Congratulations to Steena Hernandez!!!! You're the winner of a signed copy of HOW TO BE A ROCKSTAR by Lisa Tolin.  I'll send you messages to get you connected. Steena, I know you and your kids are going to love it so much! If you could do a. review after reading I know Lisa will appreciate it!

Join Rekha Rajan (musician, educator, advocate, and author) as we talk about her brand new book (the first in a series of 4) THIS IS MUSIC: DRUMS. We discuss the origins of the series, her heart as an educator, the importance of music AND reading in early childhood and so much more. Thanks to the limitations of Zoom our little drum experience at the end didn't work out, so I trimmed that out, but it's super easy face-face to do your own call and response, allow children/students to keep that steady beat and so much more! ​

While this is a board book, it is NOT limited to Littles.  Sure, it's perfect for toddlers and preschool, but you can also use it with school-age kids, in your family, homeschool, and in the larger school setting!  My philosophy is picture books (including board books) are for everybody! It's a compact little nugget full of lots of ideas for drumming fun!  For even more drumming fun, check out the jam below, and all the teacher tips linked up in those sections as well as in the links section.  There is so much fun to be had.  The words were written by Rekha, the pictures by the talented Tania Yakunova and the book was published by RISExPenguin Workshop.

This fun little ditty matches beautifully with the refrain in this book KEEP THE BEAT!  It's perfect for singing along, playing along,  and practicing that steady beat. The call-and-response makes it super easy for Littles, and it gives them many ways to feel the beat.

There are several things you could highlight from this book in the general ed classroom.

1. Features of text -- There is bold print, different fonts, all caps, and different sizes of text in this book.  It would be wonderful for teaching those aspects of features of text.

2. Onomatopoeia -- lots of sound words throughout the text.

3. Types of sentences -- Because this book is relatively short, and contains multiple examples of different sentence types, that would be a great mini-lesson.  You'll find questions (interrogative sentences), exclamations (exclamatory sentences), and commands (imperative sentences) and even interjections.

Well, obviously, this book is all about drums, so that's the most obvious choice!
Drums/Percussion -- as a musical instrument group. Definition of percussion: instruments that you shake, tap, or scrub. Defining and classifying what are percussion instruments and which category do they belong to would be a great topic to match this book.

There are some different directions you could take the discussion: identifying different drums/percussion instruments and/or various cultures and their various percussion instruments.

Keeping a steady beat.  That is a big focus in the book, so that's a natural direction.  Practice with a variety of percussion instruments, body percussion, and more.  There are so many ways to keep a steady beat and the more children practice, the more adept they'll be in the long run. 

Short, sweet, and super-important, here are Rekha's tips for authors:
​
1. Make a plan to write every day, even if it just one sentence or gathering ideas
2. Find colleagues, friends, avid readers and get feedback (not just from people who love you - like me asking my Mom to read everything and she loves it) but individuals who can help you shape and hone your craft
3. Never give up!

1.  Write a story about  the ____________ drum (biggest, loudest, most unusual . . .)
2.  Write a story with the three different kinds of percussion: things you strike, scrub/rub, and shake.
3.  Write about a drummer that couldn't keep a steady beat.
4.  Listen around you for steady beat -- keep a list of things that make a steady beat.
5.  Write an acrostic poem using using  DRUM, PERCUSSION or STEADY BEAT.
6. Write a poem with a steady beat.
7.  Write about your favorite kind of drum/percussion.
8. Write about a kid who finds a drum in an unusual place.
9. Write about keeping a beat on something very unusual.
10. Write about keeping the beat in the bathtub.

Well, a cake may not be a drum, but it would be the perfect snack to go along with this book!  This one is full of delicious peanut butter and jelly (PBJ) yumminess!  You can find the recipe here and make your own drum-shaped, but not a drum PBJ cake!  I haven't yet, but it's definitely on my list to try!

