Great Instrument Books

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss

We meet the symphony in this gorgeous, exuberant book. The "strings all sour, the reeds implore, the brasses roar with notes galore"! I just loved reading this one. I was amazed how aptly the author was able to describe each instrument as it was introduced with perfectly chosen alliterative words. I also loved the bright, and a bit wild, water color paintings. By far our favorite book this week.



Music by Carol Diggory Shields

Whimsical rhyming riddles are paired with richly textured paintings of 12 different instruments that, when you lift the flap, you discover are also 12 different animals. An accordion caterpillar and bagpipe bullfrog both make their appearance in this clever book.

When Uncle Took the Fiddle by Libba Moore Gray

Everyone is tired, even the brown dog, but then Uncle reaches for his fiddle and before you know it everyone is up on their feet. Rich with rhythm and fun onomatopoeia's this book had me wanting to jump up and dance as well. And the soft color pencil illustrations, set on wide expanses of white, really show off the movement and fun of the characters.

I is for Instrument

Circle Time

Instrument Songs and Stories and Instrument Books

Activities
Scissors and paper for cutting
Sound matching game
Coin Slot
A selection of instruments
Peg Board

Art Study
Mandolina y Guitarra by Pablo Picasso

Snack
Icecream cones

Arts and Crafts
We made a rain stick

Cooking
Homemade cinnamon rolls with Icing

Other
We also listened to lots of instrumental music of different varieties throughout the week, including classical, jazz, bluegrass, and even hard rock (String Tribute to Tool).

A friend came over with his guitar and showed us how it works.

Making A Rain Stick

There are a lot of options, as far as home-made instruments go. Drums and rubber-band guitars are both really fun and popular options. But we have a pretty good drum already, and I didn't have any rubber bands in the house (or any shoe boxes). So we decided to make a rain stick.


First you need to gather a paper towel roll, some aluminum foil, some rice or dried beans, an an old drawing or painting your child has made.

We dont use paper towels, so I actually taped two toilet paper rolls together. Then Zeke crinkled up the aluminum foil into a long long snake, and then I coiled it. We ended up using 2 lengths of aluminum foil as long as the one pictured below to make a nice tight coil.

Then we put the aluminum foil coils into the tub, and covered the ends.
I traced the paper towel roll on Zeke's old drawing and then cut about a quarter inch around the circle. Then Zeke made cuts all the way around, as far as the traced circle. The tabs this created were then able to be folded down over the roll.

Dont forget to pour some rice or beans into the tube before you cover the second end!! (We almost did.)

The rest of our crayon drawing we glued all the way around the tube- for easy decoration.

Sound Matching

To create our sound matching game, Zeke and I filled 2 of each of these eggs with different materials we picked out of the kitchen -rice, pepper corn, ect. We kept the colors the same, since I thought Zeke would be confused by eggs that looked different yet sounded the same. I've seen other people make this same game with film canisters, however, that all look identical. That would be ideal for an older child, forcing them to rely on sound only to match them. I suppose you could do the same with eggs, if you had enough eggs of the same color?

Either way, we had a lot of fun putting this together, as well as talking and playing with our shakers in the days after. They are great for shaking in time to music, playing memory, and just plain matching.

Instrument Songs and Stories

Only one this week.

This is the Way
This is the way we beat the drum, Beat the drum, Beat the drum
This is the way we beat the drum, here in the band

This is the way we toot the horn, toot the horn, toot the horn
This is the way we toot the horn, here in the band

(continue with other instruments)