Sounds of Music August 29-September2

Music is so magical! 

In Mole Music by David McPhail, Mole imagined that his music could change the world and unbeknownst to him, it did.

 We made music of all kinds. Do you think that we can change the world?

Tapping on the side of a glass with water in it, makes a musical sound. We discovered that different amounts of water made the sound change. Tapping several glasses, we could play a tune. 

A xylophone makes another musical sound. We tapped the "notes" on the xylophone to create a tune.

Our sensory table was filled with popcorn kernels. We had different sizes of containers to fill using spoons and scoops of different sizes. When we filled them to our satisfaction, we put on the lids and did some shaking. The shaking made another kind of musical sound.

A basket filled with all kinds of instruments sparked our creativity as we jingled, shook and banged out a rhythm.

We read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins. Then we used our hands, fingers and thumbs to decorate a cover for our drums.

When they were dry, we tried playing them. Then, we marched around the play yard to the song, "All Around the Kitchen" (even though we weren't in the kitchen!).

Balloons don't make a lot of sound when empty, but we filled some with some rice and then gave them a good shake. We liked the sound they made.

 

We experimented with rubber bands and boxes. We made our own guitars! Stretching the rubber bands over the boxes, we discovered that different sizes of rubber bands make different sounds.

 

 Even animals make some interesting music. We didn't believe it until we read The Animals' Song by David L. Harrison and Snake Alley Band by Elizabeth Nygaard.

Bells make a beautiful sound. Each bell plays a different note so were able to play them together and simultaneously to make awesome music!

Tambourines were next on the list for musical instruments. We used Q-Tips and bright colors of paint to decorate them.

When they were dry, we filled them with beans and stapled them shut.

We turned on the music and shook our tambourines.

We played a game called "Musical Hoops"- kind of like "Musical Chairs". We danced around the hoops to music and when the music stopped, we had to hurry to find a hoop to stand in. We had to listen carefully for the music to stop and start.

Some of us shared a hoop!

We dropped beads into water bottles for some visual music makers. (Great for some eye-hand coordination and small motor control as well:-)) We could "hear" the sounds the beads made when dropped in and shaken, but we could also "see" them make the sound. Once the tops were glued tight we gave them a good shake.

Some of us added stickers for decoration.

Rhythm sticks are fun to use. We listened to "Little April Showers" as we beat out the rhythm of the storm. We also beat out the rhythm of our names.

Our encore of the week was fingerpainting to the music, "Flight of the Bumblebee". In Berlioz the Bear by Jan Brett, Berlioz dedicated his encore- "Flight of the Bumblebee" to the bee that saved the day. 

We buzzed like bees as our hands and fingers flitted around on the table moving the paint and mixing the colors. We started out kind of slow and apprehensive and then got faster and faster as we moved to the music.

 

I believe we will change the world!