Aside from music and dance, I would have to say that I have a passion for children's literature! I love using books in my music teaching and it has become somewhat of an obsession of mine to be able to find children's books that I can integrate into my regular lessons.
This past September, I gave a presentation on using children's literature in the music classroom at a Kodaly Educators of Eastern Pennsylvania workshop, which was held at Etown College. We had a lot of fun singing and playing while we read some of my favorites from the classroom.
Sing-Along Song, by JoAnn Early Macken will probably make an appearance in 1st grade in a few weeks. It is about a boy who hears music in everyday things like a bee buzzing or his baby sister cooing and when he hears music he's just "gotta sing along!".
A favorite of mine to use in 2nd grade is Ten in a Bed by Mary Rees. It is a song-based picture book, which means that the text of the book is simply the lyrics of a song. 2nd graders will be using this story in the coming weeks and I can use it as a great way to assess the students' knowledge of mallet technique while playing our orff instruments.
Another first grade favorite that will be read later in the year when we are focusing on tempo is Love you Forever, by Robert Munsch. This summer I wrote to Mr. Munsch to ask his permission to use some of his text in my presentation. He wrote a nice letter back and was happy to hear that Etown kids are reading his stories.
Here is a link to a YouTube video of Robert Munsch singing his version of the "Love You Forever" Song.
Wheel Away! by Dayle Anne Dodds is a newer book in my collection. I found this book at a book sale over the summer and was excited to try it out at the KEEP workshop. This was not only a workout for the participants who kept an ostinato going the whole time, but also for me as many portions of the text are like tongue twisters!
I will be presenting at our regional conference for the Organization of American Kodaly Educators: Eastern Division in November on the same topic. You can look forward to hearing about my experience at the conference and some more information on the books I will be presenting.
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