Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Old Black Fly"

Here is another find from the local public library: "Old Black Fly" by Jim Aylesworth and illustrated by Stephen Gammell.  The melody for the book is "Buffalo Gals".   The book is organized as an alphabet book with the old black fly doing everything from eating apple pie, to stealing jelly, snoozing on a quilt, and finally "zzzzzzz-ing" his way to being swatted.

This is another nice wrap-up to a music lesson, especially if you are working on call and response songs with your students.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "We're Going on a Lion Hunt"

Here is another variation on "We're Going on a Bear Hunt"; this time we are hunting lions! "We're Going on a Lion Hunt" by David Axtell is a great book for students to invent their own creative movements to reflect the story.

"In this charming rendition of a well-known children's chant, two sisters are looking not for a bear but for a lion- a lion that lives on the African savanna, where the girls go through swishy swashy long grass, a splishy slpashy lake, and a Big Dark Cave. When they finally meet their lion, they have to run, run, run through it all again to get back home."

Happy Birthday, Dr. King!

photo credit: time.com

Did you know that singer Stevie Wonder was instrumental in making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday?  Stevie's "Happy Birthday" song is really referring to MLK!



This is worth sharing with your students, and for the younger crew, here are simple songs to learn some facts about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Marvelous Music Makers: "Jim Gill Sings The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes"

A CD that has been enjoyed by my students is "Jim Gill Sings The Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes".  I love that many of the songs focus on following directions (a vital skill!) and are still very fun.  Many musical skills and objectives for young students and special needs students are addressed in this CD as well. 

Here are some of our favorite songs from this collection:

Vocal Timbre Practice with the Three Bears

My kindergarten language support students love a good snuggle with a stuffed animal, as witnessed in a recent music class.  We had three visitors: Papa, Mama, and Baby Bear, right out of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".  Using stuffed animals in the lesson helped some of my shy students gain more courage to try out their low, medium, and high voices.

A special purchase of three stuffed bears was not necessary.  As most moms will attest, stuffed animals seem to mysteriously MULTIPLY in a home with children. The kids seem to receive them as gifts, win them at church picnics, and before you know it, you have a house overrun with stuffed critters!  For the bears used for this lesson, I just searched through the collection and found three of different sizes, and off to school they went.  If you don't have children of your own, try asking a mom you know...she'll probably be glad to donate some bears for you to use!

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Christmas Mice!"

Just as "Halloween Mice!" was a great book for a creative movement activity, so is the equally fun "Christmas Mice!" also by Bethany Roberts and illustrated by Doug Cushman.

"The holiday mice are back! It’s Christmas time and the four cheerful mice merrily hang stockings, string popcorn, wrap presents, and sing carols. The little mice are so caught up in their joyful preparations that they almost forget to look out for their old enemy, the cat. Happily, their Christmas spirit is so infectious that even the cat is not immune. Simple, lively verse and colorful, action-filled illustrations convey the all anticipation and goodwill that come with the Yuletide season in this delightful read-aloud." -from amazon.com

Here are my ideas for using this book in music class:

Songs You Already Know: "In the Stable"




calvarywilliamsport.com/christian_coloring_pages.html

  My son (currently age 8), when he was in preschool, learned this cute song for a Christmas program.  It was such a favorite that he taught it to me, and we still enjoy singing it around the house during the Christmas season.  I have not been able to find the resource where this cute song can be found. 

Here are coloring pages to go with each verse; it would be a great idea to print the words of each verse along with the coloring page picture.  For your students who love to color (My five year old daughter is one of those!) they will be delighted to have a picture to color while learning the song.  For those students who do not enjoy coloring (such as my son!), they will still have a good visual representation of each verse to help them learn the words.

All around the sky that night,

The angel light was beaming.
Every shepherd said to himself
"Hey, I must be dreaming!"


The Angel said,

"Do not be afraid, you are not in any danger
Jesus Christ the Savior's been born;
Go see him in the manger."
Every shepherd hurried to town

As fast as they were able
They found God's Son asleep on the hay
Where? In the stable!

Song You Already Know: "Pop Goes the Weasel"
 

More Differentiated Instruction for "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie"

Check out this Old Lady!

A colleague allowed me to borrow her "Old Lady" story apron, and was it ever a big hit!

Seasonal Bulletin Boards

I'm trying something new this year: student-created Seasonal Bulletin Boards.  In the past, I found that it was very time consuming to devise bulletin boards for each month, by the time I completed one, it was time to start over on the next month!  Next, I switched to bulletin boards that could stay up months at a time, but I really missed the changes and was tired of looking at the same things all the time. 

For November's bulletin board, I took a Thanksgiving song that we learned, and added some turkeys to color.  I gave copies to my kindergarten students to color if they chose to during their indoor recess time, and the ones that they returned to me were stapled on my fabric-covered bulletin board.  Easy and fast!

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" with Differentiated Instruction Ideas

Of all of the "Old Lady" book adaptations, this one is my personal favorite...probably because she is finally eating some delicious and edible goodies (except for when she devours the pot used for cooking!), and she reminds me of our own gluttony on the holiday of Thanksgiving! (Although, now that I am the one preparing the food for the feast, I find that I eat a less at dinner...wonder why? Must be sampling too much as I'm cooking!)

