Rockin' Reading Songs

K-Gr 3—Jack Hartmann's 27 original songs combine body movements, listening skills exercises, and early literacy concepts. Opening with the up-tempo "Good Day," he gets kids up and moving. Concepts covered include the alphabet ("Exercising Alphabet," a technopop arrangement of the "ABC Song, and "Act Out the Alphabet," an upbeat review of letter sounds and a word that begins with each letter), syllables ("Clap, Stomp and Chomp" and "Compound Word Workout"), digraphs (a cha-cha in "Digraph Dance"), and vowels (two versions of "Vowel Sound Hound Dogs"). Other early literacy concepts reinforced musically include onomatopoeia, rhyming, compound words, punctuation, and reading strategies. Hartman includes in a couple of classic songs with a twist: "Rock Out Tooty Ta" (with the kids joining in on the echo calls and refrain) and "New Hokey Pokey Dance" (Hartmann raps to break up this technopop dance, speeding up and slowing down for giggles). Musical arrangements are primarily technopop, rap, or upbeat tunes and rely on gimmicks to keep interest, as few of the tunes or lyrics are particularly memorable. A group of children singing in the backround add kid interest. Selected tracks could be used in classroom to reinforce concepts being taught.—Stephanie Bange, Wright State University, Dayton, OH