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nafmeadmin.
nafmeadminAnyone have any activities that celebrate Dr. Seuss or just use his books in the music classroom? I would love to be a part of our school-wide celebration.
Thanks!
nafmeadminI use music stories or picture books during this week—-books with song lyrics, or books about music, etc.
nafmeadminOne thing you can do is take his books and add instrumentation to them. Taking the rhyming words and adding different instruments to them makes reading the book really fun and the students will really focus on the story that is being told as they anticipate their part. It is fun to get them to explore the instruments first and see if they can match sounds with the words. Having them pat the beat on a drum as you read through the book is great if you are working with those primary students on internalizing the beat. Then having them move on to playing a different instrument for the rhythm of the words so they can compare and contrast the steady beat vs. rhythm/syllables can expand it even more. Having half the class do the beat while the other does the rhythm is great, too.
If you want to have them doing large locomotor movement, have them march to the beat as you read the stanza. At the end of the stanza they have to freeze. Read the stanza again and have them creatively move their body in a different way to help tell the story. Freeze again and go back to the beginning and have them just walk to the beat as you read it. Then have them tell you which way they enjoyed the most (#1 moving, #2 expressively moving, or #3 the beat). There is no wrong answer but they should explain why they liked that way better than the others. It will help them get in tune with the music in the books (typically the rhythm and beat) but also learning about how their body can move to the rhythm & beat).
Obviously, creativity was key in any of his books and so anything you can think of that is outside of the box yet inside of what we do as music educators can be great fun for all involved. Have a great Dr. Seuss week!!!
Christopher M. Johnson, Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy, is currently the Chair of the Music Education and Music Therapy Department and Director of the Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. Johnson earned his Ph.D. from the Florida State University.
Since his arrival at The University of Kansas, Johnson has taught courses in Instrumental Conducting, Teaching Instrumental Music, Managing Behaviors in the Music Environment, Psychology and Acoustics of Music, and Research Methods in Music Education and Music Therapy. Johnson served two terms as the editor of the International Journal of Music Education: Research, the research publication of the International Society for Music Education. He is currently serving his second term on the National Association for Music Educations Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. He also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Research in Music Education, and one earlier term as the Chair for the MENC Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education. Johnson also served as the Chair for the Research Commission of the International Society for Music Education.
Johnson’s research interests include applied research in music education, and basic research in all aspects of the psychology of music. He has published articles in many journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Music Education, the Journal of Music Therapy, Journal of Band Research, Contributions to Music Education, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, among others. Johnson has also been an active member and contributor to the Research Seminar of the International Society for Music Education and World Alliance for Arts Education.
Johnson received a university teaching award – the Ned N. Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the recognition for Graduate Teaching Achievement from the Center for Teaching Excellence. Johnson was also awarded a lecturing & research award as a J. William Fulbright Scholar and recently received the Ella Scoble Opperman Citation for Distinguished Achievement from the Florida State University College of Music.
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