As educators, teachers know how important music is to the development of our youth. As a leveled book store, you may wonder why we would encourage teachers to acknowledge a month that celebrates music. Becuase we are more than a bookstore. We truly care about providing information to teachers and parents that will help them support the children in their lives to embrace reading with passion.
There are a multitude of studies and sites dedicated to the value of music and music in education. In fact, there is a recent study indicating the brain processes language and instrumental music in the same areas of the brain and overlap each other. As a result, researchers say music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech. “Music making is a multisensory experience, activating links to several parts of the brain,” according to Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. There are many benefits of music education, both in instruments and singing. Among other things, music enhances the brain’s ability to recognize voices, discern verbal nuances as well as tune out noise.
To celebrate and draw importance to music, we can recommend “A Mouse Called Wolf” by Dick King-Smith, “Dancing Dinos Go to School” by Sally Lucas, and “Mr. Putter and Tabby Toot the Horn” by Cynthia Rylant.
“A Mouse Called Wolf” is recommended for the 4-8 age group (grades K-3). It is about a tiny mouse with a big name finding a slightly chewed piece of sheet music with the words “Wolfgang Amadeus Mo”…with the family mouse hole just behind the leg of a grand piano played twice a day by an elderly woman, Wolf loves the music and, to the delight of Mrs. Honeybee and the bemusement of his mother, he becomes the first singing mouse. His special talent even enables him to summon help when Mrs. Honeybee falls and can’t get up. Young musicians will relate to Wolf’s struggles to develop his talent and share it with his not-so-musical mother.
“Dancing Dinos Go to School” is recommended for the 4-6 age group (grades pre-school-K). The dancing dinos are back, and this time, when their book turns up in a school library, they leap out and bring their musical mayhem to a kid’s classroom. This fun, rhyming Step 1 reader is perfect for back-to-school!
“Mr. Putter and Tabby Toot the Horn” is recommended for the 6-9 age group (grades 1-3). In it, Mr. Putter and his fine cat, Tabby, like sharing music with their special neighbors. But when the neighbor decides they should join a band, Mr. Putter isn’t so sure—since neither of them plays an instrument. But they aren’t going to let that stop them!
To read more about the value of music, music’s impact, and other benefits of music, you can visit http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/benefits.html
To read more about how “Music in Our School’s” got started and get some ideas about how to promote the celebration is your community, you can visit: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/music_ed/15718/1 or
http://halftimemag.com/articles/03-2009/03-2009-publishers-letter/music-in-our-schools-month.html.
Happy reading and listening!!