Congratulations to Cathy Sheafor!  ​You are the winner of a critique from Megan Hoyt!  Congratulations and best of luck with your manuscript! Please tell your friends about PBJamz and come back any time to find out more about picture books with musical connections and leave a comment.  

Everyone stay tuned and come back next week for part 2 -- tons of teacher tips for general education, music education, homeschool, preschool, and family fun!  Tips, a Pinterest board and a YouTube playlist full of amazing ways to use this superfun book!

Lisa and I talk about all the musical connections, parenting, teaching, how to foster creativity, how important it is to learn from our children and students just like they learn from us!  It's important to keep on going, but also important to be willing to be vulnerable and admit that you don't have all the answers.  It's a rich, deep conversation ! 

This book is part instruction manual, part ode to rock 'n roll, part treaty to persevere, and part plain family fun!  Have you ever been in a family band?  Come join this family with siblings who would like to rock the house together.

Perfect for preschool, kindergarten, or any age that enjoys a rockin' edge on their alphabet!   Mr. Al actually has a whole CD of cool rockin' music called "Kids Wanna Rock".  Superfun, and I used it all the time with my second graders when I was in the regular classroom! Here's a link if you'd like to purchase the CD -- lots of old rock standards modified for a kid audience. https://melodyhousemusic.com/shop/music/mr-al-music/kids-wanna-rock/?v=ed5e635ddcfb  I especially like Kids Wanna Rock and I Want Candy.  This song below is awesome too -- a rockin' version of the ABC song.  One thing I especially like about this one is that LMNOP don't get all clumped together in this version.  There are lots of ways you could use it in the classroom (in addition to the obvious way of learning the alphabet). Accompany it with instruments, have kids hold up pictures of things that begin with that letter as he sings.  Use it as an opener/attention-getter for ABC order activity or any alphabet related activity.  Be sure to check out the YouTube playlist in next week's additions to this episode down in the links section.  You'll find more songs and more ways to integrate rock into your regular or music classroom!

1. Silence your inner critic.
You’ll face a lot of criticism and rejection as a writer. You don’t need to join that chorus. Personally, I find running, meditating and free writing help my brain get to a more creative place.
​2. Play.
For me, the best writing comes from a place of joy. Sometimes that means capturing something meaningful or joyful to you on the page. Sometimes that means stepping away for a while and filling your well with non-writing joy.
3. Take a bow.
​Try to celebrate small wins. Even if you get an agent or a book deal, those achievements are infrequent, not in your control, and can take years. Plus they’re usually bookended by rejection. Celebrate finishing a draft or figuring out a revision. Supply your own applause - or drop me a line and I’ll clap for you anytime!

1.  What cool band name would you choose?  Why?
2.  Which is cooler?  Electric guitar, Bass, or Drums?  Explain.
3.  Create a concert poster for your band.
4. Which rock sub-genre is best and why?
5. Where would you MOST like to perform?
6 What does it mean "Always leave your audience wanting more."?
7. Write another "how to" story.

Well, this is a FIRST, and I LOVE it!  When Lisa and I were chatting, she said, "Oh, BTW, I have a great peanut butter and jelly cookie recipe if you want it. . . IF I WANT IT. . . .LOL . . . so this week, a special treat -- a PBJ snack recipe from the author herself!


Lisa Tolin’s PB&J thumbprint cookies (about 30 cookies)
I love this recipe because it’s easy and gluten-free, and it’s now my kids’ favorite!

Ingredients:
2 large eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon kosher salt
16.3 -oz container smooth peanut butter
2/3 cup jelly

​Heat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, vanilla and salt for a few minutes until smooth. (You can use a mixer for this, but it’s not necessary.) Add peanut butter and combine until smooth. Scoop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets. Stick your thumb in the center to create a little thumbprint well (or use a rounded teaspoon bottom). Bake for 6 minutes, then pull out the sheet and add about a teaspoon of jelly to each thumbprint. Stick the cookies back in, rotating the sheets, for another 6-8 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool thoroughly.