Happy Tuesday, blog readers! It is time for another music activity for you to share with your children at home. Today, we will be helping young children recognize the names and sounds of a variety of instruments. You can try this activity with any instruments you have lying around, but please keep in mind that most children already can identify simple instruments like bells, drums and shakers.
From the Top 10 Tuesday list of instruments under $40 that can help promote music education at home (click HERE to see the complete list), I recommend the following instruments:
(1) Rhythm Sticks .. Available through Amazon.com… Click HERE
(2) The Triangle .. Available through Amazon.com…Click HERE
(3) The Recorder .. Available through Amazon.com…Click HERE
(4) The Guiro.. Available through Amazon.com…Click HERE
(5) The Rain Stick…Available through Amazon.com…Click HERE
The Activity
Once you’ve put together several various instruments, set them out and instruct you child to explore them: play them, feel them and listen to them. Once your child is done checking them out, take one instrument at a time, show it to your child and tell them the name of the instrument. Play the sound for the instrument when you tell them its name, too.
When you have completed this with each of the instruments sitting out, instruct your child to close their eyes. Play an instrument and see if they can name it with their eyes closed. No peeking! If they cannot, don’t get frustrated. Just tell them the name and move on to the next instrument. Continue the activity until they can name them all. If they are getting fidgety, stop and come back to it another time.
With your child’s eyes open, lay the instruments out in front of them. Tell them an instrument name and see if they can point to it. If they are struggling, try to verbally make the sound of the instrument to see if they can identify the sound.
By the time you are done with these simple steps, they are for sure to know the names and sounds of every instrument you share with them all while having a good time. You should feel good that you have shared music with your child!
Thank you so much for stopping by the Tucson Songstress website to help instill a love of music in your child. Don’t forget to to stop by every Tuesday for more musical fun, and click HERE for an archive for previous activities. Until next week, play on!