BridgingApps just published the following BridgingApps Reviewed App on the site:
The Wild Symphony app is a free, multi-sensory app that was created to go together with a book of the same name by author, Dan Brown. The app uses Augmented Reality or “AR” technology and is available for Android, Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. To use all functionality of the app, it should be used with the physical Wild Symphony book. However, the app can be used on its own, allowing users to listen to the recordings of orchestra music that accompany beautiful illustrations from artist Susan Batori.
Dan Brown is the well-known author of “The Da Vinci Code” and other novels, but he is also a composer of music. His parents were trained musicians, and he grew up without a TV and a LOT of classical music. Dan says that music is a “sanctuary” for him growing up and remains a spark for his creativity and imagination. The idea to compose Wild Symphony came from a walk Dan took near a marsh where he heard all different kinds of frogs singing. When he got home from his walk, he composed a piece of music called “Happy Frogs” and wrote a poem to go with the music. He enjoyed this process so much, he went on to do the same with other animals and the Wild Symphony was born. Dan says that he wanted to create a “layered experience” for people by combining poetry, art and music. His goal in creating an app to accompany the book and the music was to engage young people and interest them in music.
Wild Symphony Developer Website
BridgingApps Reviewer and Field Elementary Librarian/Reading Specialist, Pamela Esquivel, shared her thoughts on the app. As a teacher librarian in a prek-5th grade school, I really enjoyed using Wild Symphony with all of my students. It is the rare picture book that engages ALL of our scholars with such excitement! We took 2-3 class periods to read this page as students learned about instruments, the job of a maestro, elements of music, and animals.
My youngest students spontaneously used whole body movement to engage with the music, while other students picked up pencils and started conducting! While I am far from a music teacher, we did briefly discuss types of instruments and certain elements of music such as the beat and tempo.
All students commented on the rhyming animal poems and some focused a great deal on Maestro Mouse’s moral on each page. We have always had socioemotional lessons during library time and this has been especially true during COVID. Maestro Mouse’s focus on perseverance and self-care hit home. We played “I Spy” to find the bee as well as the letters on each page. My older students enjoyed the solving anagrams, while my youngest simply found letters. Either way, they were super focused!
Click on the link below for the full review:
https://search.bridgingapps.org/apps/a34a62e8-7b46-4e67-9316-7df0dca95f08
Many thanks to Dollar General Literacy Foundation for supporting this project.
