Christina Koutroulakis

Dr. Sheryl Smith-Gilman

EDEE-253-003
March 1, 2021
Annotated Bibliography

Hancocks, H. (2018). ​Ella Queen of Jazz. ​London, UK: ​Frances Lincoln Children's Books.
[inclusive book]
Ella Fitzgerald loved singing and performing the blues and her music started getting more
popular across America. Her band started traveling and performing at different venues except the
most popular place in town that refused to let her play because of her skin colour. She thought
her career was over but with the help of her friend Marilyn, she convinced them to let her play at
the venue. When she did, everyone was blown away as she proved them all wrong. She went on
playing the blues and winning awards like “First Lady of Song”, while strengthening her
friendship with Marilyn Monroe.
This story introduces the injustices of racism in a way that can be presented to kindergarteners,
as treating someone differently based on their skin colour. It exposes us to Ella Fitzgerald’s life,
story, and music. It can be followed by a lesson centering around listening to her music and
showing real pictures of Ella and Marilyn. The class can practice identifying what the blues is,
what makes her music the blues, and what instruments they can hear in the songs.

Hayes, A. (1991). ​Meet the Orchestra. ​Boston, MA: ​Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
[information book]
The book follows different animals and the instruments they are playing at the orchestra. It
provides details on specific instruments, how they sound, how they are played, and which
instrumental families they belong to. The author transmits this information through poetic
language (“Its song can be bright as laughter, light as air, soft as a whisper…”). Kindergarten
children are learning about different instruments through rich language and imagery.
This book is informational yet engaging for kindergarteners as it follows an imaginative
storyline. Throughout the read-aloud, students can share what they think the instrument is, their
experience with it, as well as describing how it sounds using words. This can extend to an
activity of classifying pictures of the instruments into different groups. Students may observe
instruments that have strings or instruments that you hold with your hands. They will be
prompted to group them however they observe, leading into a lesson on the different groups of
instruments. The teacher can also play the sound of an instrument and have the students describe
what it sounds like and what the instrument is.
Hood, S. (2016). ​Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. ​NY: Simon
and Schuster Books for Young Readers. [story book].
Ada lives in a town in Paraguay where almost everyone she knows works at the garbage dump
searching for recycled items. She has an interest in playing music, and so her grandmother signs
her up for music lessons. There are not enough instruments for all the students in the class to use
so Ada’s teacher starts making instruments made out of recycled material found in the garbage
dump. Soon all the students had recycled instruments, and Ada chose a violin. She was
determined and kept practicing this violin, and soon the class was traveling playing shows in
their recycled orchestra!
This book shows that problem-solving, persistence, and determination are important for
achieving goals. Students will also learn how anything can become music. As an extension
activity, students can be like Ada’s teacher and bring in recycled materials from home. The class
will make musical instruments as a Makerspace activity. This can also be done outside, as
students can be challenged to make instruments and find music using outside materials and the
environment.

Orleans, I. (2001). ​Animal Orchestra. ​NY: Golden Books.

[language book]
All the animals in town are getting ready and going to see the orchestra. The different animals
are playing the different instruments; seals on violins, giraffes on cellos, and the hippo conductor
leading the group. The animals performed a musical number and the book shows them playing
the different parts of the song. At the end, the audience was amazed and congratulated them on
the performance.
This book showcases rhymes that focus on students developing their phonological awareness.
During the reading, the teacher can use different reading strategies like fill in the gap and choral
reading so that students can participate in finding the words that rhyme (“Up to the platform each
animal went, and proudly carried his instr​ument​”). An extension activity can be bingo where
there are images of instruments on the card. The teacher will call out a word and the students
must find the instrument that rhymes with that word to check it off and make their bingo.
Students are practicing phonological awareness, along with identifying the instruments.