Great Books for Kids!!

~ using music to encourage reading ~


Welcome to my page of *ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC* books for elementary kids. I'm an elementary music teacher and I have put together a list of great books that children absolutely LOVE and that use music to encourage reading and love of books.  I have tried out multiple versions of several of these titles and found the one that is the best!

I buy several books every year for my school music room -- these are my favorites!  I am partial to books that have lots of color, very good artwork, and are a good size so many children can see it.  These are great resources for an elementary music teacher, an elementary classroom teacher, or for a parent who wants to encourage their child to love books.  Using music along with literature just increases their enjoyment of reading.
Teachers: use these books as a starting point for Elementary Music Lesson Plans or classroom lesson plans.  
Parents: these books will be your children's favorites, to be read again and again.

Each of these books are linked to amazon.com for more information.  
If you have found a great book that you would like to see on my list, please email me.


Be sure to check out my other pages:

Home page

K-1st Books

2nd-3rd Books

4th-5th Books

Christmas Books


Music Teacher Resource
(more coming...)

The Big Book of Musical Games (by Pressnall)
 

Try Amazon Prime for FREE -- get unlimited free 2-day shipping
on millions of items.

Books for Kindergarten and 1st graders

Be sure to check out the other age-graded pages at left



Going to the Zoo
by Paxton & Schmidt

This cute book goes along with the song written by Tom Paxton by that name. The book actually have a few more verses than the recording. I also love to teach the kids the signs for the animals to use as we sing it.

The video  Signing Time! Vol 9: The Zoo Train DVD
is all about signing zoo animals. It's great to include parts of it along with the book.










The Runaway Pancake
by John Lithgow



This is such a GREAT book that I can't imagine not having it!  My students beg for it.  It comes with a CD, which is essential because Lithgow does a fantastic job telling the story!
The characters in the story are all animals from Australia, which allows for another whole direction of discussion.  Marsupial Sue and her friends are presenting their version of The Gingerbread Man, which includes a little song along the way.


Along that same line is another book by Lithgow
Marsupial Sue
size: 11.4" x 8.9
This is a cute song about a kangaroo who decided she didn't like being a kangaroo.  The book comes with a CD of the song sung by Lithgow.





Mama Don't Allow
by Thacher Hurd

This is a story about a boy who gets a saxophone for Christmas and then starts a band with his friends. But the only ones who want to hear them are the alligators.

There's a really fun version of the song "Mama Don't Allow" by Brady Rymer on his CD Every Day Is A Birthday


There is also a Reading Rainbow video by LeVar Burton on this book.

Check out other Reading Rainbow books.









Barnyard Song
by Rhonda Greene
size: 10.9 x 8.6

This is a fun book in poem form about farm animals who catch a cold and lose their ability to "sing."  I sung the whole thing to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw."  

It is also fun to teach them the old song "Mairzy Doats,"

Another good story about the farm is Barnyard Lullaby (by Asch), about mother animals who sing to their babies.









The Animal Boogie
by Debbie Harter


This is a cute book. Comes with a CD of the song.  The kids will be up dancing and doing the movements to the song as they sing it and watch the pictures.










Take Me Out to the Ballgame   
Illus. by Gillman
size: 10" x 9.8"
 
This song was written in 1908, so it is 100 years old this year! The little ones really enjoy singing it.  The colorful artwork is taken from the 1947 World Series.

If you want a recording of the song, there is a good one on Raffi's One Light One Sun or there are many others available.

You can also find a good recording of the song in Music K8, Vol. 8, No. 5.



TRAINS


Down By the Station
by Will Hillenbrand 
size: 11" x 9"

This is a cute version of the song.  It has verses about baby animals who are picked up by the train on its way to the zoo.  The great thing about it is, you can sing this with your K-1 kids and then let them each choose any animal they want to be.  It could go on and on. . .  The kids really enjoy this.


Along with this book, you can also sing train songs, such as "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Little Red Caboose," and read the story "The Little Engine that Could."    I found a real cute version of the song "The Little Engine that Could" sung by John Denver on his CD about trains called "All Aboard."  It is out of print, but you can still pick up a used copy at Amazon.  It goes very nicely with the book "The Little Engine That Could," (wording is a little different, but same story).

The Little Engine That Could
by Watty Piper
size: 12" x 9.8"

All Aboard
CD of songs about trains
(sung by John Denver)










BIG BOOK

Old MacDonald Had a Farm
(by Adams
size: 17" x 17"

I really like BIG books in a classroom, and this is a big book! Each page adds a new animal to the song. The kids never seem to get tired of this song.






BIG BOOK

Over in the Meadow
(by Voce)
size: 18" x 15"

Here is another good BIG book.  This a fun book on the song "Over in the Meadow."  The kids enjoy finding where all the different animals are in the pictures.
The publisher says: "it exemplifies the qualities—rhythmic texts, repetitive words, dynamic illustrations, and engaging story lines—that make large-format books so useful in helping children to read and learn."






Doing the Animal Bop
by Ormerod & Gardiner
(be sure to get the one with the CD)












I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

The k-2 kids really liked this book!  

You can download the mp3 from Amazon for $.88!!





RAFFI books

Baby Beluga
size: 8.8 x 6.8

This is a cute song by Raffi that the little ones never get tired of.

Other good song/books by Raffi:
Down By the Bay *
Five Little Ducks ~

There are other book versions of these songs but these all go with the Raffi CDs.  
You can buy an mp3 for $.99 of these songs at: *Raffi mp3
or ~Raffi mp3
 or #Raffi mp3

I love leaving these Raffi books for a sub to use with the kids. It's easy for the sub and the kids love to reread these books and sing the songs.

OTHER GREAT BOOKS for K-1

• Berlioz the Bear  - This is a good story about a group of bears who have a band.  Berlioz is the leader who has a problem with a bee.

• Noah's Square Dance - cute book about the animals on the ark dancing.  

• Lizard Song (by Shannon)

• The Teddy Bears Picnic (illus by Whatley)  There are several versions of this story, but I liked this one the best.  There are also several versions of the song that you can get to accompany the book.

Musical Max
If You're Happy and You Know it (by Cabrera)
Miss Mary Mack (Hoberman/Westcott)
Old MacDonald Had a Farm (Theobalds)
Rooster can't Cock-a-doodle-doo (Rostoker-Gruber)


Mar. 2007