When I was in high school, you could find me in one of three places during the summer: my job at Baskin-Robbins, the neighborhood pool, or on the stage of the Muni Opera, an outdoor community theater here in Springfield.
I have lots of great memories from the 10+ shows I was in at the Muni, but my absolute favorite was The Sound of Music. I played Louisa von Trapp, and just fell in love with the music. This musical has a special place in my heart because of that experience, so I was very excited when I came across a picture book version of My Favorite Things.
The illustrations in this book are gorgeous and stimulating; even my littlest students enjoy looking at the pictures that accompany the song. For my older students, the book serves as the perfect jumping-off point for a discussion about their own favorite things.
I love singable stories featuring familiar songs — especially those that will get a smile out of my students’ parents, like this one. What are some others worth adding to my ever-expanding collection?
I use this same book with a picture map…clients follow along with the words pointing to the pictures as we sing, then I pair the picture with the word…It’s great for pre-reading and vocabulary!
Great idea to use a picture map — thanks for mentioning that :)
Great book idea, Rachel, and I LOVE the mapping idea, Lora! I’m not sure why I haven’t thought of this before now but I think doing that with several of my books with my youngest ones is a great idea. My question is, do you copy pictures to pair with the word directly from the book itself, so they match exactly? I suppose that’d be step one, then you could make it more difficult by generalizing with the same object and a different picture. Am I rambling? Hope this makes sense!