Happy August! I know many of you are starting to get back into the swing of things. I have a few more days yet to go but the countdown is definitely on! I am linking up today with Jennifer Bailey over at Sing to Kids blog to share some great children's books that I use in my classroom. I enjoy adding literature into my lessons and I could probably write 10 blogs about various books that I use and love and still have many left in my collection. I've decided today that I want to focus on some books that I use when I teach my strings unit. I typically do this with my third grade students and we try to go into more depth than just. "Here is a violin. It is in the string family." Thanks to one of my industrious student teachers a few years ago I have a CD of string selections that highlight or have solos of most of the string family. I use this to help students distinguish between the various tone colors of string sounds. And in each lesson I like to use a book to go along with our learning....
I like to use this beautifully illustrated book by Gavin Curtis and E B Lewis with my lesson on the violin. It is a great story about how Reginald learns to be a bat boy and uses his violin to help the team. This book was awarded with the Coretta Scott King award.
This next book is arguably one of my favorites. The Voice of the Wood by Claude Clement depicts an old Venetian folk tale in which a maker of violins and cellos cuts down a favorite tree and later crafts it into a fine cello. A famous musician comes in to play his newly created cello only to be embarrassed because the cello makes grating noises instead of beautiful music. As I read this tale I play Saint Saen's "The Swan" in the background. It is a fitting accompaniment to the story and students are hearing the cello while they listen to the story. Sneaky right?!!
Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett is another great read-aloud. As usual Jan Brett's illustrations are always enhanced by the events going on in the borders around the edges of the book. Focusing on the string bass, you could play "The Elephant" from Carnival of the Animals with this book. The book also references Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee at the end for a little bit of buzzing bee humor.
Finally I have added this book to my string unit as a finale. We read and or sing through the story and I have created a fun project where the shy fellow eats the string family. His mouth is cut open and you see what he is eating through the opening in his mouth. A wheel of string instruments is fastened to the face using a paper fastener.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have found something you can use in your own classroom.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have found something you can use in your own classroom.
Now go back to Sing to Kids and read some other great blog posts about children's literature to use in your classroom.