- beat
- blow
- music
- musical instrument
- musician
- pluck
- shake
- sound
- tap
MA Standards:
Language: L.PK.MA.5 With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances of word meanings.
Literature: RL.PK.MA.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about a story or a poem read aloud.
Literature: RL.PK.MA.3 With prompting and support, act out characters and events from a story or poem read aloud.
Language: L.PK.MA.4 Ask and answer questions about the meanings of new words and phrases introduced through books, activities, and play.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Book Appreciation and Knowledge Asks and answers questions and makes comments about print materials.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 6 Listen to a wide variety of age appropriate literature read aloud.
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 10 Engage actively in read-aloud activities by asking questions, offering ideas, predicting or retelling important parts of a story or informational book.
Read Together: My Family Plays Music #1
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Make Connections, Story Comprehension
Before You Read
- Tell children you are going to read My Family Plays Music by Judy Cox--a book about a family that likes to make music with many different musical instruments.
- Help children make connections to the book before reading. Ask, Does anyone in your family like to make music? Do any of your family members play musical instruments?
As You Read
- Point to the different instruments and name them. Have children describe whether the person is beating, plucking, tapping, or blowing the instrument to make sound. Each time point out what the little girl is playing.
- Pause before revealing what kind of a musician the father thinks the girl is (a percussionist). Ask, How does the girl make music? What instrument is she playing? How does she play the instrument? Guide children to use the word shake.
- Review with children the different meanings of the word beat. Focus on the section, “. . . She picks mountain melodies for folks who sit on folding chairs and tap their toes to the spunky beat.” Tap your foot to a lively rhythm and say, Can you hear the rhythm as I tap my foot? I am tapping a lively beat with my foot. Then beat a drum with your hands and say, Beat also means to strike something like a drum. I beat the drum.
After You Read
Direct children’s attention to the Musical Instruments wall. Ask, Can you point to and name any of the musical instruments from the book we just read? Help children by referring back to the book as necessary.
Educator Tip: At the end of the week, you may want to reread the story and concentrate on the type of music each family member plays.