Tutor Courses
MAKING MUSIC TOGETHER – PARENTS AND CHILDREN
Courses
Resources
History
General aims of these sessions:
Look at opportunities to include musical ideas in the home Be more aware of music all around us Listen more carefully and bring sounds to the attention of their children Have fun together making music with their children Express their ideas and extend their vocabulary
| Topic | Content |
|---|---|
| 1. Can you hear the music? | Brainstorming where music is heard, e.g., home, car, shops, concerts, church, street corners. Different kinds of music. Sample instruments, sounds they make. Trying out different rhythms/patterns. Clapping hands, tapping feet, snapping fingers, drumming along with pieces of music. |
| 2. Creating home-made instruments | Using a selection of recycling items that can be made into instruments. Coat hangers, old carpet tubing, packaging tape, string, empty plastic containers, rice, metal boxes, etc. Making an instrument and creating a piece of music together. Sharing other ideas about what can be used to create music at home. |
| 3. Singing songs | Using the voice to create different sounds. Creating harmonies with sounds. Exploring songs that parents and children like. Writing down words of favourite songs and sharing. |
| 4. Music all around us | Naming and listing sounds and rhythms in everyday life outside of music. Exploring the rhythm of these everyday sounds. Composing a piece that includes a variety of rhythms to play as a group. |
| 5. Expressing our experiences | Sharing the name of a piece of music remembered from childhood and memories it holds for them. Making connections between music and personal experiences. Reviewing work done over previous weeks and blending work together. |
Websites
http://www.kinderart.com/teachers/9instruments.shtml
Topic 2: Create new musical instruments
Materials:
Coat hangers
Old carpet tubing cut into various lengths
Packaging tape
Empty plastic bottles
Coloured permanent markers
String
Pasta
Scissors
Pencils
Rice
| Task | Suggested Activities |
|---|---|
| Tools and safety | Introduce tools and create an awareness of safety issues especially with children in the class, e.g.,space between each person and adult supervision when using scissors. |
| How sound vibration works | Use a coat hanger and two long strings, which are tied at opposite ends of the flat wire part of the hanger. Tie a loop at the end of the strings hanging down from the hanger. Hold hanger by putting a finger from each hand through the loops. Put your finger in your ears. Hanger is hanging down. Tutor hits each hanger, and you feel how vibration travels. Connect all hangers together and tutor hits hangers, all feel the vibrations together as a group. Choose a word to describe the sound they heard. |
| Make a drum | Choose a piece of carpet tubing. Cover one end with packaging tape. Make sure it is firm. Check what sound it makes with your finger tapping on the tape. Order drums in higher and lower sounds in a row. Play various rhythms together. Decorate drum individually. |
| Making other instruments | Partially fill old containers with rice/pasta, seal and hear how they sound using different rhythms and volume. |
| Review work done | Ask everyone to give an opinion on the class, and any ideas they have to improve instruments. |
Literacy Links:
Extending music and sound vocabulary
Listening to/following instructions
Group participation
Interpreting non-verbal signs/ signals
Expression fact, feelings, opinions
Communicating about past, present, future activities
Numeracy Links:
Using tools to measure and cut materials
Using estimating skills
Filling different amounts into tubes
Ordering tubes
Identifying patterns in rhythms
Making patterns
Counting rhythms
Using maths language to describe music, e.g., less/more, louder/softer, longer/shorter
Ordering drums according to sound patterns