All that jazz - a great new picture book for Rio - "Steve Goes to Carnival"

With the Olympics coming up, it is great to discover a new picture book that is set in Rio. This would be a terrific companion text for Herman and Rosie.  

You can read my previous post about other books that set the context for Rio and jazz here and preview my resource for Herman and Rosie here or by clicking on the image on the right.  Free teaching notes for Herman and Rosie are available here.

Steve Goes to Carnival is a vibrant story set in Rio de Janeiro.  Steve is a gorilla who lives at a zoo in Rio. In the evenings, he listens to jazz on the radio with his friend, Antonio the zookeeper. One night, Steve is feeling a little lonely and so he lifts the latch of his cage door and goes off to search for Antonio. At the tram stop outside the zoo, he finds a hat — the perfect disguise. Steve climbs aboard a tram and rides down the hillside, past the favelas and into the city. 

It is carnival time in Rio! Fireworks explode in the sky and sequinned dancers shimmy along the avenue. ‘Feliz Carnaval’ cry the sambistas. Steve follows the sounds of a saxophone and discovers his friend Antonio playing in a quartet at the Blue Jaguar Jazz Club. When a beautiful dancer steps on to the dance floor, Steve takes her by the hand. They twirl and
twist to the music until suddenly, Steve’s hat falls off to reveal he is a gorilla!
Calmly, the dancer puts Steve’s hat back on his head and they spin this way and that way, this way and that way, all the way to dawn.

Steve goes to Carnival is a collaboration between Joshua Button, a young Indigenous artist from Broome and his mentor, Robyn Wells. Joshua is descended from the Walmajarri people of the East Kimberley in Western Australia. Robyn has a degree in Fine Arts and has lived in the Kimberley for many years. She is passionate about enabling young people to express themselves through language and art.

View images from the picture book here and on the publisher, Magabala Books' home page here.  

Teaching Ideas

• Research the animals in the zoo that are named in the story (e.g. jaguars, elephants, howler monkeys, sloths, anteaters, lions)
• Explore the actions (verbs/processes) of the animals in the story (e.g. pace, stretch, hoot, chatter, whoop, holler, lick, wend, trumpet..)
• Match the 'action words' (verbs/processes) to each of the animals
• Sequence the events in the story
• Discuss fiction and non-fiction texts
• Explore personification (e.g. "the old yellow tram shudders")
• Investigate noun groups and adjectives (e.g. the anteater's "long, sticky tongue" a "wide-brimmed hat")
• Discuss alliteration (e.g. "sloths sway slowly", "twist and twirl")
• Match the actions/sounds of the instruments to the nouns (e.g. the "piano tinkles", the "double bass pounds", the "saxophone wails", the "singer hums and trills")
• Explore the language specific to the setting of Brazil (e.g. sambistas, 'Feliz Carnaval', Entra Senhor, saxofonista, Rio de Janeiro, favelas, fireworks, sequins, feather headresses...)
• Locate Brazil and Rio de Janeiro on a world map
• Investigate the subject specific vocabulary relevant to a jazz band (e.g. saxophone, bass drum, tambourine, trombone, double bass, piano, trumpet, samba whistles...).

If you are lucky to live in the north of the Western Australia, you may be able to attend the Book Launch of Steve Goes to Carnival in Broome on Friday 24 June.  Find out more here.

To celebrate the launch of the new picture book Steve Goes to Carnival, I have created a freebie that includes bookmarks and a compare and contrast activity for both Steve Goes to Carnival and Herman and Rosie.  

You can download your free copy at my TPT store here, or by clicking on the image below. Please leave feedback if you do download this freebie.  Please also share this post with your networks - sharing is caring!

Have a terrific week everyone!

"Herman and Rosie" and Earth Day freebies

Earlier this year I blogged about picture books to support Jazz Appreciation Month. Check it out here.

