Families of Musical Instruments

 

 

These are by far the boys favorite thing to do in the classroom.  I need to expand the material and add more information about each, but time is never on my side. 

 

I made these in my toddler training about 5 years ago.  My trainer, Judy Orion, does a lot of work in Japan and came across someone who made these beautiful and simple cd's for her toddler environment.  Each cd consists of an instrument by itself and then that instrument played within a musical piece.  The child tries to identify that particular instrument in the piece.  It makes for quite the fun game.  (I really think the true reason the kids like these is to hear the woman speak Japanese in between the pieces!)  Hey, if this is how I get a second language in there, great!! Ha  Our Swahili practice is pretty dead.  Hopefully they will get enough from their dad in that area.

 

We have four musical families represented below.  It is not a complete list.

 

Percussion Instruments include the xylophone, bass drum, snare drum, timpani, and the cymbals.

 

Stringed Instruments include the harp, double bass, violin, cello, guitar, and piano,

 

Brass Instruments include the French horn, trumpet, tuba, and trombone.

 

Woodwind Instruments include the piccolo, recorder, bassoon, clarinet, flute, and oboe.

Here are the boys listening.  They usually raise their hand when they hear the instrument on the case.  If you look closely, Bubs is holding the case for the bass drum. (Gotta love Montessori and the idea of dressing yourself at a young age.  Anyone else notice Nito's shirt is inside out?)

Here is a close up of one of the cd cases.  I just found the pictures online and printed the labels from a word document, then glued them to a blank cd holder.  You can buy a pack of these at Wal-Mart inexpensively. 

 

Kui loves to listen as well, but I expect more from her.  She should be able to identify the instrument with little difficulty.  She has worked with these for a few years.  She does extended work with the history behind the instrument families and the additional instruments that belong to each family.  The list we have is limited, but a great start for those young eager listeners!