Jazz! - A Storytime Outline

It was that time of year again. I always try to include cultural storytimes every so often (plus, my Administration loves it when we do!), even though they can be the hardest program in the world (in my opinion!). For African American Heritage Month I decided to focus on music, especially Jazz music. It actually was a good program! Yay!

BOOKS
Ben's Trumpet written and illus. by Rachel Isadora 
We talked about the illustrations in this book because it's mostly black and white, with a hint of color, which from an artist stand point is great for the story. The children loved talking about the art as well, which means I can put this book on the "read again" list! 

Rap A Tap Tap: Here Is Bojangles - Think of That! written and illus. by Leo and Diane Dillan 
This was a good book, and the children responded well to it.

This Jazz Man written by Karen Ehrhardt and illus. by R.G. Roth
I actually bought this book because I knew it'd be perfect for the program, especially if I had younger children attending. This was a good book, and I totally recommend it! 

A-tisket A-tasket by Ella Fitzgerald and illus. by Ora Eitan
The children enjoyed this book, and they came up with good theories about the basket going missing and who took the basket. I wasn't expecting that, and it was fun to listen to them talk about it.

SONGS & RHYMES
Open, Shut Them
follow actions
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a little clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap
Creep them, creep them up to your chin
Open your mouth wide, but don't put your fingers in!
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Give a big clap
Open, shut them
Open, shut them
Lay them in your lap.

Old McDonald Had a Farm 
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on his farm he had a cow, E-I-E-I-O
With a "moo-moo" here and a "moo-moo" there
Here a "moo" there a "moo"
Everywhere a "moo-moo"
Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
Continue with other farm animals:
Sheep, Chicken, Pig

Touch Your Nose
follow actions

Touch your nose

Touch your chin

That's the way this game begins

Touch your eyes

Touch your knees

Now pretend you're going to sneeze!

Aaachooooo!

Touch your hair

Touch one ear

Touch your two red lips right here

Touch your elbow where it bends

And that's the way this touch game ends.

ACTIVITIES
Listened to Ella Fitzgerald's "Old MacDonald"
To talk about Jazz in the way chilren could understand is hard. So! We sang the song "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" like typically do. Then I played Ella Fitzgerald's version to introduce the way Jazz sounds. This was a great idea!

Freeze Dance 
Another activity was  having the children do the popular Freeze Dance to a more modern type jazzy song by children's Jim Gill.


CRAFT 
I wasn't quite sure what to make for this program. I decided to have a simple coloring page of a trumpet, but to make it exciting for the children we had to use gold glitter! Who doesn't LOVE glitter (other than the cleaning crew?)!?!?


*Images of book covers were found via www.goodreads.com - here, here, here, and here.