Look! We're Learning!

Early Learning. Happy Teaching.

  • Shop
  • Printables
  • Homeschool
  • Crafts
  • Parenting
  • Blog
These gorgeous children's books about composers are a perfect addition to a music history lesson!

Children’s Books about Composers

November 28, 2017 by Selena Robinson 16 Comments

10 Children's Books about Composers - Look! We're Learning!

We’re getting into our study of classical music in our homeschool lessons, so we’re sharing children’s books about composers! These are perfect for circle time stories or unit study resources, especially if you want your kids to learn more about the music and the lives of these musicians.

While there are classical composers in this list, there are also kids’ books about modern composers, including the great Duke Ellington! If you enjoy these stories, be sure to check out the Duke Ellington unit in our ebook “We Got Jazz”!

These gorgeous children's books about composers are a perfect addition to a music history lesson!

Children’s Books about Composers

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.

One of the most interesting things about many classical composers is that they often began their musical careers while they were still children. Mozart began composing at the age of five. Five! That’s some serious inspiration for kids who are interested in music. 🙂

Some of the activity books include coloring books and unit studies about composers. In fact, Stories of the Great Composers is one of the resources we’re using in our homeschool curriculum this year!

Picture Books about Composers

  1. The Extraordinary Music of Mr. Ives: The True Story of a Famous American Composer – Joanne Stanbridge
  2. George Frederic Handel – Mildred Clary
  3. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue – Anna Harwell Celenza
  4. Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince And His Orchestra – Andrea Davis Pinkney
  5. Secret Lives of Great Composers: What Your Teachers Never Told You about the World’s Musical Masters – Elizabeth Lunday
  6. Sebastian: A Book About Bach – Jeanette Winter
  7. The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint-George – Hugh Brewster
  8. Becoming Bach – Tom Leonard
  9. The Story of the Orchestra: Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, Music, and the Composers Who Wrote the Music! – Robert Levine
  10. Why Beethoven Threw the Stew (And Lots More Stories About the Lives of Great Composers) – Steven Isserlis


Books about Composers for Kids to Read

Nonfiction and Activity Books about Composers

  1. Stories of the Great Composers – June Montgomery & Maurice Hinson
  2. Getting to Know the World’s Great Composers: Ludwig Von Beethoven – Mike Venezia
  3. Great Composers Coloring Book – John Green & Paul Negri
  4. Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? – Yona Zeldis McDonough & Carrie Robbins
  5. Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz – Stephanie Stein Crease
  6. World of Composers: Verdi – Greta Cencetti
  7. Peter Tchaikovsky: Getting to Know the World’s Great Composers – Mike Venezia
  8. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – Anna Harwell Celenza
  9. 18th Century Superstar: Mozart (Time for Kids Nonfiction Series) – Georgia Beth
  10. Johannes Brahms: Getting to Know the World’s Great Composers – Mike Venezia

Learn about music history as a family with these gorgeous children's books about composers!

Do you have any favorite resources for introducing classical composers to kids? Do you have any suggestions for great children’s books about composers? Let us know in the comments!

If you enjoy these stories, check out our other ideas for teaching music and art to homeschoolers!

Mozart Composer Study for Kids

Art Study Coloring Books for Middle Schoolers

And don’t miss your chance to learn more about introducing kids to jazz with our We Got Jazz unit study ebook! It’s packed with over 120 pages of music history and activities about jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, and more!

We Got Jazz eBook - Look! We're Learning!

For more tips to make your kids into readers, check out my Reading for Kids board on Pinterest!

Want to get more ideas for making homeschooling fun? Sign up for our email newsletter to get plenty of homeschool tips and resources in your inbox!

This post is part of The Massive Guide to Homeschool Reading Lists by iHomeschool Network! Click over to read tons of awesome booklists shared by my fellow homeschooling bloggers!

ReadingLists

Mozart Composer Study for Kids

Mozart Composer Study for Kids with Zeezok!

