Tuesday Book Club Linky Party

Hi everyone!

I have today off for the Veteran's Day holiday- do you?? As a result, I tried to take advantage of the extra time to sleep, but it turns out that I have already been awake for almost 2 hours. Must be time to post on this blog!!

Today I am linking up with Emily at Emily's Kodaly Music for her Tuesday Book Club Linky Party!

I ended my Kindergarten Farm Unit yesterday with I Bought Me a Cat using unpitched instruments. This is the third year in a row that I'm using this lesson, and save for a few small modifications, it has remained basically the same, and successful, for all three years! I LOVE this lesson because it involves a lot of listening, focus, self control involving instruments, and it also allows us to review instrument names.

This was one of my first finds on Smart Exchange, and thanks to Cherie Herring's generosity, it was my first really successful Kindergarten lesson. You can find it here: I Bought Me A Cat.

Now, I know that I'm posting in a Tuesday Book Club linky party, so here is the book part of my lesson:

I open my I Bought Me a Cat lesson with a book called Farmyard Beat. This is the second year I've used it and I was reminded of how much I love reading it. There is room for vocal exploration and practice with echoing, as well as practice with steady beat. I highly recommend it for your classroom!

The best part about the book is that it requires no prior explanation for the kids to get involved. They instinctively pick it up. I, of course, use the "hand to the ear" technique to get them to echo the phrases I'd like them to. However, they start to pat the steady beat on their own while I am reading- which I think is an amazing thing to happen organically in the 3rd month of Kindergarten!

I hope you try it out in your classroom! I may use it with PreK later this year as well!

And last, but certainly not least, take a moment today, while you are also grateful for the day off, to honor our veterans and think about what they have given to our country.

~Ms. Patrician