I love using children’s books in the elementary music room. There are so many books that contain song tales or lend themselves easily to concepts such as melody, rhythm, or form. But have you ever considered using books to explore steady beat? Here are some of my favorite “beat” books for the elementary music classroom!
Ten Hungry Monsters
Ten Hungry Monsters is silly story about ten hungry monsters are overtaking a little boy’s home and eating all their food! This is one of my favorite books to use for beat because the story has a strong beat until the little boy has had enough and tells the monsters to leave! It’s a wonderful example of beat vs. no beat. The story is adorable and the illustrations make the story sillier! One Hungry Monster is a great book for your K-1 students as they are learning about beat!
Ten Sly Piranhas
If your students loved One Hungry Monster, then they will love Ten Sly Piranhas! I love it because it’s a great example of beat in triple meter! I love using it with my first grade students as we are learning how to move to and label macrobeat and microbeats to determine Triple meter.
Drumheller Dinosaur Dance
Do you ever need a fun activity to do around Halloween but without mention of Halloween? This is when I pull out Drumheller Dinorsaur Dance! We pull out our hand drums and practice keeping a steady beat along to the story! We practice playing the beat loud, then soft, then explore how we can decrescendo from loud to soft or vice versa. It’s a fun lesson to pair with Laurie Berkner’s We Are the Dinosaurs or to do a listening lesson with Camille Saint-Saens piece, The Fossils, from Carnival of the Animals!
Rattlebone Rock
If you can do Halloween songs and stories in your music classroom, then be sure to check out Rattlebone Rock! This is a classroom favorite for sure! I love for students to identify phrases in the story that lend themselves to rhythmic ostinato and have them layer those sounds to create a Halloween soundscape. If working with older students, have them chant the rhythms they here from those phrases with rhythmic solfege, then write them out for a generalization or notation activity. There are so many ways to create fun, engaging lessons for your students!
Barn Dance!
Barn Dance by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is another fabulous book to read to with a beat! I love pairing this book with animal and Farm Songs for Little Ones, or square dances for older students!
There are so many great children’s book that you can use to explore, teach, or reinforce beat! Do you have a favorite story? Share it below!
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