Part II: Choosing a Book to Sing
Brigid Finucane here from Merit School of Music in Chicago,
where I teach early childhood music and movement classes.
In my first post, I wrote about benefits of adding singing books
to your classroom. Past issues of Activate!
have great ideas for literacy connections...in fact, the February/March 2014
issue is devoted to children’s literature. Featured stories include Eric
Carle’s The Very Lonely Firefly, Deborah
A. Imiolo’s The Squeaky Door, Lucinda
McQueen’s (illus.) Little Red Hen, Pete
Seeger’s Abiyoyo, the beloved adaptation of a Bantu folktale and
many more!
How were these books first chosen, though, and what makes
them successful in the classroom? The short answer is that each teacher has to
decide for his or herself what will work in their
classroom, for their students and
the concepts they want to support. That being said, here are some
considerations!