#Music math level 1 how to

Glasses filled with different amounts of water вЂ“ tap with a spoon.

Paper plate shaker вЂ“ staple two paper plates together and fill with rice or beans.

Toilet paper roll shaker вЂ“ fill with rice or beans and cover the ends with paper.

ItвЂ™s amazing how cool rubber bands sound вЂ“ you actually do get different notes!

We shoved a craft stick into the bottom of the box to keep it from collapsing as much under the force of the rubber bands. To add the math part вЂ“ write numbers on the outside of the box next to each rubber band. So fun to explore different sounds!ДonвЂ™t have instruments? Make it yourself!Дifferent width rubber bands make a great shoebox guitar! Gresham found colored pencils to match the colors of his rubber bands so that he could write a song. The woodpecker block makes a sharp, loud percussion sound. Owen loved having a clip board for his compositions.ДЇor the percussion station, we used three Remo kidвЂ™s drums, a woodpecker block, and a frog guiro.

#Music math level 1 how to

(Read on for ideas on how to do this activity if you donвЂ™t happen to own any вЂњrealвЂќ instruments!) I canвЂ™t find a link for the xylophone we own, but this Hohner xylophone is similar. I didnвЂ™t want to use any numbers higher than 15 вЂ“ a note with a value of 20 or higher would take up too much of a composition worth 100.

$music math level 1$

I chose the notes C, E, G, and C for our compositions and labeled them 5, 10, 15, and 5 (both the high and low CвЂ™s were 5вЂ™s). The boys wrote many compositions, and couldnвЂ™t wait to perform them for Dad when he came home from work! Gresham tried out my sample composition for the xylophone, and the boys were hooked.

Writing the notes and reading back the sequence is a fantastic project for a kindergartner. For younger kids, you could either use small numbers and write songs that add up to 5 or 10, or just skip the adding part. I had Owen (age 5) just draw the notes without worrying about the addition part of the activity. He and Aidan wrote songs that added up to 100 and 200. I chose to aim this activity at GreshamвЂ™s math level (finished 2nd grade, starting 3rd grade in the fall), and so I used the numbers 5, 10, and 15. I showed the boys how to write a composition by drawing music notes that matched the color of the note they wanted to use. If you donвЂ™t own any real instruments вЂ“ keep reading! It would be easy to do this activity with homemade instruments.ДЄt each station, we used color coded notes. IвЂ™m a violinist and love music and instruments, so it was worth the investment. We own several real kidвЂ™s instruments that I purchased for use in our homeschooling. We adapted this activity for home instead of a classroom, and the boys loved it. Kids are practicing SO many skills through this activity: The other thing I love about this is that by pre-selecting the notes, basically any composition will sound pleasant to the ear. Instead of trying to create a song out of an endless number of notes (too open-ended), kids have a manageable amount of notes to choose from and a goal in mind (add up to 100). I absolutely love this activity! For one thing, this is a great way to explore musical composition without overwhelming kids. The two remaining keys were labeled вЂњ5вЂќ and вЂњ10.вЂќ The students were instructed to write a composition by creating a pattern of the two notes with the only requirement being that the finished composition needed to add up to 100. In the вЂњreal kidsвЂќ segment of the show, a classroom teacher gave his students a xylophone with all but two keys removed. Several weeks ago on the Curious George PBS Kids show, I saw a fun idea to create musical compositions with a mathematical element. That means that if you make a purchase through a product link, I will earn a small percentage of the sale at no additional cost to you. This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.