Our little girl (7 years old) has been wandering around Effy’s workshop since… forever. So, as the world is confined home, here’s a series of tricks that can come up handy to keep our little ones engaged, creative and busy.
Create instruments, play and sing your own song!
Effy’s workshop is filled with junk. Things that our little one “must, absolutely must” keep. Junk she obviously never play with. Junk sleeping around the workshop as she dances around in Effy’s custom made dresses instead. So I have an handy trick to keep her musical drive ongoing, while cleaning up the mess: to build up instruments and record songs! An example?
‘Un Jour A La Plage’
By Jasmine & Kwoa, using shell clappers, water pipes, empty 5L water barrel, homemade drum set, and real keyboard.
Alike our previous card extension, this activity helps to develop kid’s creativity & autonomy while providing new fun. In a nutshell:
- age: easy (from 1 yo+)
- adult support: needed to record, and supervise depending on “instruments” to build and to use
- time: 30~60 minutes to make simple instruments // endless hours playing with newly created instruments
- material: random junk, tape, drawing material (pencils, paint, scissors…)
Step 1: Collect your junk and identify potential.
There are two ways to go at it. First, you can have your little one collect all the random junk and then decide what can be done with it. Otherwise, you can first decide which instrument you want to make before scavenging for junks to build them.
Overall, music instruments can roughly be grouped into: percussion, wind, string and the rest. A quick table to summarize below:
| Percussion | Wind | String | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Containers (bottles, can, boxes, …) | X | X | X | X |
| Small items (Shells, caps, pearls, …) | X | X | ||
| Tubes (Straws, toilet rolls, …) | X | X | ||
| Strings (Shoe lace, strings for necklace, old phone cords, …) | X | X | ||
| … |
Step 2: Build instruments.
Internet is an endless source of inspirations, with countless tutorials to help you craft and build instruments. Some very good examples below:
– Felt magnet: Music Instruments for Kids to Make
– Kinder Art: Easy Make Musical Instruments
In our case, we did:
Egg & Sand Maracas Shell & Cardboard Flamenco Castanets Toilet Paper Roll, Toothpick & Beads Rain Stick Toilet Paper Roll, Toothpick & Beads Rain Stick
– Maracas from plastic Easter eggs & beach sand she brought back last summer.
– Rain stick from tooth picks (which somehow find their way into her pockets when we go in restaurant), toilet paper rolls & plastic beads from a game set she no longer play with.
– Flamenco castanets (clappers) from shells she likes to dry and keep and cardboard.
– Water pipe from straw, water and old glass pots.
– Guitar type from broken badminton racket.
– Drum set from old milk powder barrels, empty 5L water barrels, ceramics masterpiece from her school activities, borrowed kitchenware and chopsticks.
Step 3: Start playing and recording!
Now, with your new instruments in hand, it’s time to start playing. As for the recording part, we used Audacity free software (official site). To do so, you just need to download it and you’re all set. We then used computer microphone to record each instrument in sequence.
1. First, we start recording a basic rhythm with the drum set, to set a baseline. The baseline makes it easier for her to play along with other instruments after.
2. Then, she goes on her own improvising as she sees fit. The software is simple enough for her to record / rewind / play / delete / add after some quick introduction.
Step 4: Sing along!
Final step, and a fun one, improvising some lyrics. Some of her masterpiece below, with translation for non-french speakers.
Hopefully this idea will keep your little ones occupied for some time, while helping them to express their creativity! We would love to receive your songs and pictures, so do not hesitate to leave a message or contact Effy & Kwoa ([email protected]).
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[…] no age to start creating and organizing a treasure hunt. Alike our previous card extension and song making, this activity helps to develop creativity & autonomy in a very fun way. In a […]