Tag Archives: toddlers and music

3 Great Music Crafts for Cinco De Mayo!

Childhood LearningCinco de Mayo is a wonderful time to learn more about Mexican history and culture. Making and playing simple instruments from Mexico is great fun for even the youngest child. Here are three easy music crafts that will let your little one try their hand at joining in the musical fun of this special holiday!

Make Some Maracas!

If you have two small water bottles and two toilet paper rolls, plus a bit of filling and tape, you can make a sturdy pair of great-sounding maracas.  Basically, maracas are two rattles held by the handles and played with both hands. Imagine the fun you can have with music and with music and movement with these!

prize maracas 1Professional maracas have different sounds in each of the containers and you can try that as well. You can fill your recycled instrument with combinations like beans and rice, paper clips and erasers or smaller and larger dried pasta pieces. That way the left and right maraca will make different sounds when shaken and you can create even more the rhythms with the pair!

homemade button maracasNeed a full tutorial, with different playing suggestions? You can find one here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Latin-American-Intruments-Make-Your-Own-Maracas-1428029

Be A Guiro Hero!

Even if you don’t recognize the word “guiro”, you’ll know the sound right away! It’s the instrument that makes the “b-r-r-r-r-r-r” sound often heard in Latin American and Caribbean music. And it’s really fun for kids to play!

homemade guiro and 6 raspsThe sound is achieved by rubbing a stick, a scraper or a rasp over a series of ridges – and any plastic water bottle with firm ridges makes a fantastic guiro. Filling the water bottle with colorful shredded paper, confetti or similar items makes it even more fun to play. When I do this project with kids or classes, I like to use an unsharpened pencil attached to the bottle with colorful yarn as my scraper, but there are lots of other items you can use as well and each one produces a unique sound. Try whisks, hair picks, chopsticks or even plastic spoons, forks, or sporks for percussion play!

Click, Clack…Castanets!

This is another creative project for discovering rhythms or developing fine motor skills. Eli and Button CastanetsCastanets originally came from the European region of Spain and Portugal and some historians believe they were actually made from tapping together walnut shells before they were crafted out of wood.

Our recycled project doesn’t include nuts or carved wood. We create fun little workable castanets out of sturdy paper and buttons or various sizes. You make them in pairs and – you guessed it – each different set of buttons makes different sounds.

Playing suggestions? Get the hang of tapping them together and separately. Then play along to your favorite songs or try singing and tapping at the same time. Often played as part of the flamenco music tradition heard in Spain and in Mexico, you’ll be amazed at how a talented castanet player can use this tiny instrument as part of a breath-taking performance.

Here’s an example of a well-known flamenco dancer and castanet player named La Emi from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Is Cinco de Mayo Mexican Independence Day (Spoiler Alert – No!)

By the way, do you know what the 5th of May actually celebrates?  If you don’t you can check out this history freebie from my TPT Store here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/What-is-Cinco-De-Mayo-2514584

Links And Resources

Free Mariachi Guitar Coloring Page
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Mariachi-Guitar-Coloring-Page-2511636

Hear or Color a Guiro   http://www.dariamusic.com/guiro.php

Make Your Own Guiro from TPT
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Make-Your-Own-Latin-American-Guiro-1230266

Cinco De Mayo Music Crafts E-Book From TeachersPayTeachers
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Cinco-De-Mayo-Music-Crafts-2507025

10 Musical Crafts For Exploring Hispanic Heritage
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Celebrate-Hispanic-Heritage-Musical-Craft-And-Coloring-E-Book-1427919

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Make-Your-Own Confetti For Kids!

big-bottle-shaker-w-confettiConfetti!  Who doesn’t love it?

Although it can be messy, it’s a fun part of so many celebrations.  And we often add it to many of our recycled rattle projects to add color and a bit of extra merriment.

So what’s better then colorful confetti? Answer: recycling holiday wrapping to create your own endless supply of fun…con…fetti!  Here are three ways to make different kinds of confetti from extra holiday wrapping supplies.  Naturally, if working with younger kids, be aware of safety issues with scissors and substitute kid shears.  If working with very young children, you may want to make confetti in advance then allow them to choose or pour confetti through a large-mouthed funnel into your holiday rattles or crafts.

