Creating Your Own Songtale Book
There are many times I would like to make a quick book to go along with a songtale or a longer song. Whether I am trying to project images to help the students learn the song or I want to have the words on the screen so the students can read it better than if they were in a book, being able to have an ebook is helpful. However, what if there isn’t a songtale or ebook available for the song that you are teaching?
Canva
Canva can be a wonderful solution! There is a free version of Canva that gives you limited access to all of the digital content in Canva. However, if you are an educator, you can use your educator’s email address to sign up for Canva for Education - a pro version of Canva for free! You then have access to many of the pro version’s items like photos, videos, audio, and graphics, and you can integrate Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Google Classroom so you can share assignments and activities with your students.
Mittens And Gloves
Mittens And Gloves by Anne Ellsworth/Teresa Jennings can be found in Music K8 Volume 22/2. This song is very cute and perfect for winter for your youngest singers. However, since my youngest singers are beginner readers or not yet reading, the movements that are included with the song help them learn to sing it. However, I wanted to begin this song as a songtale that I would sing at the end of the class. I then wanted to introduce it with pictures or a book. Since I could not find one, I created one using Canva.
I wanted to project it onto the screen so all of the students could see it well. In order for it to look and act like an ebook (seeing the pages turn, etc), I used Book Creator and placed the images from Canva into Book Creator. To do that, I downloaded the images from Canva as png files. I then opened Book Creator and created a blank ebook template instead of using one of the premade templates. I uploaded each image onto a page and voila! Instant ebook!
The images were intuitive to find in Canva. I just put in the search tool some of the keywords from the lyrics and the images were there. It took very little time. Once uploaded to Book Creator, I finished the ebook by publishing it to a private link.
Book Creator
I have written about Book Creator numerous times. My students and I love creating ebooks about musicians, songs, instruments, how-to books, and so much more, by using Book Creator. You can begin with the free version and create up to 40 ebooks. When you want to do more, like publish more books and have students collaborate together, then the subscription would be a better fit.
I am a Book Creator Ambassador and have used the app since 2015.
Process (in bulleted points)
I started with Canva for Education and found pictures to go along with the lyrics.
I typed in the lyrics.
I downloaded the file as png files.
I opened Book Creator and started a book with a blank template.
I dragged and dropped each image onto each page.
When finished, I published the ebook so I could use it in any classroom that I am teaching.
End Product
Here is how the book turned out. I did not add the music as I want to promote going to Music K8 to purchase it as a single or a part of Volume 22.