Today’s activity can be seen displayed as the new banner across the top of this blog.
I printed out a blank piano keyboard for the children to colour. So far E (my 4-year-old) is the only one who has completed hers, so it is her version you see at the top of the page. I gave her suggestions for which colours she should colour each note and showed her where to find them.
Six-year-old L is already working on finding her way around the keyboard, so I’ll be asking her to find all the Cs herself and colour them a certain colour, and so on with D, E, F…
So, day number one and we’re already off course. I had scheduled some shaker-making for today, but the kids had other ideas.
I spent last night setting up a mini keyboard studio in our basement (I’m offering free piano lessons to friends and neighbours over the summer) and when the kids saw the small semi-circle of keyboards they couldn’t resist having a go. So, the three of them set the agenda experimenting with loud and soft (mostly loud!), turn-taking (hotly contested!) and many of the other functions of the various keyboards. Then, as I disappeared upstairs to make the lunch (and escape the noise), I heard them making their own music for musical statues (aka ‘freeze-dance’ here in Canada).
You might not have a keyboard in your house, but why not round up whatever musical instruments you can find and just embrace the noise for a while – even if it’s just a very short while?
I took the kids on a hunt around the house and we found quite a collection of maracas, drums, recorders etc. thrown into various toy boxes (and hidden out of the children’s reach!). The children were delighted to see them all and quickly put together a band – that classic combo of vocals, toy keyboard and maracas.
Today’s suggestion then, in a nutshell, grab some instruments and let those little noise-makers do their thing.
Here’s some noisy Disney fun for your little trolls. See you tomorrow… 🙂
Family and Friends Music Club 