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!

Summer Book Haul #1

One thing I love to do over summer break is visit all the thrift stores in town and sort through their children’s book section. I love having my own classroom library, and one of my biggest goals the past few years has been to add to it. I have a pretty good idea of what the book could be used for as I buy it. (Here’s a post on what I look for in books.) I don’t have complete lessons for these books yet, since I just got them, but I’ll post what they are and my ballpark of what they could be used for, as well as amazon links if you want to check them out.

Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes, Eric Litwin

I’m kind of shocked I don’t have this one yet. The lesson has definitely made the internet rounds, and there’s a great Youtube video here with an extensive handout linked in the comments. One thing you could add is changing the dynamics or tempo for each color. You could also use it with older students for a lesson on theme and variation.

Over in the Garden, Jennifer Ward

This is a counting book with bugs. Each bug has a different locomotor movement. This book could be used solely for movement, you could add instruments, or you could split the class and do both. Bug finger puppets (or craft sticks with pictures of bugs on them) could be fun, though you would need a lot of them.

Going to Sleep on the Farm, Wendy Cheyette Lewison

This book explores farm animals and how they sleep, so lullabies would be very easy to tie-in.

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? Dr. Seuss

The book calls itself a “book of wonderful noises,” and it definitely delivers on that. Each page is a new sound effect, which is just begging to have those sounds transferred to instruments. I think I know what Kindergarten will be doing for Dr. Suess week!

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything, Linda Williams

Spooky enough for Halloween without actually saying anything about Halloween, this book is an add-on adventure with loads of sound effects. Eventually all the noisy parts following the old lady around make a scarecrow.

Caps for Sale, Esphyr Slobodkina

An oldie but goodie first published in 1940, this book follows a sleepy cap salesman who has a run-in with monkeys. He has 5 different types of hats, and the monkeys love to copy what he does. There are several things you could do with this book. Kids could echo with instruments or voice, be split into cap-groups for improvisation, or learn form using the caps/cap manipulatives. It could easily be adapted for a program as well.

Oh No, George! Chris Haughton

Similar to the Bad Kitty series, this book is a bit more accessible for music because George does one bad thing at a time. There are several repeated phrases, so it would be easy to create a song or two to go with this book.

Dinosaurumpus, Tony Mitton

This book features several dinosaurs movin’ and groovin’ and an obvious refrain that is begging to have a pentatonic melody. Movement could be a focus, as well as singing and playing the refrain.

Too Many Rabbits, Kay Cooper

This is a book of very short stories and poems with hand movements. It would be easy to add a melody to them, or have students add a melody to them. There are several about weather (rain and thunder is particular) that would work well with non-pitched instruments.

I’m Tyrannosaurus, Jean Marzallo

Animal Snackers, Betsy Lewin

 

Both of these books are collections of short poems. I love collecting poem collection whenever I can, because they can be great fun to transfer to drums. You can also have students use them as a base for composition. I like to isolate pitch or rhythm when students first compose so they don’t get overwhelmed, and a given poem is a great way to have students focus on pitch.

I hope you have fun finding the perfect book (or books!) for your kiddos!