M is for Music by: Kathleen Krull
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
I See A Song by Eric Carle
Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
Ah, Music by Aliki
So You Want to Be A Rockstar by Audrey Vernick
Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin
Violet’s Music by Angela Johnson
Our Marching Band by Lloyd Moss
The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield
Music is Fun
Music is wonderful,
and so much fun for me,
When I sing, dance, and listen,
I feel very free.
When I’m dancing,
I think of a new move,
As I practice,
I gradually improve.
Singing is something,
I constantly do,
Even when,
I’m tying my shoe.
Listening to music,
is so fun and sweet,
When I hear my songs,
they wake both my feet.
by anitapoems.com
(To the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” or “Glory, Glory Hallelujah”)
If you ever meet an elephant who wants to join your band,
it’s the sort of situation that will never go as planned,
so you’d better tell him “No” and try to make him understand,
before he starts to play.
First he’ll stumble and go crashing.
Then your stuff will take a bashing.
He’ll be dancing as he’s smashing.
He’ll act like this all day.
Then you’ll never make him leave because he’s happy as a clam
and it doesn’t make a difference if you yell at him to scram
when the only thing he wants to do is jump around and jam
and never go away.
He’ll be walloping and whacking.
Then you’ll need financial backing.
So you’d better send him packing
before he starts to play.
–Kenn Nesbitt
From the book The Armpit of Doom
When Daniel went dancing that night at the fair
he leapt on the stage with his arms in the air.
He ran back and forth at a neck-breaking pace,
then back-flipped and cartwheeled all over the place.
He jumped like a jumping bean, bounced like a ball,
careened off the ceiling, and ran down the wall.
He flew through the room with an ear-splitting scream
till, shaking and sobbing, he ran out of steam.
The witnesses watching could see at a glance
that Dan had invented some new kind of dance.
They cheered and applauded. They gave him First Prize.
They cried, “You’re a genius in all of our eyes!”
So now, just like Daniel, from Finland to France
they sit on a cactus to start every dance.
–Kenn Nesbitt
A Poem About Music for Kids
Our teacher sings The Beatles.
She must know every song.
We ask her please to stop
but she just sings, “It Won’t Be Long.”
And then she croons like Elvis.
She clearly thinks it’s cool.
And if we beg her not to
she just belts out, “Don’t be Cruel.”
She then does Michael Jackson.
It drives us nearly mad.
We have to cover up our ears
because she’s singing, “Bad.”
She winds up with The Wiggles
or else a Barney song,
and, even worse, she tells us all
that we should sing along.
It’s all my fault she does this.
I feel like such a fool.
I wish I’d never brought
my karaoke box to school.
–Kenn Nesbitt
I listen to my chicken
as she sings her cheerful song.
I’m tickled with my turkey
as he gobbles right along.
My duck sings so delightfully.
I love my rooster’s rap,
and when my Cornish game hen croons
it makes me want to clap.
I give my goose a gander
and I giggle as she chimes,
for when it comes to poultry
I prefer the kind that rhymes.
–Kenn Nesbitt
From the book My Hippo Has the Hiccups
My old Uncle Wheeler
the instrument dealer
sells cellos, pianos, guitars.
He also sells mandolins,
banjos and violins,
zithers and harps and sitars.
He sells all these things
that play music with strings
at low prices that cannot be matched.
His discounts are deep
and his prices so cheap
’cause he sells them with no strings attached!
–Kenn Nesbitt
Students will be putting the digits of 1-20 in order, formed by different shaped pieces (together forming the neck of a guitar. Students can be visually and aurally introduced to the musical term “fret” and this would be exemplified with a guitar in-person.
Students will first put all of the cards in order from 1-20, placing them magnetically onto a whiteboard/large magnetic surface. These pieces do not need to be fitted together, however, if they finish early/await teacher approval, they can attempt to fit each of the pieces together then!
Materials Needed: Printed/Drawn guitar Neck (on paper), Self-Adhesive Magnets, A Marker to write Numbers onto the pieces, and laminating is recommended!
This center is to help students become more quick with reading sight words.
