Children’s Literature Books and Music

1. Children’s Literature Books and Music Matraca Hutton Music for Elementary Teachers

2. Eensy Weensy Spider • For this book, a great idea for the classroom would be to read the book, then learn the moves. The children can choose instruments that describe the words ( rain, washed, eensy, weensy, climbed, water, ). One group of children can do hand movements while the other children play instruments for certain words.

3. Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Quack • For this book, I suggest to read the book then make up a song about animal noises in the book and use instruments to describe the noises. (giggle, giggle quack quack, giggle giggle moo. Giggle giggle quack quack cock a doodle doo). You can add in hand movements such as, pat pat clap clap pat patspirt hands). This is a great book to talk about repetition and rhyme.

4. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes • This book would be best to first read the book and then sing the song with the children. This is a great book that can also be used to teach colors. The kids can even dance to this while singing. Ask the children if they can change the things pete steps in to still match the colors. Get childrens brain thinking. Talk about predictions and how you should look “forward” in songs to see what's coming up. Remind the students not all song have to rhyme. Certain kids can be play instruments for when he steps into something.

5. Ruby Sings the Blues • This book would be a great book to talk about different tones ( such as forte, piano, etc). This book is also great to talk about our inside voices and our outside voices. You could also talk about how some instruments have different pitches, like a violin vs. a drum.

6. Old MacDonald Had a Dragon • This would be a great book to use in the classroom for recognizing patterns in music and also in literature. This would also be a great book to introduce verse and refrain. This is a different version of Old Macdonald Had a Farm, so you could also do a compare and contrast unit.

7. Acoustic Rooster and his Barnyard Band • This is a great book for introducing concepts of bands/groups and working together. You could also talk about sharing and caring for one another. Another idea for this book is to introduce Jazz.

8. Squeak, Rumble, WhompWhompWhomp! • This would be a fantastic book for introducing different instruments. Kids could have hands-on experience and also learn about the noises different instruments make. You could talk about instruments that make the squeak noise, instruments that make the rumble noise, and so on.

9. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell • This is another version of “There was an old lady who swallowed a shoe.” This is a good book for repetition and rhyming. Kids would like that it is about music and could introduce some instruments for the word “bell.”

10. Up,Up, Down • This would be a fantastic book when learning about xylophones. You could show them how you go down and up on the instrument, just like the book. Also, the book says “ow” or “ouch” and students could choose instruments that would represent that word, such us a symbol or drum noise.

11. Raindrop, Plop! • This book would be a cute book for a rainy day. It helps to teach children about verses and refrain and also about different notes and xylophones. You could incorporate this into a lesson about clouds and rain.

12. Websites for Teachers • A certain website I found, http://thomborden.blogspot.com/, is a fantastic website for teachers. Thom Borden really puts in a lot of time to this website and helping teacher incorporate literature and music. • Pinterest is another fantastic website to use for finding books to use with music.