As some of you may know (and for those that don’t, now you will :), the month of March is also known as National Music in Our Schools Month. Music is a wonderful tool that boosts brainpower, reduces stress, and is, in general, a mind stimulator.
All this goes to prove that listening to (and playing, creating) music is important and not a luxury.
In this blog I’ve collected some awesome music-related activities and crafts that you can do with your kids on a rainy day.
Who knows? You just may spark your child’s love of music!
1. Create homemade instruments
Make way for the homemade band! Give your children 10 minutes to collect small, ordinary household items that they think can be used to create musical instruments. Once the 10 minutes are up, ask them to explain why they collected the items that they have, and have them create the instrument they had in mind. They can create instruments that actually exist, or come up with their own instruments that create music.
You can also create different instruments with them. For example: create shakers by filling empty bottles with rice or beads, or create a drum set with overturned pans and bowls.
2. Musical spoon activity
Grab some metal spoons (old ones, preferably) and get hitting! That is, hitting household surfaces or objects, to hear the different sounds that come out when metal hits different materials. Ask your children to let you know which materials produce a low-pitched sound when they come in contact with metal, which ones create a high-pitched sound, and the like. Be sure to let them know that glass or expensive items (such as electronics, windows, picture frames etc) are COMPLETELY off-limits.
3. Musical chairs activity
Get the place rocking! Set up a row of chairs in the center of the room- in a straight line, or in a circle (with the seats facing outwards). You’ll need 1 less chair than the number of kids playing. Meaning, if you have 5 children playing the game, then only set up 4 chairs in the middle. Turn on booming music and have the children skip around the row of chairs. When the music pauses, they all have to quickly try to sit down onto a chair. The child that’s left standing at the end of the round is out. The last child to remain in the game is the winner!
4. Balloon Dance
This is a game where the children have to be one step ahead of everyone else- literally, of course! Give every child that is playing a balloon to blow up (middle to large size). They then have to tie one side of a string to the knot of the balloon, and the other side they have to tie around their ankle. Put on the music and have the children dance and run around the room. The goal is for them to try popping everyone else’s balloon, while keeping theirs intact. The last child to have their balloon unpopped is the winner!
You can add some excitement to the game by having every child write down a favor on a small piece of paper. After folding up the paper, they should stick it into their balloons, and only then blow it up. If they pop anyone’s balloon, that person will have to do them the favor that it says on the paper (that came flying out of the balloon).
5. Musical Trivia
Let’s see how much your kids know about their favorite celebrities! Put together a list of multiple-choice trivia questions about your kid's favorite celebrities and see who can guess the correct answers. You can even type up the questions on a card, with a picture of the celebrity and the answer on the back (visible only to you). The child that guesses the answer correctly gets to keep that card!
6. Musical limbo
Limbo is a great game that gets the kids moving. All the more so when it’s musical limbo! Have 2 adults (or older children) hold a thin beam at a height where children can easily go underneath it to get to the other side. In the usual limbo game, the kids have to walk (and later bend) to get to the other side. In musical limbo, the kids have to dance their way to the other side without touching the beam. Once all the kids have gone through it the first time, the adults should lower the beam a bit and the kids once again have to dance under it to the other side. If a kid touches the beam then they’re out. The last kid to remain in the game is the winner!
7. Water Xylophone
Teach your kids about sound waves and pitches with this cool activity! Place 4-7 glasses on a table in a line-up. Feel free to do this with less than 4 or more than 7 glasses too! Fill up each glass with water- with the first one having the least amount, the second one having a bit more, and so forth. To add some excitement, you can add food coloring to the water to make a rainbow of colors! Have your child gently tap the first glass with a metal spoon. Listen to and analyze what kind of sound it produces. Continue onto the next glass. Analyze what’s similar to the previous sound and what’s different. Continue doing this with all the glasses. You can even have them tap on all of them, one after the other, and enjoy the “tune” that emerges!
8. Paper plate tambourine
Create your own REAL tambourine!
You’ll need:
- 2 paper plates
- Hole puncher
- Yarn
- Gold bells
- Markers
Instructions:
- Place the 2 paper plates one on top of the other. The inner part of the plate (the part you eat out of) should be facing inwards.
- Hole-punch holes around the rims of the plate, skipping an inch and a half between holes.
- Thread the mini gold bells onto the yarn, spacing them 2 inches apart.
- Thread the yarn through the holes of the plates, making sure to include the bottom and top plates so that they get “sewed” together. Decorate your tambourine with the markers.
- Create some music!
9. Homemade straw flute
Create your own flute out of straws!
You’ll need:
- 8 straws
- Scissors
- Scotch tape
Instructions:
- Line up the 8 straws on a table, one right next to the other. Leave the first straw as is.
- Take the second straw and cut off 1/2 inch from the bottom of it.
- Take the third straw and cut off 1 inch from the bottom (that means 1/2 of an inch + 1/2 of an inch).
- Continue in this direction for the rest of the straws.
- Wrap scotch tape around the top of the flute and voila! there's your own flute!
10. Bake-along, Sing-along
Get the mixing bowl ready! Choose from your favorite Baketivity kits and have a bake-along, sing-along party!
You can make delicious snowball cookies, awesome pudding pie towers, or our fantastic Positivity kit . The goal of the bake-along, sing-along party is to conduct any conversation you have while baking through singing. That means that if you want your child to pass you the flour, you have to sing it. If your child needs your help mixing, they can ask you to help- but they need to sing it! Add some spice by having a playlist playing in the background. When someone speaks, I'll need to be in the tune of the song that's playing.
So what's the takeaway?
Music is great, Music is fun,
Music is for everyone!
So keep singing, keep dancing and keep baking the world a better place!