So don’t throw out that holiday packaging! Here’s how to make it part of your next celebration.

Hole Punch Confetti

hole-punch-confettiThis is clearly the easiest method and makes perfect little circles.  Just cut squares of used wrapping paper (the brighter, the better) and put several together before you start punching. You’ll easily find how many paper squares you can put together to get the most amount of confetti without straining your hand and your hole punch.

Other fun hole punches? Craft stores often have hole punches with different shapes and sizes, like stars and moons.  These make for wonderful additions to this project!

Cut Across Confetti

cut-across-confettiCut squares of used tissue paper or wrapping paper and put about 4 – 6 together.  Tape one side to keep the papers together.  Then make long scissors cuts up toward the taped side, but not into the taped area. Once you’ve made these long vertical cuts, you can cut straight across (in the opposite direction) and it will yield nice little uneven squares of confetti.

Snip-A-Ribbon Confetti

Have lots of used ribbon? This method yields a bit less confetti, but still makes snip-a-ribbon-confetticolorful little squares.  Simply hold 4 – 6 pieces of ribbon in your hand and snip across the top.  You can also cut longer pieces and make mock shredded paper.  Similarly you can curl ribbon and then cut the longer curls to add into your rattles.

Then, What?

By far, the two most popular confetti crafts are rattles and confetti poppers.  We have our rattle post below plus two different creative methods for MYO poppers (aka confetti cannons) in the links below.

Here’s wishing you a happy and joyful celebration!

Make Your Own New Year’s Eve Noise-Makers! http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/family-fun-2/make-your-own-new-years-eve-noise-makers/

Confetti Poppers From Push Pop Containers
http://www.thesitsgirls.com/diy/confetti-poppers/

Balloon Confetti Poppers From Adventures In Wunderland
http://adventuresinwunderland.com/balloon-confetti-poppers-new-years-eve-craft/

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Posted in Family Fun, Holiday Songs, Musical Crafts

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How To Make Bottle Cap Bangles For Recycled Musical Instruments

tambourine-with-zilsIf you’ve ever made a homemade tambourine or sistrum, you’ve probably wanted to use bangles like those seen on traditional middle eastern drums or instruments.  Technically, these round thin mini-cymbals are called zils.  You can see some lovely large zils on this antique tambourine from the Middle East.

If you’re crafting an instrument that uses these bangles, it’s easy to make a simple version of zils out of recycled bottle caps using a few tools that are handy around any home or garage.

bangles-work-areaWhat You Need

Metal bottle caps
Piece of Wood
Hammer
Large nail with a head
Safety Goggles

 

Safety First

Although this is a reasonably safe and easy project, it’s always a good idea to use caution.  Wearing safety goggles means that your eyes and face are protected if you accidentally hit the cap too hard and it bounces off the wooden work surface. In general, a good tip for this project is to use the hammer slowly and gently, tapping repeatedly until you get the desired results.

Set Up A Work Area

Set the piece of wood down either on the floor, the ground or a sturdy table.  Place the metal bottle cap (cap-side-up) and then position the large nail above it, directly in the center.  Gently tap until the nail has pierced the cap and reached down into the wood.  This creates the hole that will allow you to thread it onto whatever you are making.

Next, With cap-side-down, next gently strike all the edges of the bottle cap until it slowly flattens.  This can take 15, 20 or more gentle taps with the hammer.

bangles-from-bottle-capsNext, turn the bottle cap over.  Continue to tap the outer edges and the inner circle until all the sharp edges are flattened and pressed into the cap’s surface.  Although some recycled projects use the bottle caps in their original form – such as the wooden sistrum from Africa seen below – flattening the bangles makes them safer to handle and use in any project.