Materials: Staff paper with treble clef (printed), and a pencil for writing sight words
http://simpleplayideas.com/lego-learning
https://www.education.com/activity/article/Counting_Cups/
https://www.education.com/activity/article/the-snowmen/
https://www.education.com/activity/article/ice-cream-math/
https://www.education.com/activity/article/paper-pumpkin-numbers/
https://handsonaswegrow.com/stretching-out-words/
https://teachmama.com/backyard-alphabet-hunt/
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Word-Family-Sliders-302934
https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/literacy-activities-for-preschoolers/
Rationale: This project is designed to refine fine motor skills via practice with cutting, and tracing. This center also introduces print-making, and prompts family reflection and counting.
Materials:
Motivation:
Today, we are adding a project to our center time, and we will be making trees! But not just any trees, we will be making trees out of our hands and fingerprints! Our wrists will be the trunks of our trees: the long brown part that grows from the ground up to the top, and our fingers will be the branches: the parts that grow away from the trunk and grow leaves! What colors are leaves? Today, we will be making a tree that is in the warmest part of springtime.
Steps:
Note: Families are complex! These trees should include parents/guardians, siblings, pets, step-parents, step-siblings, and grandparents.
6.
Clean hands and place painting on drying rack
Rationale: This project can be used to teach students about rhythm/beats, however this project is focused more-so on the artistic decoration of the instrument (which can be done in various ways).
Materials: For Decorating (not all required, but possibilities):
Inside:
Motivation: How many of you have ever played a drum? A triangle? A xylophone? How about a shaker? Well, one thing that all of these instruments have in common is that they are part of the Percussion family of instruments. Percussion is defined as “musical instruments that are hit or struck (like drums) or shaken (like maracas or shakers). Today, we will be making our very own member or the percussion family by using a simple object that can often be found thrown away! We will be making toilet paper roll shakers!
Steps:
Rationale: This project is to encourage family-homework interaction. This relatively fast-paced game will take only a few minutes and can be played with 1-4 players. Students will be able to identify musical instruments, and will practice counting 1-6 with the rolling-a-die aspect of the game.
Materials: Colored paper, Permanent Marker, The Printed Worksheet (link at bottom of post), 4 pawns for each game, 1 die per game, and laminating materials (optional)
Motivation: This activity is specifically designed as a game to intrigue students. Many familiar objects are pasted into the spaces that could spark conversation with the family. If the student properly recognizes a musical instrument that they land on, they get to roll again! The first person to get to the end, wins!
Game Instructions: Each player chooses a pawn and takes turns rolling the die, who ever gets the highest number (closest to 6) will get to roll first! Taking turns to the right, each person rolls the die and moves the designated number of spaces on the board. When the person lands on a space, they must decide if the image in that space is a musical instrument. If it is a musical instrument, they get to roll again!
Sidenote: This game can be made more challenging for higher grade-levels by requiring students to name the musical instruments correctly in order to roll again. It can be taken a step even further, by requiring them to spell it! One other idea for a mathematical challenge, would be to have the student record each player’s rolled numbers, then add up the totals for each player at the end!
Game Instructions (simplified)
This project is to teach students about Left and Right!
Equipment needed:
Vocabulary:
~Letter Identification~
Rationale: This project introduces students to letter sounds and upper/lower-case, and it is also extremely versatile. As students are just starting you may say things such as “This is a trumpet, trumpet starts with T” and have them find that letter in the deck. Eventually, they may be able to hear the word trumpet, or just see trumpet (or other instruments/chosen images of your deck) and find the letter independently. Later, the students may even be able to fully spell the words that correspond with the pictures. Two decks are included of two different, complementary colors, and this allows for potential partner games/quizzing later on.
Materials: 4 sheets of paper (2 different colors, 2 of each), a permanent marker (or typed/stamped letters),
Motivation: Again, we will be learning about musical instruments but today, we will learn about some new ones, and how to…(varying instructions for varying games).
Steps: Fold each sheet of paper into 16 equal rectangles and cut along the lines. Put each letter on each color of paper (capital on front, lowercase on back, or possibly lowercase on one deck and uppercase on the other), and place desired images on the remaining rectangles.
Reaching For Teaching 