When I was younger I played the piano and clarinet. I know the tiniest bit about reading music and basic instruments. Like most every child who ever took up playing an instrument, I can remember my mom constantly telling me to practice and me constantly not wanting to. One day she spoke words that meant nothing to me then but little did I know how true they were.
One day you will regret not practicing. One day you will regret not sticking with it.
And because I didn’t want to practice, my lessons ended. And, oh, how I wish I had stuck with the piano!
I’ve often wondered if my boys will ever get into playing any type of instrument. There’s so much information on the benefits of children’ playing an instrument even for just a year or so.
Maybe one day I’ll look into it more but for now we had fun just spending the day learning about some different instruments and the musical families they are a part of.
Use What You Have
Teaching about musical instruments without having musical instruments is kind of a bummer. The best I could come up with was the Melissa and Doug toy xylophone. Ha! But, you work with what you have.
So instead, I turned to books and the ever so helpful YouTube.
We snuggled up and read 88 Instruments by Chris Barton. It’s a cute story about a little boy who is trying to find the perfect instrument to take lessons on. It was a great jump start into just talking about different instruments, their size, their sounds and where we might see them. Maybe I’ll pull it back back out if I ever decide to put Liam in music lessons!
Afterwards, we watched a video and played some games to practice what we learned. One of the games was interactive and he has asked to play it numerous times. The other game had him racing the hall against me. 🙂
Even though I couldn’t get my hands on any actual instruments, someone did suggest that we stop in a local music shop. I haven’t been in a music shop since middle school when I had to rent a clarinet but the idea was intriguing.
So we stopped by and took a look around. Even though no touching was allowed it was good for him to see them in person and get an idea for their actual size.
And I ended up buying him a recorder. Ha. I found a class on Outschool so maybe I’ll sign him up for some music lessons after all!!
Overall, nothing too crazy. Hopefully we’ll be able to get our hands on some instruments for the next few weeks as we learn about each of the families for the next four weeks.
What We Learned
By then end of the lesson, they were able to:
- explain the differences of each instrument family
- sort instruments into families
They also now has a good understanding of many new vocabulary words such as:
- instrument
- family
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
Books
See You Soon!
Next week we’re going to start on a month long unit all about colors. Who doesn’t love colors?! We’ll paint, mix, experiment and learn about famous painters and paintings all while focusing on COLORS!
COME JOIN!!
The Whole Year
Check out all about the ENTIRE YEAR of art lessons here.
And don’t forget about music! Find out all about those year long plans here!
Here are some other music lessons you might enjoy:
Lesson 1- Melody, Harmony, Rhythm
Lesson 2 – Musical Instrument Families
Lesson 3 – Percussion Instrument Family
Lesson 4 – String Instrument Family
Lesson 5 – Woodwind Instruments
Lesson 6 – Brass Instruments
Lesson 7 – Mozart’s Life
I come from a line of musician’s on my fathers side, and he got me a keyboard when I was 7. The desire to play was strong at first but after awhile it dissipated. My mom had to get on me to practice constantly, but after awhile the desire to play came back. Now, 30 years later I have six kids and the oldest three are all musically inclined (the other 3 are still young). The way I see it, music is something that when you learn can eventually have similar effects to therapy and self care. It is therefore a non negotiable subject in our homeschool. It’s as important to learn as the 5 core subjects IMO. To be able to play an instrument is a gift you can re open your whole life!
I love this! Now I wish I hadn’t left my keyboard with a friend when we moved across the country! My oldest is five. What age would you recommend music lessons?
Love this! Music is so important for development and learning!
I really like these concepts
This is so helpful! We started our son in music class at a very young age and it has made such a difference in his development. I am going to share these concepts with my son.
This is a great list of resources for teaching about instruments even when you don’t have many! The book looks really cute; I am excited to check that one out!
Ah! This post is fabulous! I didn’t grow up playing music but sometimes wish that my parents had pushed it. I’d especially love to able to play the piano – maybe I’ll use this as motivation to learn as an adult 😁
Music is so important for development. Love this!
It really is!
I love music! I used to play the flute in school and really want to encourage my children to play instruments as they get older 🙂
I remember attempting playing a guitar and trying a flute when i was kid. It did not go well.
I was told I didn’t “have the ear” for guitar. HA!
I used to learn harmunium playing in childhood. I love hearing instrument music.