If you’re doing this project with very small children, you might wish to create the bangles in advance and focus more on how the children can string the bangles plus other rattling objects onto their craft instrument.

giveaway-wooden-sistrum-africaWondering what else you could add to a tambourine or sistrum project?  In addition to bottle cap zils, you can add paper clips, buttons, jingles, beads or pull tabs from soda cans.  Remember, while you’re reducing, reusing and recycling, you’re also teaching kids to limit their use of resources but never limit their imagination or creativity!

And that’s a win/win for everyone!

Links and Resources

Color An Ancient Egyptian Sistrum  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Color-An-Ancient-Egyptian-Rattle-The-Sistrum-2166721

Ancient Instruments – Make Your Own Egyptian Sistrum https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ancient-Instruments-Make-Your-Own-Egyptian-Sistrum-Rattle-1617163

Ancient Instruments From The Middle East, Kids Mini-Lesson https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ancient-Instruments-From-The-Middle-East-Mini-Lesson-2127995

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Posted in Ecology/Nature, Family Fun, First Instruments, Homeschool Musical Fun, Multicultural Music, Musical Crafts, Simple Instruments

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Sing a Song In The Ladino Language!

ora-de-coverThis week we welcome a guest post from Sarah Aroeste, a wonderful  musician who writes and sings in the Ladino language. She’s teaching us a beautiful little song about the family from her children’s  album – Ora De Despertar. If you speak Spanish, many of the words and sounds will be very familiar. If you don’t speak Spanish or Ladino, you’ll still love learning, singing and sharing the song “My Famiya” (My Family).

My Ladino Family By Sarah Aroeste

Being a songwriter in an endangered language can present many challenges. Not least of which is that many people have never even heard of said language, Ladino, let alone children! Also known as Judeo-Spanish, Ladino is a hidden gem of world culture. Based in 15th century Castilian Spanish, Ladino is the language that developed out of the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492. When Jews, among others, were kicked out of Spain for not practicing Catholicism, they took the Spanish they had been speaking and combined it with bits and pieces of languages taken from the countries where they ended up settling, primarily across the Mediterranean and North Africa. With Spanish at its core, Ladino includes words in Portuguese, French, Italian, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew and more. It is truly a pan-Mediterranean language, one that was spoken for hundreds of years by thousands of people. And it still exists today! It was the first language of my grandfather, and now I am doing all I can to ensure that it survives for my children, too.

In that spirit, I wanted to create materials for families to make learning Ladino as easy and fun as possible! The Ora de Despertar (Time to Wake Up!) project includes all-original Ladino songs with themes ranging from morning rituals, mealtimes, parts of the body, animals on a farm and much more. There’s also an animated cartoon series, songbook, and teaching guide! I want to make sure that anyone who is interested in learning about this important part of world culture will have the resources to do so—in a catchy, engaging way!

So here’s a song that is easy and fun for all to learn—My Famiya (My Family!). I wanted to teach some basic words about some family members (son, daughter, mother, father), as well as some basic pronouns (me, you, we). I also wanted to teach people how to say “I love you” in Ladino! Te kero bien. Try it! If you can say that, then you’ve pretty much got the song covered.

The song is very repeatable, and I suggest pointing to yourself for the “Yo” verse, pointing to a neighbor for the “Tu” verse, and then dancing all together for the “Mozotros” verse. Most importantly, you should just have fun with whoever you’re singing it with!

03 Mi Famiya from Sarah Aroeste on https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo.

My Famiya – Lyrics:

Te kero bien, sos mi kerido, sos mi kerido ijiko

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear son)

Te kero bien, sos mi kerida, sos mi kerida ijika

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear daughter)

Te kero bien, sos mi kerido, sos mi kerida kriatura

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear child)

 

Te kero bien, sos mi kerida, sos mi kerida mama

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear mother)

Te kero bien, sos mi kerido, sos mi kerido papa

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear father)

Vos kero bien, sosh mis keridos, sosh mi kerida famiya

(I love you, you are my dear one, you are my dear family)

 

Yo yo yo…Tu tu tu…Mozotros mozotros mozotros…

(Me, me, me…You, you, you…We, we, we…)

 

For more songs and information on Sarah, check out her website at:  www.saraharoeste.com

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Posted in Babies and Music, Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, Favorite Songs, Hispanic Music

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Sing a Song about Different Families

over-in-the-meadow-counting-image

Have you ever heard the song “Over In The Meadow”?