March 11, 2016 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I got into listening to classical music in my tween years. My mom went and bought some classical cassette tapes (remember those?) and played them for weeks on end.

While I grew to love classical music, I never really got to know much about the composers themselves. Which is why I was so excited to have the opportunity to review the Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades program from Zeezok!

Not only do you get to hear classical music, you and your kids get to learn about the lives and experiences of the masters, which greatly influenced their work. Take a look at how the program makes music education a snap and how we used it to complete a Mozart composer study!

Disclosure: I received this product for free and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

Mozart Composer Study for Kids

How Zeezok Makes Composer Study Simple

Teaching classical music can seem rather complicated, especially if you’re new to homeschooling or if your kids don’t really love history. But Zeezok’s Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades really makes it simple.

Here’s how the program can handle some of the common objections homeschooling parents might make:

  • It’s too hard to plan my own lessons. Lesson planning is a serious time investment for homeschoolers. But Zeezok’s program already has the lessons planned out for you! There are weekly reading assignments, projects, and worksheets ready to go!
  • I don’t know enough about classical composers. As I mentioned above, I didn’t either. But the books and workbooks are so thoroughly written, I ended up learning about these composers right along with the kids!
  • I can’t get my kids to enjoy listening to classical music. When you mention “classical music” to your kids, you might not get the most excited response. Let’s face it: Kids are more likely to listen to Bieber than Bach. But the Zeezok Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades program gets kids involved in learning about the composers, which makes them more interested in hearing the music they wrote.

Zeezok Composer Study Homeschool Curriculum

As you can see, the Zeezok Book 1 Collection includes composer studies for seven musicians: Beethoven, Paganini, Schubert, Bach, Mozart, Handel, and Haydn. Each composer has a chapter book with lovely illustrations and a set of weekly lesson plans in the workbook.

There is also a lapbook CD, which has lapbook printables for each composer, and a multi-disc music collection featuring works by all seven composers. It’s an amazingly complete curriculum.

Mozart Composer Study for Kids

For our first composer study, I decided to go with Mozart. Since he started composing at such a young age (five years old!), I thought he would be more relatable, especially for my boys.

Mozart Composer Study Materials

The Mozart book is entitled “Mozart, the Wonder Boy” and it’s a lovely, well-written chapter book about Mozart’s childhood, career, and early death. It’s written in a very kid-friendly tone, but it doesn’t mince words about Mozart’s problems, including his financial issues and his sickness.

We used it as a read-aloud and the kids really enjoyed it. As we read each chapter, we’d turn to the corresponding section in the Music Appreciation Book 1 workbook and complete the activities.

Mozart Instruments Composer Study

Mozart played several instruments and the Music Appreciation Workbook lists them all. Some of them like the clavier and the clavichord are no longer in common use, but some of the other instruments are.

To hear these instruments, we visited the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Kids website and listened to the sounds of the harpischord, organ, piano, and violin. The organ was the favorite by a long shot. 🙂

Towards the latter part of his career, Mozart branched out into writing operas, including “The Marriage of Figaro”. Since my kids knew almost nothing about operas, we read the section about the story in the Music Appreciation Workbook.

Mozart Composer Study Opera Lesson

Then we watched this Opera in Brief video to try to understand what happened in the plot.

It was neat for the kids to learn that opera is not always serious. It can be funny! Plus, it’s impressive to realize that composers can write what is basically a sitcom, except set to music and sung live in Italian. That takes talent.

We love using lapbooks and I was really enthralled with the Mozart lapbook, which is included in the Lapbook CD. You just print the pages and follow the directions.

Geography Lesson for Composer Study

One of the first activities in the lapbook is a geography minibook that lists countries and cities that Mozart visited. The country minibook is good for younger kids, while the city minibook suits older children. Since our boys were making the lapbook along with Tigger, we printed both geography minibooks and let them complete both separately.

