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Free Music and Instruments Activities, Rhymes, Printables, and Music and Instruments Book Suggestions

 

Instruments

Cut out shapes of musical instruments to decorate the wall. Show children real musical instruments and listen to recordings or instruments from the DsoKids website and library’s collection. Invite a music teacher or musician to bring instruments and demonstrate the sounds each can make.

 

The Finger Band
Original Author Unknown
(Tune: All Around the Mulberry Bush)

The finger band has come to town, come to town, come to town;
The finger band has come to town so early in the morning.
This is the way we play the drums, play the drums, play the drums;
(Pretend to play drums.) This is the way we play the drums so early in the morning.
The finger band has gone away, gone away, gone away;
The finger band has gone away so early in the morning

Continue verses by replacing the "drums" with other instruments: flute, trumpet, piano, violin, etc.

 

Drum Coloring Page	Guitar Coloring Page	Flute Coloring Page	Maracas Coloring Page

 

Music and Movement

Musical Simon Says

What you need:
2-3 different musical instruments
(bells, drum, pots, etc.)

What you do:
Choos a child to be the “leader.” Assign different actions to each instrument. For example, when the leader beats the drum all children need to stomp their feet. Let the leader sit on the floor and place the instruments in front of him/her. The leader plays the instruments and the children need to make the matching movements. Make the game more challenging by adding more instruments and movements.

 

Name that Tune

Play or sing the beginning of a song or a piece of music that children are familiar with and have heard often. Then, have children take turns guessing the title. Do this with three or four different musical selections at a time throughout the week to build auditory recognition skills.

 

Boom Bang (Original Author Unknown)

Boom, bang, boom, bang! (clap hands like cymbals)
Rumpety, lumpety, bump! (drum thighs like a drum)
Zoom, zam, zoom, zam! (slide hands back and forth)
Clippety, clappety, clump! (stomp on the floor)

Note: Repeat verse going progressively faster or slower for a fun variation

 

The Freeze

Let children dance to different selections of music, but explain that when the music suddenly stops, they need to freeze in place until the music beings again. Try using different styles and tempos of music to give children opportunities to move in different ways: slowly, robotically, with animation, like animals, freely, etc.

 

Instrument Craft

Paper Plate Shakers

What you need:

Paper plates
Kidney beans
Stapler
Crayons
Crepe paper in different colors (optional)
Sequins in different colors (optional)

What you do:

Let children decorate the outsides of two paper plates with crayons. Staple each child’s pair of plates together, leaving small openings that can be used to fill the shakers with beans. Once children have added the beans to their shakers, staple shut the small openings. Make sure to place staples close together along the rims of the shakers so that the beans do not fall out. If time allows, let children glue pieces of crepe paper to the edges of their shakers and sequins on one side for added pizzazz and color. Children can use their paper plate shakers during different rhythm or music related activities.

Music and Instruments Books

Ah, Music!	I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello	Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (Aladdin Picture Books)	I See a Song (Blue Ribbon Book)	Max Found Two Sticks (Reading Rainbow Books)
Meet the Orchestra	Mole Music (Live Oak Music Makers)	Music, Music for Everyone	The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart	Opera Cat
Violet's Music	Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf: With a Fully-Orchestrated and Narrated CD

 

Music and Instruments CDs

 

Can You Hear It?	Prokofiev: Peter & the Wolf CD	The Jazz Fly (book w/ audio CD)	Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals