"Pouch!" by David Ezra Stein

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE to read. My home is filled with more books than I can count, and I love bringing literature into my music classroom as much as I can. Early in February, I did a lesson with my kindergarteners and my CI class that incorporated the book "Pouch!" by David Ezra Stein. This is a story about a little Kangaroo named Joey, and his trials and tribulations as he tries to explore the world. He gets easily scared and keeps hopping back to his Mama's pouch, but might meet a new friend along the way!

​I started out the lesson by reading the story and having the kids listen for words or phrases that are repeated often in the story. After we read it, we wrote down the repeated words/phrases on the board and the kids came up with sounds on a drum to represent those words. Each class was SO creative with how they represented the words in sound! (For example: "hop!" was a hit on the drum for one class. For "Who are you?", one class decided to scrape the drum with their fingertips. They had some great ideas!) 
We re-read the story and this time, the whole class would play each sound when they heard the appropriate words. They loved this activity (because who doesn't love playing drums?) and so did I--it focused on creativity (the beginnings of music composition!), listening skills, proper drum technique, language, and so much more. On top of all that--it was FUN! 
Below are some photos of the CI class and I during our "Pouch!" sound story.