No one knows exactly where the song came from but the best guess is that this imaginative tale of different animal families came from the British Isles and has been teaching English-speaking children to count for at least several hundred years!

It’s a quiet, adorable song that counts from one to ten – originally with mommies and their babies. But while singing it at a local school, I found I needed to adapt it a bit.  One of the children was a friend of my son and was being raised only by her father.  She was saddened when people talked about their mommies and I wanted her to see a dad as a parent reflected in this song.  Similarly, other families had grandparents as caregivers and I added them to the other verses.  Since folksongs are adaptable, I wanted the song to reflect more of the different configurations of families so that no child would feel left out or that their home situation was any less of a family.

Here’s a list of the families in my version of the song, plus the last verse that I’ve added.  You can watch the Youtube video of the entire song below.

1       Froggy Mom and her one little frog

2       Mother Cat at her two little kittens

3       Father Bird and his three little birds

4       Mother Worm and her 4 baby worms

5       Queen Bee and her five little bees

6       Grandfather dog and his 6 grandpuppies

7       Grandmother owl and her 7 owlets

8       Mother duck and her 8 ducklings

9       Father Mouse and his 9 baby mice

10     Mother Spider and her 10 baby spiders

Last verse:

No matter where you go, everyone you see

We all fit together in one big family

Although we may look different, our love is still the key

It’s the way we live together in peace and harmony

A Song For Teaching

As a mom, I loved songs that taught empathy and encouraged my children to understand the value and consciousness in all living creatures. For me, songs like this helped teach that all creatures have a story and that their lives are connected with our own and that they matter!

If you check out this song in my TeachersPayTeachers store you’ll find a wonderful activity list for using the song in homeschool or an early education classroom.

Links and Resources

Song on Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/grandchildrens-delight-best/id292915765

Song on Amazon mp3 Over in the Meadow: 
https://amzn.com/B0024XB2FS

As a song for teaching on TPT: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Over-In-The-Meadow-An-Inclusive-Counting-Song-2823967

Free Lyric Sheet on TPT:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Over-In-The-Meadow-An-Inclusive-Counting-Song-Free-Lyric-Sheet-2824218

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Posted in Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Ecology/Nature, Family Fun

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Follow Me on TPT – And Get One Item Free!

TPT 475

Do you TPT?  There’s a wonderful online site called TeacherPayTeachers and it’s a great resource for anything educational. And you don’t have to be a teacher to benefit from the boatload of freebies plus activities, crafts, clipart, coloring pages, mini-lessons and so much more that you can find on this site.

My DARIA MUSIC store at TPT is filled with musical activities, crafts, E-books plus you can find all my songs and CD’s (as digital downloads) as well as lots of ways to incorporate music into your daily life.

And, did I mention the freebies? Every store owner is required to have at least one freebie so you can sample the quality of their work. But most of us – me included – are regularly adding freebies such as songs, lyric sheets seasonal activities. So, won’t you please drop by my store and follow me on TPT?

Follow Me!

It’s easy to follow any merchant on TPT! Just click on the greenish button under my name here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music and you’re in.  When a new item, a fresh freebie or a special sale is coming, you’ll get a little notice, but no annoying spam or repetitive e-mails.

4 TPT itemsFollow Me and Get One Item Free.

To sweeten the deal, I’d love to give you one (digital) item free from my store.  Just stop by, follow me, browse the wares and choose your item.  Copy the title of the product and e-mail it to me at dariamusic at yahoo dot com and I’ll send you a special link to a free copy of that resource.  It’s as easy as that.

What Can You Get?

Grandchildrens Delight CoverIn my store, you can get a digital copy of any of my Parent’s Choice, NAPPA, or Kids Music Network Award-winning cd’s!  There’s music for Earth Day, multicultural holiday music and a cd of special songs from the Andes.  Or maybe you’d like a craft pdf – to learn how to make a Monkey Drum from China, or a relaxing ocean drum or a set of completely child-safe, recycled maracas. Pick any digital item that strikes your fancy and I’d love to hear from you.

