2024 Music Is Reading Program (First Grade)
Connecting picture books to music is a fun and creative way of encouraging children in their musical and literary development. Books are central to my curriculum, especially in lower elementary, and this first grade “Music Is Reading” program shows how we used song, dance and instruments to perform the following wonderful books:
- The Goldilocks Quartet by Candace Neal (high school string quartet)
- Silly Sally by Audrey Wood (singing) Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth (singing)
- The Flea’s Sneeze by Lynn Downey (un-pitched percussion)
- Good News Bad News by Jeff Mack (mallet instruments)
- The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone (tubano drums)
- The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle (speech and mallet instruments)
- Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae (dance)
This video features students from Boone Meadow Elementary, led by their teacher William C Doublestein, during the 2023-2024 school year. The program was held on Thursday, March 7th 2024.
For classroom videos of each of these activities (coming soon!), along with many other “Music Is Reading” lessons from prior years, check out https://bowtiemusic.net/music-is-read….
Special thanks to Sandy Lantz and Gretchen Wahlberg for their lesson on The Flea’s Sneeze. For this and many other children’s books with Orff lesson plans check out their wonderful book here: https://www.westmusic.com/smore-bits-…
Also thank you to the Gilster’s Goodies YouTube channel for their inspiration on Old Black Fly. You can see their video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rkya…
Music for Giraffes Can’t Dance included the following:
- Intro: “Gentle Heroics” by Trevor Kowalski
- Waltz: “Waltz With Me” by Martin Carlberg
- Rock ‘n roll: “Might As Well Rock’n’Roll (Instrumental Version)” by TSGE
- Tango: “Dance of Decisions” by Tiki Tiki
- Cha Cha: “May I Have This One” by Chalalatas
- Scottish Reel: “Reel Medley” by The New England Dancing Masters
- Reprise: “Gentle Heroics” by Trevor Kowalski
- Free dance: “I’m Going Underground” by Flux Vortex
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