Art Form: Music

Supplies Needed

-Thank You, Omu book

Vocabulary

Dynamics - loud and soft sounds; volume

Steady Beat - the consistent pulse or “heartbeat”
of music

Tempo - the speed of the beat

Character - a person in a story or play, or an
animal or object that has human qualities
movements are added one at a time and repeated in sequence (Ex: A, A+B, A+B+C…)

Setting - where the story takes place

Main Idea or Central Message - the main
message of the story

Punctuation - the marks at the end of a sentence
to clarify meaning

Instructions

1. Read the book. Talk about the main idea or central message of the story. Whoare the characters? How do people thank Omu?

2. Find words written in a larger font. Notice that many of these words are repeated throughout the story.

3. Practice reading what Omu says to each new character (“Little boy,” “Ms. Police Officer,” etc.). Notice the punctuation!

4. How would each character’s voice sound (high, low, medium, high to low, low to high, fast, slow, etc.)? Use the character’s special voice to read the response each character gives Omu (“ooooo, stew!”). Notice the punctuation!

5. Find “knock” each time it appears. How could you make a knocking sound? Notice that the number of knocks changes during the story. Will the knocking have a steady beat? Will it be at a fast, medium, or slow tempo?

6. Read the book, using different voices, dynamics, and sounds for the special words (greeting for each character, each character’s response to learning Omu has stew to share, and knocking).

Extensions

Find other parts of the story where sounds could make the book more interesting. For example, what would it sound like when Omu is stirring stew or when she puts down her spoon? What would it sound like when she spoons out the stew? Read the book, adding these special sounds.