Here are some differentiated ideas on including "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie" in your music instruction:

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Thank You, Thanksgiving"

When we encourage our young students to sing, a pattern often introduced first is the sol-mi pattern, soon to be followed by the sol-sol-mi-la-sol-mi pattern. "Thank You, Thanksgiving" by David Milgrim is a great book to reinforce singing in these important patterns that form a strong foundation for our young singers.

"Noodles"



"Five small noodles, on my noodle plate..."

 "Noodles" is an interactive new activity I started with my language support and kindergarten life skills students.  This finger play is from the Dr. Jean site, which I have sucessfully utilized for quite a while, ever since my first "Tooty Ta" as a kindergarten classroom teacher back in 2003-2005!

To prepare, I cut five holes in foam plates for the entire class. Be sure to measure the placement with one of your student's actual hands, because if you go by your own adult-sized hand, they may not fit the children's small hands!

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," said the Sloth

Most early elementary students have a favorite tempo, and that would be FAST! Oftentimes we need to remind our young students to slow down and take it easy, and not just in the context of the music! As a fan of the art of Eric Carle, I collected many of his books for my own children's collection, but "'Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,' said the Sloth" has been overlooked at our house until now.  In the day of the sloth, he hangs out on a branch, eats, naps, and wakes up....what a lazy day! After being pestered by some other animals, the sloth gives his defense: he just likes to do things slowly, slowly, slowly.

Rachel Rambach has written a song to reinforce the need to go slowly called "Slow and In Control". Listening to this song would be a great way to introduce the concept of the slow tempo, and to lead into this book.

Here are my ideas for using this book in music class:

Marvelous Music Makers for Music Ed: "Disney Halloween Songs & Sounds"

Happy Halloween!! This album has been with me for many Halloweens...and my very youngest students really enjoy the music! Some of the musical concepts that are reinforced by this resource are steady beat, group choreography, creative movement, identifying verse and refrain, vocal timbres, and vocal exploration

Some of my favorites include:

• The Werewolf Song
• Shake Your Bones
• Which Witch is Which?
• They Don't Scare Me

Here are the activities we use for these songs:

Holiday "Flip" books

Incorporating visual aids is very important for our young students success, and sometimes students need a hands-on visual aid. For this reason, I developed the "Flip Book".  These simple creations help more students follow the sequence of a song, assist in developing reading skills, and lead to more excitement and interest in the activity.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Halloween Mice!"

Oh, those Preschoolers, Kindergartners and First Graders, always on the move! They are naturally always in-motion and on the go, and we need to include plenty of movement activities in our music classes.  We also always need to be mindful that their attention span just about equals their age in minutes...so the four-year-old can pay attention for four minutes, the five-year-old for five minutes, and so on. (Personal aside: Why does this only pertain to school, and not so much to video games??)

So, for the music teacher, this means that you need to be changing up your activities in the lessons you plan quite often! It is challenging to plan all of the necessary activities, but well worth having your young students engaged, learning, and happy in their musical activities! To that end, "Halloween Mice!" by Bethany Roberts is a great book to use as a creative movement activity as a part of your class during this month of October.

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything"

Our first grade curriculum focuses on "voice choice" and discriminating between singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting voices. A terrific reinforcement for this concept is found in "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" by Linda Williams, and it is seasonally appropriate for October!

"The Little Old Lady. . . is a clever reworking of the classic story of a ghostly body that appears bit by bit (see ``What's the Matter'' in Maria Leach's Whistle in the Graveyard Viking, 1974 ). The humor of the little old lady's fearless attitude and her clever solution as to what to do with the lively shoes, pants, shirt, pumpkin head, etc., that are chasing her, will enchant young audiences. The catchy refrain never falters, and the rhythmic repeated sounds made by each of the woman's pursuers are sure to appeal to children. Lloyd's brilliantly-colored, detailed folk art-style illustrations are a perfect complement to the text." -Alice Cronin, Belleville Public Library, N.J. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Here are my ideas for including this book in early-elementary music class:

Differentiated Instruction for "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat"

When I originally presented ideas for utilizing "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat", there was pretty much one activity for the class: learn to follow the sequence of the song by using some visual aids to help them.  For use in a regular education class, that plan has been very sufficient. 

Now, I'd like to share some more ideas for the very same lesson, this time to address differing needs in a special needs classroom.  Differentiating the instruction can help more students of different abilities to achieve the objective of the lesson: learning to follow the sequence of a cumulative song so that they can more easily sing along!

Songs You Already Know: "The Haunted House"

(Almost) everyone loves to get into the Halloween spirit when you work in an elementary school! By using new words with songs that we already know, we have an activity that reinforces reading skills and singing skills.

Tune: (the song you already know): "The Wheels on the Bus"

Holiday Song: "The Haunted House"

Children's Literature for Music Ed: "Five Spooky Ghosts Playing Tricks at School"

 

Using the melody of "Six Little Ducks", Steve Metzger has written "Five Spooky Ghosts Playing Tricks at School".  Illustrations are by Marilee Harrald-Pilz.  This book is a great addition to your sing-along seasonal collection.  The pattern of the book will also remind you of "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed".

The five naughty ghosts are up to no good at school, and one by one the teacher sends them home. Finding herself alone and lonely at school, the teacher calls the parents and says "Let those ghosts go back to school!" (A likely story...!)

Here are some ideas for using this book in music class: