Music and Early Literacy

Lately, I've been promoting kids and family music as a way to develop early literacy skills. Some of my favorite artists include Ella Jenkins, Hap Palmer, Raffi, José-Luis Orozco, Elizabeth Mitchell, David Landau (a Madison area artist who has excellent rates for library programs - FYI), and the Laurie Berkner Band.

A recent discovery of mine, but an artist who's been around for a long time is Susie Tallman. I especially like the albums Children's Songs: A Collection of Childhood Favorites and Let's Go! Travel, Camp and Car Songs, but she has many others including  Classic Nursery Rhymes which features some diverse arrangements of traditional nursery rhymes.

http://www.susietallman.com/records/childrens/index.html

Earlier in March, Jodie who blogs at Growing Book by Book: Nurturing Our Youngest Readers wrote about kids' songs that build literacy skills.

What are your favorite kids' and family musicians? What songs do you love to use in storytimes? Do you sing? Use a playlist? Share with us.