Well, excitement plus!!! The focus for National Literacy and Numeracy Week (NLNW) 2014 in Australia includes free teaching notes and activities for using "Herman and Rosie" in the classroom. National Literacy and Numeracy Week is celebrated this year between the 25th - 31st August.  You can access the free teaching notes for different year levels (K-8) here or by clicking on the image below.  

You can access the NLNW website here.  They have excellent free teaching notes for numeracy all around the environment, rubbish and recycling which would be great for Earth Day - check them out here. 

Other ideas and resources for picture books about jazz including "Herman and Rosie" are available through my previous blog post here and here's another YouTube link.

Have fun with these!

Jazz it up! Ideas for Black History Month and Jazz Appreciation Month, plus more!

Hi everyone

I stumbled across the most amazing series of picture books which I just love, that may be useful for Black History Month (or African-American History Month which is celebrated in February) or for Jazz Appreciation Month (which is celebrated in April).  Free lesson plans for Jazz Appreciation Month are available here and  ideas for celebrating Black History Month can be found here.

I am joining up with Paula again for her Storybook Sunday.  Please click on the image below to check out the other picture books shared this week.

The picture books below have great rhythm and "scat" language, which I am sure students would love.  These titles come with a backing CD for reading along with the rhythm of jazz.  This sent me on a mission to find other companion texts with a jazz theme and that is my focus of today's post.  The first two titles are the ones from the series I have already mentioned:

I only have two titles in this series and I love them both equally.  The jazz phrasing in each text is based on scatting which was first applied by the early African-American musicians to jazz music.  These titles would be great for integrating children's literature, music and history.

When I was reading, "The Jazz Fly", by Matthew Gollub,  I made a connection to "The Wonky Donkey" by Craig Smith; "Tough Cookie" by David Wisniewski  and "Private I. Guana" by Nina Laden.  Clicking on the links above will take you to YouTube clips of these other titles.  Sometimes my connections are pretty eclectic, so perhaps you may have different ones.  You can check out resources based on "Tough Cookie" or "Private I. Guana" in my TPT store here. The "Private I. Guana" resource is part of my Detectives resource with the 4H reading strategy.

   

When reading, "Freddie Frog and The Flying Jazz Kitten" by Sharon Burch, I made connections to "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" when the elephant was crossing the bridge and thought this text would also be great for studying rhyming words, directional language and onomatopoeia.  I was thinking that students could improvise on this text using environmental sounds from the school grounds.  These are terrific texts for choral reading or readers' theatre in the middle years to support fluency.  The rhythm is infectious!

A sample video of "Freddie Frog and the Flying Jazz Kitten" can be viewed here - or scat singing of the story here.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I did :) You can view a student performance of "The Jazz Fly" by students in Queens, New York, here or you can view a information about the genre of jazz here.

So then I started to investigate other picture story books that could be used as companion texts around the theme of jazz.  The titles reviewed in this post will enable you to integrate children's literature, music and history in a highly engaging and creative way!


1.  "Herman and Rosie" (2013) by Gus Gordon.  This is the story of two lonely characters in a large city.  Herman liked playing the oboe and Rosie loved listening to her old jazz records and singing in a jazz band.  They both liked watching films about the ocean.  This is a lovely tale about loneliness and friendship and how music can bring people together.

You can view a book trailer here.  The  background music is great!  Free teaching notes are available here and for all different year levels as part of Read for Australia here.

2.  "Cats' Night Out" (2010) by Caroline Stutson.  Set in the city, the cats start to groove to the beat on Easy Street.  This is a foot-tapping, finger-snapping counting book, where readers can count by twos and find the total number hidden somewhere on the page.  This text features cool cats, in pale pink tuxedos and poodle skirts who love to dance.  This is a terrific text for studying rhyming words and field-specific vocabulary, such as "samba", "boogie", "blues", "tango", "tabbies", "fox-trot", "rumba", "polka", "conga", "waltz" and "riff".  I had to really look closely to find some of the hidden numerals on each page!  A terrific text for counting by twos.

