Creativity Corner: Soundzabound - Creativity Abounds

by Terry Shay

Martha Stewart from Soundzabound, a provider of a subscription-based, royalty-free music for education projects, contacted me to let me hear a new volume of music called Epic Moments. I was so inspired by the music, I could immediately start writing stories in my head of the action that would go along with the music. That gave me an idea, what if I challenged classes to come up with a story, using the storytelling arc, based on the music?

I chose third grade because they were finishing a fairly challenging time of learning to read music and I thought some creative fun was needed. I played them the music in the volume, each class chose one selection and started writing the story. I felt that the backward engineering of finding the story in the music would help them see the utility of music in movies and TV. I also felt that sharing the storytelling arc would help them with future writing endeavors in school.

The results are viewable below. One class chose to tell the story of a lonely girl who comes in to a kickball game. The other class chose to have a boys vs. girls battle, which ended up to be pretty funny. If your school has access to Soundzabound, try it out. You can also use any music, but you will need to be careful about posting them due to copyright.

The Shy Girl

Day of Reckoning

Information about Soundzabound purchasing: Iowa, Wisconsin and Utah have state licenses. Individual schools can purchase licenses, check HERE for more details.

On The Horizon

HARBOR ME by Jacqueline Woodson – Nancy Paulsen Books due out August 28, 2018. A clever teacher creates a room for special students to just talk. What they learn is fascinating, heartbreaking and heart mending.

BOOK BUZZ

SNAIL MAIL by Samantha Berger and Julia Patton

MORNING BOOK CLUB

Clowey graduated from North Tama School in May, but before she left, she picked her favorite books from the last three years of the morning book club.