Music Makers

As a final activity, the children created musical instruments and then used their instruments to make music during group time. The children were asked which instrument they would like to create; empty containers and pipe cleaners were handed out accordingly. The children were given options of materials to place inside their shakers and the children who were making bracelets were shown how to slide their pipe cleaner into the loop on the bells.

After all the children were done creating their instruments, these were used for group time where the children sang songs: Green Speckled Frogs, You Are My Sunshine, Frere Jacques (in various languages), If You're Happy and You Know It, I'm A Little Tea Pot and The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The children learned about the ukulele as I played along with the children using their instruments and we all sang the songs together. Some of the children even made their own songs and languages

The materials that we used to make our shakers and bracelets

Materials

• Pipe Cleaners

• Bells

• Plastic Cups

• Scissors

• Plastic/Tin Containers

• Clear Tape

• Beads

• Sequins

• Rice

• Gems

• Googly Eyes

Learning Objectives & Outcomes

The objectives for this activity are for children to practice their self regulation skills - behavourial and attentional - to regulate their attention, emotions and behaviour by focusing on specific patterns of the music while using their instruments. The outcomes of this activity include having phonological awareness by making up sounds and songs and auditory awareness through exploring the different patterns to make with the musical instruments while utilizing self regulation skills.

Sections outlined in Early Learning for Every Child Today:

ELECT 2.2 Self- Regulation

ELECT 2.5 Regulating Attention, Emotions and Behaviour

ELECT 3.10 Phonological Awareness

ELECT 5.4 Auditory Skills and Music

During the activity, the children shared songs they knew in their own language after listening to me sing the same melody of Frere Jacques in Vietnamese for a song titled as 'The Butterfly Song' and one of the educators singing Frere Jacques in Dutch. The children sang the song in English, Mandarin and in languages they made up called: Zucchini, Cucumber, 'Tertato', and Boo.

The children kept the instruments they made to use in the classroom!

Reflection & Outcome

This activity successfully captured the children's engagement and focus as the children continuously sang along to songs and used their instruments. Some children were motivated to share their version of 'Frere Jacques' in other languages, from Mandarin to languages the children made up. This reflects the children's pride in sharing their languages and their positive disposition in learning through music.

Strategies I used for this activity to foster the children's inquiries were: hand over hand guidance when demonstrating to the children how to weave the pipe cleaner through the loop on the bells, offering suggestions that encourage the children to think of solutions to their problems (how can they fix the pipe cleaner so that it can slide easily through the bell loop), and providing materials bit by bit to regulate the amount of materials used.