Kitchen Rock

When I am cooking dinner I have found that the best activity to keep my children entertained is letting them bang on pots. We call this activity Kitchen Rock and play it often, so I decided to make it a learning experience to help teach my children about music.

Here are a few ideas to help spice up Kitchen Rock:

1. Get out a variety of pans, bowls, and pitchers. You can use metal, plastic, or anything else that won't break.

2. Get out a variety of utensils for your child to hit the pans with (each utensil produces a different sound.)

3. Teach your child about tempo by demonstrating the difference between largo and presto. For an older child you can teach him or her the 7 basic tempo markings:

• Largo -- very slow (40 - 60 beats per minute)


• Larghetto -- rather broadly (60 - 66 beats per minute)

• Adagio -- slow and stately (66 - 76 bpm)


• Andante -- at a walking pace (76 - 108 bpm)
  


• Moderato -- Moderately (108 - 120 bpm)
  


• Allegro -- fast and bright (120 - 168 bpm)
  


• Presto -- very fast (168 - 200 bpm)

Once your child learns the tempo markings you can quiz your child by calling out a tempo and having him or her play that tempo.

4. Teach your child about dynamics by demonstrating the difference between piano and forte. Quiz your child by asking him or her to demonstrate the difference between the two dynamics.

For an older child you can teach him or her about the 6 different dynamic markings:

1. pianissimo/pp (very soft)

2. piano/p (soft)

3. mezzo-piano/mp (moderately soft)

4. mezzo-forte/mf (moderately loud)

5. forte/f (loud)

6. fortissimo/ff (very loud)

5. Turn on different styles of music and let your child play along. Show your child how you would play the pan differently while listening to slow/soft music vs. fast/loud music.

6. Have fun!

Music Activities for Kids

Dancing to Music

Dancing is a great way for your kids to listen to music and to get exercise. In this activity we will be dancing to music in many different ways:

1. Follow the leader. Turn on some music and imitate what the other dancer is doing. See how fun you can make this by turning on different styles of music!

2. Freeze Dance. Turn on some music and randomly stop the music. When the music is stopped, have your kids freeze in place. Now turn the music back on and have your kids dance again.


3. Dance to the tempo of the music. Have your kids move their bodies to slow and fast paced music.


4. Imitate different styles of music through dance. Play many different styles of music for your kids to dance too. For example, turn on a waltz and have your kids waltz around the room. Turn on the nutcracker and have your kids dance like a ballerina. Turn on a march and have your kids march around the house.


5. Have your kids wave scarves, streamers, or ribbons while dancing.


6. Let your kids leap and jump over tubs, cardboard bricks, or other safe objects while dancing.


7. Add on dance moves. Have a child make up a dance move. Have a second child copy the first child's dance move and then add on a second dance move. Have a third child copy the first two dance moves and then add on a third dance move, and so on. See how well the children can remember the order of the dance moves.


8. Turn on a dance video. Let your kids try to imitate what the dancers are doing on the screen. Ballet or hip hop is great for this exercise.

Music Memory Cards

A great way to help to improve your child's memory is to play memory card games. A game my Daughter loves to play is a card matching game.

How to play:

1. Print out the music memory cards (see below). Make sure you print out each page twice (for best results print out the cards on card stock paper).

2. Cut out the cards.

3. Place all the cards face down in front of your child.

4. Have your child flip over 2 cards at a time. If the cards do not match, then flip the cards face down again.

5. If the 2 cards do match, then place the matching cards face up in a pile until the game is finished.

Music Memory Cards

6. Have fun!

Music Activities for Kids

Singing Time

Here is a fun activity you can do to teach new songs and to review old songs with your child:

1. Find a picture for each song your child knows, and find a picture for the songs you want your child to learn.

2. Under each picture type the name of the song that goes with that picture (e.g. under the picture of children dancing you would type Loop de Loo.)

3. Print out each picture onto card stock paper.

4. Laminate each picture (I like to use clear cover self-adhesive covering. You can buy self-adhesive covering at a grocery store for around $4.00.)

5. Cut out each picture.

6. Put the cards into a bag/container and let your child draw songs to sing.

7. Have fun!

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Music Cupcakes

Now that we have learned about note values, a fun activity to do with your children is to practice drawing notes and rests on cupcakes!


Here are some great sites for cupcake and frosting recipes:


Cupcakes
Frosting


Have fun!


I am participating in Family Moment Monday.

Music Activity: Music in a Bottle

Music in a Bottle

Materials needed:

1. 8- 20 oz glass pop bottles

2. Water

3. Food coloring (optional)

4. Tape or stickers

5. Marker

Directions:

1. Put a sticker or a piece of tape on each bottle

2. Number the bottles 1-8

3. Fill each bottle with the amount of water shown below:

Bottle #1 = 7 oz

Bottle #2 = 9 1/2 oz

Bottle #3 = 12 1/2 oz

Bottle #4 = 14 oz

Bottle #5 = 16 1/2 oz

Bottle #6 = 17 1/2 oz

Bottle #7 = 18 1/2 oz

Bottle #8 = 19 oz

3. Start playing music!

Example Songs:

Mary had a Little Lamb

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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

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Old McDonald

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Note: To make the bottle blowing easier use a tube to blow into.

I am participating in Family Moment Monday.

This activity idea is from www.familyfun.go.com.

Music Game: Musical Chairs with a Twist

Original Game of Musical Chairs
Musical chairs is a game in which chairs are arranged in a circle with one less chair than people who are playing (e.g. 5 chairs and 6 people). The game starts with the people walking around the chairs while the music is playing. When the music stops, the people hurry and try to sit in a chair before all the chairs are taken. The person who didn't sit in a chair is out, and one chair is taken out of the circle for the next round.

Musical Chairs with a Twist!
Although the original musical chairs is a blast, my children and I like to play musical chairs with a twist, a game we made up! Musical chairs with a twist is played the same way as musical chairs but one change.

The person who didn't sit on a chair fast enough must answer a question, get the right answer, and then he or she can be back in the game.

The adult running the music will ask the child the question. (The questions can be about anything.) Here is a sample list of questions:

Music history questions: Name a composer from the Baroque Era.

Biology questions: Name the parts of a cell.

History questions: Who was the 4th president of the United States of America?

Music listening questions: Who sang the song we just listened to?

Enjoy playing musical chairs with a twist!

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