June Reads for the Music Classroom

This is the final homestretch! Some teachers finish in early June and some have to trudge it out until the end of June, depending on how many snow days their school took this year. Whether you finish earlier or later in the month, here are some books to make it easier to get to the end of the school year.

And Then Comes Summer by Tom Brenner

This is a great book to jumpstart discussion of summer with your students in the lower grades. I love the illustrations, and the scarcity of text which allows one to focus on the pictures. I love to start off reading this book by asking what people normally do in the summer, and making a huge list of activities. Then, we go through the book and see if any of these activities appear in the book. This is a great way to then introduce summer themed activities involving ice cream, the beach, etc. In fact, this can be a great segue into the next book that I will talk about!

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell by Lucille Colandro

This is another one of the Old Lady Series books that deals with specifically everything summer. Shells, sand, pails, etc…this is a great way to remind students of one of the beauties of summer which is going to the beach! This is great for keeping the steady beat, while getting students to think of all of the things they see, feel, touch and play with at the beach. If students are not keeping the steady beat to the original book, I have composed a short chant which you can use with your students everytime that you read the words “She didn’t tell”. To purchase this and other chants that I have made for the Old Lady book series, please click here.

Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres

I have loved this book since the first time that I read it. It has many possibilities for movement, vocal exploration and even singing! The subject of this book makes this a perfect read for the spring and summer months. The various directions make it easy to read while moving with the children as you are doing so, in fact this can easily be something to start your lesson with movement. I have created a lesson for this book that you can find on Musicconstructed.com. For more on this lesson, please click here. If you would like a matching worksheet that goes with this book which matches the vegetable to the direction, you can check out the full lesson in my TPT store here. 

I hope these three finds can help you finish out the year strong as you transition into a restful summer!

See you back here in September,

Polina