As the boys found each country on our giant wall map, they ran back and drew a line from the name to the place on the map. Tigger did the same with the city minibook.

Country Composer Study Activity

Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, so we decided to learn more about the town and its history. This Rick Steves clip was super helpful.

Can I just run away and live there now? So, so beautiful. My boys weren’t that enthralled with the scenery, but they really liked the funicular railway. To each his own, right?

Making a Mozart Composer Study Lapbook

Now that we had a better understanding of Mozart’s early life, we started working on the timeline in the Mozart lapbook. Tigger sorted out the life events and glued them in the correct spot in the minibook.

Mozart Composer Study Lapbook Timeline

It was so tragic to learn that Mozart only lived to be 35. It’s astounding to think of how much music he produced in such a short period of time.

Finished Mozart Composer Study Lapbook

And our lapbook is complete!

If you think this was extensive, let me just add that this only shows a few of the activities for the Mozart unit. Plus, there are units for SIX other composers! Zeezok’s Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades is truly a comprehensive music curriculum. We’re looking forward to using the rest of the program through the rest of this school year!

Stock your homeschooling library with the Book 1 Collection from the Zeezok online shop!

Mozart Composer Study with Zeezok Music Appreciation

Get a chance to win Zeezok Music Appreciation for the Elementary Grades in the company’s giveaway! To enter, use the widget below!

Entry-Form

Now’s the time to score the Book 1 Collection for 10 percent off! Through March 25, save 10% on the program with the promo code ihomeschool16! Get your set now!

To learn more about Zeezok’s product offerings, follow the publisher on social media!

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

How We Teach by iHomeschool Network

Music Fun Subscriber Freebie

July 24, 2015 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Hi everyone! I’ve got a new subscriber freebie today! 🙂

We love music in our family. And this year, I am determined to help my kids learn to play an instrument. Exactly which instrument is still undecided. They change their minds on that fairly often…lol.

But we’re definitely incorporating more music education this year, so I made a new printable pack that’s all about music! And, for a limited time, it’s free for our newsletter subscribers!

Music Fun Printable Pack

Music Fun Printable Pack

This printable pack includes flashcards for 12 different musical instruments (classic and modern), plus 12 unlabeled cards for memory practice. There are also coloring pages featuring different instruments and instrument identification pages with handwriting practice!

We’ll be using the pack along with listening activities for each instrument and videos that show how they are played. Maybe someone will finally pick one instrument and stick with it…lol.

This Music Fun printable pack is available absolutely free for our email subscribers through the month of August! Just sign up using the form below and claim your freebie! If you’re already receiving our newsletter, you’ll receive a copy in this week’s edition. 😉

Music Fun Printable Pack

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Format

Big Book of Homeschool Ideas

5 Choices for Homeschool Art and Music Curriculum - Look! We're Learning!

5 Homeschool Art and Music Curriculum Choices

August 23, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Our children love art and music! Tigger is extremely interested in dance and playing music. Roo and Pooh love drawing and painting. So, we try to find good art and music curriculum choices to keep them interested.

If you’re searching for homeschool art and music curriculum, check out these five options to add both subjects to your weekly lessons!

Keep Reading…

The Living History Series: Duke Ellington

March 7, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy for details.

If you’ve been following along with our blog for a while, you’ve probably caught on to a recurring theme in our Living History series for the past few months. We’ve learned about Nat King Cole, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Miles Davis so far. Naturally, we’re focusing on giants of jazz! Of course, we can’t do a jazz series without talking about Duke Ellington, so he’s our focus for March. 🙂

I’m a little more familiar with Duke’s work than I have been with the previous artists in the series. I’ve heard his music pretty often. In fact, “In a Sentimental Mood”, which is one of my favorite jazz songs ever, was on an episode of The Cosby Show. I’ve loved that song ever since.

 We’ll be learning more about Duke Ellington’s life, career, and legacy this month, and we’ll be using some of the books below to help the kids get to know his music.

