CHILDREN'S LITERATURE - BOOKS TO SING

Love, Ruby Valentine
Written by Laurie Friedman
Illustrated by Lynne Avril Cravath
ISBN:  987-1-57505-899-3

The lovely story about a little girl named Ruby Valentine can be sung with minimal adaptation to the melody of "Deep in the Heart of Texas."  The inside cover of the book (the part that is sometimes overlooked) includes a wonderful collection of those great little valentine heart candies with sayings on them.  Enjoy the opportunity to make rhythmic connections using these already created sayings to improvise a B Section as you sing/tell the story.

Extension:  Create a variety of "heart rhythms" for the children to pick up.  As they find enjoyable sayings, invite them to put the hearts together to create an 8-beat rhythm pattern of "sweetness" to recite or perform during the story.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER HEART PATTERNS.

The Night Before Valentine's Day
Written by Natasha Wing
Illustrated by Heidi Petach
ISBN:  987-0-448420-188-9

This title, like so many of the monthly titles that are similiar to The Night Before Christmas, can be sung to the familiar melody associated with the title.

MELODY - SOLFEGE SNOWFLAKES

SNOWFLAKE, SNOWFLAKE
Snowflake, snowflake, on my window.
Snowflake, snowflake on my sill.
Falling from the clouds above
and drifting over the hill.
                                       Original poem by Thom Borden

Create a sol-mi melody B Section using the snowflake patterns.



CLICK THIS LINK TO ORDER SMALL SNOWFLAKE PATTERNS.

STEADY BEAT - RHYTHM SNOWFLAKES

SNOWFLAKE, SNOWFLAKE
Snowflake, snowflake, on my window.
Snowflake, snowflake on my sill.
Falling from the clouds above
and drifting over the hill.
                                       Original poem by Thom Borden

For this activity, I used the snowflake pattern shown.  Each snowflake has a single beat of stick notation written on them.  While the class recited the poem, one student was asked to create a B Section to the poem by laying the rhythm snowflakes out on the floor.  They can also be laminated after writing rhythms on them and then placing magnets on the back for easy magnetic board use.

The student creating the B Section must have completed his/her rhythm pattern by the end of the A Section (the poem).  After students say or play the rhythmic pattern of the B Section, repeat the poem again while another student creates another rhythm pattern - creating a rondo.


CLICK THIS LINK TO ORDER SNOWFLAKE PATTERNS.

MELODY