Tuesday Book Club - Ear Worm! by Jo Knowles

Check out this ADORABLE book that just came out! Ear Worm! by Jo Knowles and illustrated by Galia Bernstein is a book about those little tunes that get stuck in your head. In the book there is a little worm that has a song stuck in his head. As the worm is "walking" around, trying to figure out where the tune came from, each friend it meets has a different ear worm they are singing. Ultimately, they all come together to make beautiful music.

Ear Worm by Jo Knowles - Click to get the book!

The possibilities are endless with this musical book! 

You could easily just read it and have fun with each of the ear worms our worm friend comes across.  

Peak inside the book- Focused on the Owl and Chipmunk Ear Worms 

One way to extend and make the book even more musical is with an orffestration! I made one (click HERE to get it!) that includes pitched percussion, such as xylophones and glockenspiels, as well as unpitched percussion.  In the sheet music, the unpitched percussion is listed as a conga (but it could be any drum), maracas (but a cabasa would also be awesome for this one, too) and jingle bells. It also includes a little song with lyrics from the end of the book.  Feel free to use whatever you think would sound awesome if you decide to try out my orffestration - or make your own! 

Orffestration Preview

As we all know, teacher-made orffestrations can be fun, but it is even more awesome to have the kids make it up! Split your class into 5 groups and then give each an animal. They can then give their animal's ear worm a melody using a Xylo set up in pentatonic, unpitched percussion, or use chrome music lab in the pentatonic mode. You choose or they choose! Once each group has created their melody and mastered playing/ saying you can combine them all together as one great big ostinato song!  

Either the teacher-made orffestration, or student-made song would be an adorable performance piece.  Ideas are already spinning about an Ear Worm themed concert. Not only could you perform this book, but also perform songs/ routines to other "Ear Worm" songs.  Bruno, anyone???