Books about Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra

Duke Ellington: His Life in Jazz with 21 Activities (For Kids series)

Duke Ellington (Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers)

Stay tuned to find out how you can grab our Duke Ellington Biography Unit!

Printable Miles Davis Mini-Unit @ Look! We're Learning!

Miles Davis Biography Mini-Unit

February 28, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

Good morning y’all! We made it through yet another week! 🙂 It’s the end of the month, so it’s time for another entry in the Living History series! This month we’ve been learning about Miles Davis.

Miles Davis had a comfortable upbringing, but a very troubled life. Ironically, his experiences seemed to help him grow and change as a musician, which is what led to his extremely long jazz career. He also made some terrible choices, eventually managing to rebuild his life with the help of his family and his love for music. He is most certainly not a role model, but his perseverance in the face of serious problems offers a great lesson for kids.

We’ve put together a free Miles Davis Biography Mini-Unit that you’re welcome to use with your family! In this pack, you’ll find:

  • A kid-friendly biography of Miles Davis
  • Review questions to help kids remember what they learned
  • A Miles Davis crossword puzzle
  • And copywork based on an interview with the jazz great!

To download your copy of the Miles Davis Biography Mini-Unit, click the image or link below!

Miles Davis Biography Mini-Unit: Look! We're Learning!Miles Davis Biography Mini Unit

The Living History Series: Miles Davis

February 10, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.
Image courtesy: Tom Palumbo via Wikimedia Commons

We’re feeling “kind of blue” this month, so it’s time to learn about famous jazz trumpeter Miles Davis for the Living History series! Besides knowing that his name is almost synonymous with jazz, I don’t know much about Davis at all. I can only remember hearing one or two songs of his, so he’s next on our list!

Speaking of “Kind of Blue”, here’s one of the songs from Davis’ landmark 1959 album called “So What”. This one features John Coltrane on the tenor sax. (In fact, Coltrane will be one of our future history series figures.)

As part of our unit, we’ll be reading a few books about Miles Davis this month, including:

Lookin’ for Bird in the Big City

Milestones: The Music And Times Of Miles Davis

Miles: An Autobiography by Miles Davis

The Miles Davis Reader

Come back on February 28th to see what we learned about jazz legend Miles Davis!

The Living History Series: Ella Fitzgerald

December 5, 2013 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Hey everyone! Finals are nearly over and I can finally breathe again, so I’m back! 🙂 It’s a new month and that means it’s time for a new Living History figure! This month, we’ll be learning about jazz great Ella Fitzgerald.

When I was young, I remember hearing my mom speak about Ella a few times and I remember seeing her on television during the 80s. I’d never seen her name written out, so I always thought her name was “Elephants Gerald”…lol.

A few years back, Jay and I were watching PBS and we came across a live performance of Ella singing with Frank Sinatra. I was stunned at how powerful her voice was and how she could just sit down and sing without looking like she was even trying.

Here she is with Sinatra performing “Goin’ Out of My Head”:

See what I mean? She’s just sitting there and yet her voice is wayyyy up in that high octave! Not many singers today could hit those notes even if they strained.

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about Ella other than what I saw on TV, so it’s time to get to know her better. Here are a few of the books about Ella Fitzgerald we’ll be using this month:

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald by Bud Klimet

Ella Fitzgerald: A Biography Of The First Lady Of Jazz

Ella Fitzgerald: The Complete Biography of First Lady of Jazz, Updated Edition

Be sure to stop back by on December 30 to see what we learned about Ella Fitzgerald’s life and career this month!

Hi! I'm Selena, a teacher and a veteran homeschool mom to four. I'm so glad you're here!
About Me Contact Terms of Use Privacy Policy Places I Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instagram
Homeschool Printables Unit Studies Shop the Store
Copyright ©2023, Look! We're Learning!. All Rights Reserved. Design by Pixel Me Designs