcribe the rhythm into notation, or create an ostinato to go with the poem. I don’t have it completely worked out yet, but collections of poetry like this one open a lot of very cool doors.

Fables,Arnold Lobel

Similar to my intentions for the primary poetry, this collection of short fables could be used for a group project. This would allow older students opportunities to add musical elements to a story. My intermediate kids have extensive experience with me dictating how a story could be made musical, and I would really like to see what they would come up with when given the opportunity to make their own choices. A whole-class version of the project could be used when short weeks prevent you from getting to see more than one or two of your groups.

Summer is flying by, so I hope you find some great materials for your classroom!