This year I am on a mission to incorporate books into my lessons. I have two pianos in my room and last year I decided to turn one into a book display area. This year I want to take the next step and include the books display into more of my lessons. We set a school wide reading goal each year and classroom read aloud books count towards this total. Last year I read maybe five books to my students. This year I want that number to be much higher.
Yesterday I finally went to our library and checked out a few picture books. I picked ones that I felt we could add small percussion to. I set them up on display, but I was not planning on using them yet. Right now my classes (minus kindergarten) are working on composition projects. I want to make sure my students are able to play what they wrote, so I have each student clap their composition for me. While I was working with individual students, I had the rest of the class practice their composition and switch compositions with classmates. I said nothing about the new books, but an amazing thing happened (I have taught general classroom before and I always used books as an activity when they were done working, but I never thought to do that in a music class.) One by one, after students had played their composition and compositions from other classmates, they asked me if they could pick a book to read. This started in second grade and I figured it was because second graders still like picture books, but then it happened in third grade and again in fourth grade. To be honest, I was surprised. What started as something for me to use with my primary classes turned into something all of my classes enjoyed! The best part as a teacher is that having books gives my students something to do when they are done with their work and it also allows me the 1:1 time to help and work with my students. It's a win, win situation! Books are not just for the core subjects anymore.
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