Index:

• Music Curriculum Recommendations
• Music Reading Recommendations
• Internet Resources for Music
• Music Appreciation Unit for High School Credit

Music Curriculum Recommendations

• My favorite resource for teaching music appreciation to K-8 (and high school students who have little interest in music) is The Story of the Orchestra Book & CD by Robert Levine. This 96 page book comes with a CD. Students listen while they learn about the instruments, the music, and the composers who wrote the music. It covers composers from the Baroque Period, Classical Music Era, Romantic Era, and Modern Era. It covers strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and keyboard. The illustrations are kid-friendly. Use this as a weekly or monthly music program. The book and CD will keep you busy for a year or more, depending on the interest of your children. Highly recommended for the reluctant music student. For students who enjoy music, this may only last a week or more! ISBN 1579121489.

• Another resource I like is Spiritual Lives of Composers by Patrick Kavanaugh. Excellent for students in grades 6-12. Twelve composers are discussed: Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Wagner, Dvorak, Ives, and Stravinsky. The easy-to-read text provides a brief biography of the composer along with information about how his faith affected his music. Excellent. A highly recommended addition for your personal library. ISBN 0310208068.

• Making Music by Ann Wiseman. Lots of fun for PreK - 5th+. Learn how to make musical instruments from milk jugs, coffee cans, coat hangers, cork and other things around the house. If you like to have fun and enjoy crafts or have a Kinesthetic Learner, you need this book.

• Music Appreciation course for high school credit.

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Music Reading Recommendations:

• 101 Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck. ISBN 0825434165.

• Opal Wheeler Books. All the books were written in 1940s and are now back in print! These are wonderful! - I'm so glad they are back in print! Check them out:
  • Mozart, The Wonder Boy
  • Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia
  • BEETHOVEN CHIMING TOWER BELL
  • JOSEPH HAYDN MERRY LITTLE
  • Franz Schubert by Opal Wheeler (Still out of print)
  • Frederick Chopin, Son of Poland by Opal Wheeler (Still out of print)

• The Chimney Sweep's Ransom, Trailblazer Series #6 (John Wesley) . ISBN 1556612680.

• Devil on the Deck* by Lois Dick (Out of print but well worth locating to add to your library.)

• Getting to Know the World's Great Composers series by Mike Venezia. These short biographies are 32 pages long, illustrated with lots of pictures, and have easy-to-read text. K-5+ (Example: George Gershwin. ISBN 0516045369)

• Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times, and What the Neighbors Thought by Kathleen Krull. Doesn't always paint a rosy picture but VERY interesting. 5th+

• The Runaway's Revenge, Trailblazer Series #18 (John Newton) . ISBN 1556614713.

• Spy For The Night Riders, Trailblazer Series #3 (Martin Luther) ISBN 1556612370.

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Internet Resources for Teaching Music:

• Create your own homemade musical instruments.

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