Along with my thanks for connecting with me, on TPT!

Links and Resources

DARIA MUSIC Store on TPT https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music

HHM-coverDARIA’s music CD’s on TPT https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music/Category/Digital-Music-CD-s-169735

Daria’s E-books on TPT https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music/Category/E-Books-167392

DARIA’s Freebies on TPT https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Daria-Music/Price-Range/Free

 

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Posted in Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Homeschool Musical Fun, Simple Instruments

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Kaleidoscope Rattles

kaleidoscope rattle and shayHave you ever looked through a kaleidoscope to see an ever-changing array of beautiful colors?

Here’s a fun little rattle that creates a lovely flow of colors when it’s played. And it’s nice and quiet so it’s perfect for music-making with a large group of children or for kids who have noise sensitivity. It’s also one of our favorite projects for creating with kids on the autistic spectrum as it’s fun to make, easy to control and the sound is soothing and not harsh or abrupt.

Here’s what you need to make your own kaleidoscope rattles.

Supplies

Clear Recycled Plastic Bottles (like from water or juice) with a lid
Q-tips
Washable markers
Electric tape (for sealing the rattles)

What To Do

Clean and dry the plastic bottles thoroughly. You can do this easily by rinsing them out and placing them upside down in a regular glass or a jar.

Kaleidoscope Q tipsNext take the washable markers and color the tips of the Q-tips any color that you like.  Color as many as you like and drop them into the bottle.

Every so often, shake the bottle to see if you like the sound. The tone of the rattle will change each time you add another Q-tip to the container!

When you’re satisfied with the array of color and the sound of the rattle, put the lid on and seal it up with electrical tape to keep the contents inside.

Time To Play!

kaleidoscope tableShaking the rattle around in a circular motion displays a wonderful changing series of colors.  But since this is a rattle, you can play it any way you like. Shake it up and down, side to side or get up and dance with it!

Shake it along with a favorite song that you love to sing. Or play along to recorded music. Make several and compare the sounds as well as the colors as you enjoy your handiwork.

Have fun and keep making music!

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Posted in Babies and Music, Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, First Instruments, Homeschool Musical Fun, Music and Hearing, Simple Instruments, Special Needs/Kids of All Abilities

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Everybody Has A Farm, E-I-E-I-O!

Don’t you just love those easy folksongs that can be personalized to delight your family or your classroom?

Here are some simple instructions for turning “Old McDonald” into a song that everyone can participate in.

Good Old McDonald

In case you’re unfamiliar with this “oldie but goodie”, here are the standard set of lyrics:

daria and sheep PMOld McDonald Had A Farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on this farm he had a (name an animal) E-I-E-I-O
With a (animal sound x2) here                      and a (animal sound x2) there
Here a (animal sound), there an (animal sound)
Everywhere an (animal sound x2)
Old McDonald Had A Farm, E-I-E-I-O

 

For instance, if you chose a “sheep”, like the friendly sheep in the picture here, it would be:

Old McDonald Had A Farm, E-I-E-I-O
And on this farm he had a sheep – E-I-E-I-O
With a baah baah here, and a baah baah there
Here a baah, there a baah …
Everywhere a baah, baah!
Old McDonald Had A Farm, E-I-E-I-O

Repeat as much as you like with any animal you wish to add.

My Friend Sandy Has A Farm

pollitosIf you’re singing to a group or a class, sit everyone in a circle and go from child to child, letting each one pick an animal for his or her verse.  You can ask the whole group to come up with the animal sounds.

Two quick suggestions.  If you think you may have run out of animals for the song, remember that you can use the names for the full grown animal and baby animal or the names for the male and female animal as well. For instance, you sing about both horse and pony, sheep and lambs, cows and calves, etc.  And don’t forget hens, chicks and roosters or billy goats and nanny goats, too!

