I don’t think there is a single mother in the world who hasn’t had a child grab some sort of stick and start banging it on anything they could find. And not just a gentle tap. But the sort of banging and clanging that just seems to cut straight to the area of your brain that creates a headache.
And despite your desire to rip the stick from their hand to stop the incessant noise, you see the biggest smile on your child’s face. They have discovered how to make a percussion instrument and are just so proud of themselves.
What We Did
The past two weeks, Liam has been pointing out songs where he hears melody and rhythm and any kind of instrument that we touched on last week.
That is what makes homeschool so great! Seeing your child take in what they learn and see it throughout their daily life. Honestly, it’s what made teaching in the classroom great as well but that seems like a lifetime ago!
This week we focused just on the percussion family. While it would have been extremely nice to have some sort of real percussion instrument to play on, YouTube is always a second-best resource.
We used the Read Aloud and the printable posters to prompt our discussion and I even had him brainstorm some percussion instruments he already knew.
Now, don’t be confused by “Ringing Rocks”. That is actually a place here in Montana that we had just visited the weekend before. A super cool attraction (in the middle of nowhere like so much in Montana) where the rocks sound like bells or chimes when they are struck with a hammer. I wish I could show you a video!
So, yes, he was correct in saying that the “Ringing Rocks” were percussion instruments. I love when lessons show up in real life!
Art in Music
Then I let him make his own cymbal.
I had gotten out some paint for him to decorate when a great Teacher Moment happened. He told me he didn’t need all the paint…he only needed the three primary colors and he could create the rest.
What?! He actually learned something from our art lesson on Tuesday?!
What We Learned
By then end of the lesson, he was able to:
- explain what makes an instrument percussion
- create his own percussion instrument
He also now has a good understanding of many new vocabulary words such as:
- percussion
- triangle
- high
- cymbal
- drum
My entire lesson plan and the lesson Read Aloud can be purchased here.
Here’s a little secret, though. Any Glue Sticks and Games blog subscribers receive these materials FREE in their inbox each week! So, snag your copy of this lesson and then sign up to get the rest of the year for free!
Other Great Resources
Here are some great resources that are not included in my Lesson Plan but that I felt were still worth mentioning. And I’m sure I’ll come back to these when we have space time throughout our week.
Videos
See You Soon!
Join us as we continue to learn about each of the instrument families!!!
The Whole Year
Check out all about the ENTIRE YEAR of music lessons here.
And don’t forget about art! Find out all about those year long plans here!
Pin For Later
How fun! Totally hear you on loving to get to see them retaining information that you are teaching them. The whole reason we decided I was going to be a stay at home mom now was bc of how much more my 2 year old was learning with me home with her!
This is a really neat music themed lesson. I love the rainbow cymbals!
So fun! What a great lesson plan. I’d add bells and piano to this list. My girls used to LOVE banging on toy pianos when they were little, and our school district starts all percussion students on xylophones, which my older daughter actually likes more than drumming now!
love these lessons too, like every other lesson before
What a fun idea! Music is such an important thing. Both of my kids play musical instruments, and studies show how many wonderful benefits there are.