MusicKit & Mr. E's Virtual Music Classroom

Music Activities and Resources for Kids and Teachers
promoting music literacy

On Jan. 27, 2006 WE CELEBRATED Mozart's 250th Birthday! in music and literature now He's 253!

Websites to celebrate

Mozart's Music

Mozart Books to Read

Mozart Activities

Mozart and Benjamin Franklin (Ben is celebrating his 300th birthday this year - and there IS a connection!)

Websites....

• A Rembrance of Mozart birthday's past... The author's (Kit Eakle's) memories of celebrating Mozart's 200th Birthday in 1956.
• Watch and listen to excerpts from the Magic Flute This site, is a promo for a gorgeous, but expensive book ($75) - but the link will take you to a scene by scene synopsis, complete with beautiful pictures and the excerpts from the Stokowski recording of the Magic Flute. Highly Recommended
• Read an online story of Mozart's Life with music... This site, developed for a Colorado Mozart festival, is a great telling of Mozart's life suitable for all kids. Highly Recommended - Be sure to scroll down to navigate to each page! You might want to download all the music ahead of time, as it is an old site and the music is NOT embedded - you go to a new page and have to navigate back.
• Mozart's life story at another BEAUTIFUL site for slightly older kids with an online bio of Wolfgang, several complete recordings of Mozart works, a complete list of compositions. Highly Recommended
  
• Another fun Mozart site for kids. a bit cuttered and haphazard, but fun to explore.
  
• Make a MOZART cake (NOT a cake to be made by kids, but they'll eat it! Another Mozart Cake. You can scroll down this page for a pictorial on how to make it. Or you can Order one from Vienna Here!
  
• Go to the Mirror Room in Schönbrunn Palace where Little Mozart played for Empress Maria Theresa and gave her a big kiss!

Mozart's music

• Order Mozart music for classroom or school ensembles from PepperChoral Music
  

  	Classroom Resources Choral Music Concert Band Music Orchestra Music Instrumental Music Vocal Music

• Mozart's Dice - Mozart wrote a minuet in which all the bars could be randomly interchanged to create many thousands of different compositions! A new composition could thus be created by throwing dice to choose each bar of music. Go here to learn more and create your own "Mozart Minuet!

Mozart books

Books listed here are Who was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Mozart: Scenes from a Childhood; Mozart Finds a Melody; Mozart Tonight; Introducing Mozart; and a list of other books at another site

Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

by Yona Zeldis McDonough, Carrie Robbins (Illustrator)- A factual Mozart book of anecdotes aimed at upper elementary. A bit dated with poor quality paper.

Mozart: Scenes from a Childhood by Catherine Brighton well reviewed but difficult to find. I currently have it on back order.

Mozart Finds a Melody - by Stephen Costanza A delightful Mozart book which tells a story of Mozart and how he gained inspiration from a bird to write his Piano Concerto #17. It is NOT a true historical account, and that should be made clear to kids reading it. However it is a delightful tale that gives a flavor of Vienna and Mozart's time. It also uses historical facts in that Mozart actually DID have a pet starling that he said could sing the theme the his 17th Piano Concerto in Gmajor. A good excuse to listen to the work after the kids read the book!

Mozart Tonight - by Julia Downing The story of Mozart and the premier of Don Giovanni. A delightfully illustrated and dramatically told tale.

Introducing Mozart - by Roland Vernon A factual introduction for older readers - grade 5-7.

KOO7's Library - A long list of Mozart books. Scroll down half way to find children's books’.

Mozart activities: Play dice with Mozart! Mozart wrote music by throwing dice. You can make your own composition from Mozart here. Here is another version of the same game! Here is an ONLINE MOZART QUIZ! Try it! Play the Glass Armonica Here! (see the Benjamin Franklin connection below) Listen to MANY Mozart programs celebrating his birthday and learn ALL about him at NPR (National Public Radio). You can even DOWNLOAD them to listen on your iPod! Listen to NPR programs from SALZBURG , Mozart's birthplace, all year long celebrating his birthday, including many live concerts. Again - download for your computer or iPod. Listen to Mozart at Classical Kids online - this is a syndicated kids music radio program broadcast on many classical music stations. Here many programs are archived and can be listened to on your iPod or computer. Radio OpenSource is celebrating the birthday. Listen Here! Mozart and Ben Franklin and The Glass Armonica: Ben invented an amazing musical instrument and Mozart wrote music music for it! Find out all about the Glass Armonica HERE! Play the Glass Aronica online. Listen to Mozart's last piece of chamber music written - you guessed it - for glass armonica! Glass Armonica links

Book and CD are NOW AVAILABLE The Book and CD are available from ALL independent booksellers. (bookselers may order from distributors BOOKPEOPLE and Baker and Taylor) A CD is INCLUDED with singing the story!!! IF YOU LIKE this book PLEASE tell a friend and ASK YOUR local BOOKSTORE to carry it!!!! Also NOW available at MUSICKIT.COM: LISTEN TO THE MUSIC: A Classroom Classical Music Listening Program Listen to the Music contains listening activities and descriptions of 42 works by a wide variety of classical and modern composers. Composers include: Bartok, Vivialdi, Mozart, Handel, J. S.Bach, Ravel, Debussy, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, ClaraSchumann, Ravi Shankar, Duke Ellington, Villa Lobos, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Benjamin Britten and more... The book includes thematic indeces for classroom themes, special holidays and musical concepts to help teachers plan classroom activities.