Activities for Parents

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Activities for Parents:

Here are some great activities to do at home with your children:

Build Your Own Xylophone

Do you drive your teachers crazy at school by drumming on the desk with your pencils? Have you ever wanted to be a drummer or a musician? If so, this activity is for you.

What You Need

  1. An adult to help
  2. Different lengths of PVC pipes
  3. Two boards
  4. String
  5. A mallet or small hammer

What You Do

  1. Create a xylophone by cutting PVC pipe into various lengths.
  2. Place them side by side on a frame from the longest to shortest.
  3. Cut two boards the appropriate length to accomadate all the pipes. These boards will make a good supporting frame. The best sound will be achieved by allowing a little less than a third of each pipe to extend off the frame. When you have the pipes the way that you want, tie them on the frame with string.
  4. You can tune your xylophone by cutting the pipes shorter for higher notes and leaving the pipes longer for the lower ones.
  5. Play the xylophone by striking the pipes with a mallet of some kind.


Make a Woodwind Instrument

Have you ever blown across the top of a soda bottle and heard the sound it makes? Here is another type of woodwind instrument you can make.

What You Need

  1. Plastic bottles and jugs of various sizes
  2. A small comb
  3. Paper squares approximately 2 inches by 2 inches

What You Do

  1. Make a "woodwind" instrument by blowing across the top of a bottle. Experiment with various sizes of bottles and you will discover that larger bottles make a lower sound than smaller bottles when you blow across them.
  2. Make a reed instrument using a piece of paper and a comb. Hold a small pocket comb with the teeth pointed toward you. Place a small piece of paper on the comb on the side closest to you, holding it in place with your thumbs. By holding the comb and piece of paper together with your lips and blowing, you can make the paper vibrate which makes a sound.


Shake-It-Up Musical Activity for Kids

Your kids will love to make their own fun and unique instruments in this shake-it-up musical activity!

What You Need:

  • Three teaspoons uncooked rice
  • Dried beans
  • Two empty diet shake cans or soda cans
  • Clear packing tape
  • Pencil
  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Markers or stickers
What You Do:
Put the rice in an empty diet shake can (soda cans don't last as long, but they will work for this project.) Remove the tab and seal the opening with clear packing tape.
If you like, make your own cool label for the can. To make the label, cut a piece of paper nine inches long and four and one-half inches wide. Decorate the label with markers or stickers.
Tape one side of the label to the can. Then make small rolls of tape and stick them between the label and the can. Wrap the label around the can so that the loose end overlaps the taped end, and tape down the loose end.
Put dried beans in the other can, and make a decorated label for that one, too. Try using the rice can for a lighter sound and the bean can for a louder sound. Start shaking

What's Shaking?
Make some more rhythm instruments with your child!

What you need:
  • small plastic bottles
  • funnel
  • variety of noise-making materials, including aquarium gravel, dried beans, dried pasta, rice, sand, Styrofoam peanuts, and small bells
  • masking tape or glue

What to do:

  1. Collect empty plastic bottles. Remove the caps and allow the bottles to air dry before replacing the caps.
  2. Put the different types of materials into small plastic cups or bowls.
  3. Choose two materials that vary in size and place them into bottles, putting enough inside so the material can shake around. Secure the bottle caps with masking tape.
  4. Take turns shaking the bottles. Which sound is the quietest and which is the loudest?
  5. Use the sound bottles as instruments while listening to recorded music, or while dancing or marching to music

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