April Reads for the Music Classroom

April is the first month where I finally feel as if spring is coming and the cold can be left behind until the winter season. It is also the month to celebrate Easter and Passover, as well as our beautiful planet! In this blogpost I will discuss books that you can use to cover all of those topics in your classroom and educational environment. 

Drum City by Thea Guidone 

I love this book for how easy it is to begin any lesson on recycling, reusing and reducing with this title, while simultaneously engaging the students in the book. It is great for in class or remote teaching. I have read this book in class and used it for remote instruction as well. I usually either distribute instruments to my students to play along with, or if I am teaching remotely have them grab kitchen utensils to drum with. The students will then drum on the word drum, as I am reading the book. This is a great way to introduce repurposing materials, talk about recycling and have fun while doing it! For a more detailed lesson plan on this book and the next book I will talk about, check out my lesson plan “Recycle and Repurpose” in Musicconstructed.com. 
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Ada’s Violin by Susan Hood

This is one of my favorite books to use for not only celebrating the Earth but also Hispanic Heritage month, thus this book has multiple classroom uses. For more on how I use this book during Hispanic Heritage month, please check out this article I wrote for Every Teacher Every Day. 

This is a great continuation to the first book, because I love to read this to my students and discuss ways in which Favio Chavez and his students have recycled instruments. My students get to hear about how instruments are recycled, and then I show them this video to make the story come alive even more. 
As a follow up activity, I assign the students to make their own instruments at home and send home videos to watch on how to do this. Here is a quick list of those videos:
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4 Musical Instruments: Crafts You Can Do Anytime
Easy Homemade Instruments for Kids 
How to Make Musical Instruments for Kids 

Pout Pout Fish Cleans Up the Ocean by Deborah Diesen 

I came across this book recently, and really liked that it was an extension of the Pout Pout Fish Series that encourages cleaning up the beautiful planet. This is a book which rhymes, helping your young learners keep a steady beat. ​​

However, being someone that loves to look for a repetitive pattern, I saw one in the words “A big….big…mess!” which is repeated numerous times. 

I composed a short chant which you can use with your students as your are going through the book. They can chant this, every time that you come to the part about the big mess.

​Here it is:

For more on a lesson about this book, please see my lesson in Musicconstructed.com, which recently came out.

Peter Easter Frog by Erin Dealey

I came across this book last year at my local Barnes and Noble store and really liked the story line. It is a hilarious title with the frog pretending to be the bunny, and asking other animals to join him in the fun! I use this as we get closer to Easter time with my preschool students, and it has been a hit with my students! This book inspired me so much that I composed a short song tale for it. To hear some of it and access the resource, please click here.

Little Red Hen and the Passover Matza by Leslie Kimmelman 

Since Passover occurs around the same time as Easter, I did not want to end this blogpost without a suggestion for this holiday as well. The Little Red Hen is a classic story, and this Passover spinoff is a great way to introduce and talk about the holiday of Passover. I created a song tale to go along with this book as well, click here to listen to it. 
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Hope these books help you celebrate the holidays and our wonderful planet throughout the month of April.

​Environmentally yours,

Polina