9 Books That You Can Sing

There are many books that you can add some singing to, whether that be a word, a phrase or the whole book.

Here are 9 that you might like to try:

Monkey Puzzle

Here is a breakdown of how I approach the story Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.  This was one of my children’s favourite books when they were young!

What musical elements can we focus on that will bring the story to life?

Melody: Sing the butterfly part to the tune of hush little baby. I always did this with my children; they loved it! Here’s me sing the first few lines:

Call response (question and answer): the dialogue with the main two characters.

Dynamics: small and large fonts (quiet and loud sounds)

Crescendo: no, No, NO! (small font going bigger)  getting louder with each one: creating a crescendo!

Peepo

In the book Peepo, you could encourage the children to sing the word Peepo with two notes.  Two note singing is a great way to develop tuneful singing.  

Here's an example of me singing peepo as two notes:

We’re going on a bear hunt.

You can sing elements from it.  In the video below Michael Rosen starts by emphasising the pulse with a 4 beat 'chu chum chum chum chum'.  Then he sings the phrase ‘we’re going a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one’ and 'we can't go over it, we can't go under it' with a simple tune

Here are both phrases played on the piano with a small pause in between each

Here's the video:

Use books for nursery rhymes and songs that the children already know:

Old MacDonald

Incy wincy spider

Row, row your boat

Head shoulders knees and toes

The wheels on the bus

There was an old lady

If you're looking for some more music ideas based on books, take a look at the online resource 'Early Years Music Ideas 2 to 5 years'. It includes some Music Time Plans based on books CLICK HERE to find out more!

Happy music making!