This delightful book is the perfect prop to use for vocal warm ups with your young kiddos as they are asked to follow the dots within the fun illustrations. Bonus alert…while following the dots, kiddos are tracking from left to right setting them up for early literacy skills!
This is a sweet little children’s book about a giraffe that can’t dance to the same music as everyone else. A wise little cricket helps him to see that “everyone can dance, when you find music that you love.” Ah, what a wonderful message to give to our children! Find the music that you love, and dance your heart out!
This book does not have a musical theme, but the story shows us how to have a positive mindset while working through a problem, allowing us to grow and create something beautiful. When children are learning a musical instrument (or anything new) it can be frustrating and hard sometimes. This book can help them remember to be patient with themselves and look back at all that they have accomplished already.
This book does not have a musical theme, but it’s beautiful and empowering message helps us all to embrace our creative side and welcome the possibilities of what can happen when we have an idea.
This book explores all of the parts of an orchestra through the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It gives sound examples of almost all of the instruments, has nice illustrations, and because of all of the instrument sound examples, your child will hear the symphony theme numerous times. Win!
I used this book in my classroom for many years as a way to introduce my unit on the orchestra and the instruments. I especially love the rhythmic quality to the words and the beautiful illustrations. It was always a pleasure to read out loud, and my students loved saying the “Zin! Zin! Zin!” with me.
This book has some of the best descriptions of the different instrument timbres I have ever read. “The cello’s rich, mellow voice speaks of deep feelings like joy and sadness. It can remind you of the calm beauty of a drifting swan and of the color purple.” So amazing! Using words to describe sound and music is hard, and this book does it beautifully, ensighting your own imagination and creativity. Love it!
Peter and the Wolf is such a wonderful piece for children to learn how music can tell a story and to hear how each instrument sounds so different – one like a bird and another like a grumpy grandfather! With the included narration CD, children can listen to the story being told while the story of the music is played out by the orchestra. The illustrations are lovely, too!
This book is the product of four brilliant minds coming together. First, the incredible music by Camille Saint-Saens that is filled with beauty and humor, while depicting many of our favorite animals (including pianists – ha!). Verses written by Jack Prelutsky, America’s first Children’s Poet Laureate, accompany each movement. The illustrations are done by Mary GrandPre, who also did the illustrations for the Harry Potter books. And there is a note to parents and teachers on ways to encourage active listening and creative movement by Judith Bachleitner, head of the music department at the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City. Um…win, win, win…win!
Dedicated to providing the very best music learning experiences to all young children regardless of their race, gender, abilities, location, school, childcare, or socioeconomic status.