3.  "Hip Cat" (1993) by Jonathan London.  I just love the illustrations by Woodleigh Hubbard.  This text is about cool cats digging hot jazz - a story full of dreams.  The story has a really cool message which encourages children to do what they love and to work at it to the best of their abilities.  It is the story of a hip, saxophone-playing cat who heads to the big city to seek fame and fortune.  It also includes the language of scat.

4.  "Jazz Age Josephine" (2012) by Jonah Winter.  Based on the life of Josephine Baker (see YouTube clip here). Information about Josephine Baker, including project ideas, history and additional links can be found here.  From a literacy point of view, this text would be great for teaching adjectives, repetition and slang.  A story tinged with the sadness of racial discrimination, but also one of hope and overcoming the odds and overcoming poverty and racism.  A brief biography is included at the back of the book.

 5.  "This Jazzman" (2006) by Karen Ehrhardt. This is a terrific innovation on the traditional "This Old Man" with a jazz twist. You can view a YouTube clip of the song "This Jazzman" here. It would be a terrific mentor text for innovations and also for choral reading to develop fluency.  The music in the YouTube clip is fantastic, featuring many instruments used in Jazz.  A free curriculum guide and other links and information about the book is available here.  Readers are introduced to characters such as Stachmo, Bojangles and Charles Mingus, which provides a wonderful introduction and opportunity for further research.

6.  "The Bebop Express" (2005) by Steve Johnson.  In this picture book, a train makes its way from New York to New Orleans, celebrating jazz music along the way.   These notes include other possible companion texts not mentioned in this blog post.  Again, this text would be great for choral reading and also for studying rhyming words, verbs and topic-specific vocabulary, with wonderful illustrations featuring instruments used by jazz musicians.  You can view a YouTube reading of the text here.  It's super to demonstrate the rhythm of the text.  Free ideas for this book and others are included here as part of the Chickadee Awards. 

7.  "The Sound that Jazz Makes" (2000) by Carole Boston Weatherford.  The lyrics have a wonderful rhythm.  The story moves from the origins of jazz, through slavery to freedom and the emergence of jazz.   Carole Boston Weatherford's poetic text is perfectly matched with Eric Velasquez's powerful oil paintings to celebrate the history and legacy of jazz.  A YouTube reading of the text is available here.  This text again lends itself to studying rhyming words and topic-specific vocabulary.  The YouTube reading has wonderful background music relevant to different times in American African history.  The picture mentions some of the greats from the origin of jazz - another invitation to do further research, perhaps.  I just love this final quote, "Jazz is a downbeat born in our nation, chords of struggle and jubilation., bursting forth from hearts set free in notes that echo history."

8. "Jazz Playground"  is a musical compilation that introduces children to examples of the musical genre of jazz which began in the United States and has since spread around the world. Students visit nine countries on six different continents and hear some of the most common jazz instrument combinations (saxophone, piano, bass, drums, guitar) in addition to some more unique instruments including violin, flute and the West African balafón. There are many kinds of jazz including swing, ragtime, Latin, bebop and boogie woogie, but whatever style and whatever country or continent jazz comes from.  A free teaching guide for "Jazz Playground" is available here.

9. "Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane" (2008) by Carole Boston Weatherford is a picture book which explores how the sounds John Coltrane heard as a child influenced his musical compositions, playing, and style. You can listen to the first part of a documentary about John Coltrane's life here and the second part of the documentary here. 
Free lesson ideas are available here.

10. & 11. There are two different picture books with the same title "Jazz Baby" by Carole Boston Weatherford and "Jazz Baby" by Lisa Wheeler. A YouTube read aloud of the first text can be found here.  Free teaching notes for "Jazz Baby" and other titles including "Pete the Cat" are available here.  A song version of the second title can be found here, to the tune of "Rock Around the Clock".

 An annotated bibliography which includes some of these titles and many more is available here.

Even if you don't celebrate Black History Month or Jazz Appreciation Month, I hope you have found some ideas to integrate music, history and children's literature into your program.

I would love to hear from anyone who has used these picture books in their classroom, or any other ideas others have for inspiring children through music and children's literature. 

All the best
Kylie