As we continue to consider 'music all around us' we felt it might be an appropriate time for the children to both create and play their own instruments using everyday objects. We first watched a short video clip of a trio of child musicians; one playing the banjo, one the violin, and one the guitar. We talked about what we could hear and noticed that each of the instruments had strings which the musicians plucked in order to produce musical sounds. We looked at a real guitar and the children saw that it had a hole cut into it, with strings positioned over the hole. We then showed the children a couple of stringed 'instruments' we had prepared, made out of shoe boxes and rubber bands. The children had fun playing the home made guitars, experimenting with the sounds they could make by plucking the rubber band 'strings'. The stringed 'instruments' are now in class for children to experiment with whenever they choose. Later on in the week, we watched a clip of another instrument, the maraca. In the clip we watched, the musician demonstrates a surprising number of ways this simple instrument can be used to create different sounds. Then it was time for the children to make their own maracas. I first showed the group the plastic bottles we had collected, along with a variety of different items that they might choose to put inside to produce sound, including beans, rice, corn and pasta. I demonstrated how to put the different 'ingredients' inside, before putting the lid on tightly and then shaking so we could hear the different sounds that each item made. We tried singing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' while I shook the homemade maraca in time to the music. The children were then invited to each create their own instrument. First they experimented with putting a handful of one item inside their bottle to hear what it sounded like, and then repeating with each of the others. Each child then chose the item, or combination of items, that they most liked the sound of, before trying out their new maraca. Finally, each child chose a coloured piece of tissue paper to wrap around their bottle and paint over with glue, resulting in beautiful looking instruments. Now the collection of maracas are in the classroom, and can be used when we are singing, during music lessons and can also be used to keep the beat when reading books that include a rhythmic pattern, such as 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear' or 'Incy Wincy Spider'.
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