With names, the only tricky situations are using names with three syllables or more.  In that case, drop the “My Friend” and simply use their name to fit within the first line of the song.  In other words, instead of “My friend Isabella”, or “My friend Jeremiah” try… Isabella has a farm… or Jeremiah has a farm, E-I-E-I-O and it should fit perfectly!

Your Family Farm

Here’s a fun family version of Old McDonald.  It uses the same idea, but you ask the child which animals a family member might want to have on their own fantasy farm.  In that way, the child gets to imagine what other people would want as their favorite farm animal.

It might sound like this:

If my sister, had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
On her farm she’d have some kittens, E-I-E-I-O (etc.)

If my brother, had a farm, E-I-E-I-O
On his farm he’d have a dinosaur, E-I-E-I-O (etc.)

If my mommy had a farm,
On her farm she’d have a parrot, E-I-E-I-O (etc.)

If my daddy had a farm,
On her farm he’d have a puppy, E-I-E-I-O (etc.)

An Animal Rescue Farm

Which brings us to a good point.  Kids love to imagine and this song can be very imaginative.  Feel free to sing your own barnyard version, animal rescue version or even an imaginary animal version.  Unicorns and dragons, anyone?

Need Music?

Naturally if you play guitar, piano, ukulele or a similar instrument, it’s awesome to strum out the music.  Below is a link for free sheet music for guitar.  But if you don’t, no worries.  Everyone knows the melody and you can easily, clap, tap, tap on desks or play simple percussion (like shaker eggs) along with this song.

Need some simple instrument or percussion ideas?  Below are four suggestions all made from handy items found in your kitchen or recycling bin.  So tap and clap away as you create some memorable music and a fantastic farm or animal song for your lovely little ones!

Links and Resources

DIY Shaker Eggs
http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/early-learning-with-music/a-child-safe-version-of-easter-shaker-eggs-directions-in-english-and-spanish/

Milk Jug Shekere
http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/classroom-music/turn-a-milk-jug-into-a-recycled-shekere/

Nature Walk Rattle
http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/early-learning-with-music/make-an-earth-day-nature-walk-rattle/

Make Your Own Maracas
http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/uncategorized/an-easy-musical-craft-for-young-children-back-to-school-maracas/

Old McDonald – Free Sheet Music For Guitar
http://www.8notes.com/scores/15036.asp

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Posted in Classroom Music, Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, Favorite Songs, Homeschool Musical Fun

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You Can Play the Spoons – Just Like On “Dog With A Blog”!

tyler jamesAlthough we don’t watch a lot of t.v., our family has a soft spot in our hearts for any program with adorable animals, especially cute talking animals. So it was no wonder that several of my readers mentioned that a recent episode of “Dog With A Blog” featured the teen named Tyler playing the musical spoons, a topic that we’ve shared several times on Tiny Tapping Toes. And he did a terrific job!

But, if you look closer, he was using two connected spoons, like the ones you see below.  And that sure does make playing the spoons a lot easier. In fact, there’s a big behind-the-scenes look at Dog With A Blog tonight (Thursday, September 24, 2015) and we really hope they share some of their musical spoon outtakes!

Are you intrigued by the spoons? Here’s a quick run-down of tips for playing any kind of spoons you might find!

TWO CONNECTED SPOONS

Ok, this one is simple. You hold the spoon in one hand and tap either side on your knee and your opposite hand. Go back and forth until you create a beat! To get tricky, go back and forth between your hand and any other object, like your shoulder, someone else’s shoulder, the chair you’re sitting on, you get the picture, right?

In short, you’re making a beat by tapping the connected spoons against your hand on one other surface. With a bit of practice, you can make this sound amazing!

TWO UNCONNECTED SPOONS

This is the original way of playing the spoons and does take a bit of coordination. Check out our step-by-step post here and you’ll also find how to make that cool “trill” or “b-r-r-r-r-r!” noise with your spoons”.

http://www.tinytappingtoes.com/tag/how-to-play-the-spoons/

TAPPING SPOONS WITH TINY TOTS

Okay, the last two were rather tricky and required lots of motor skills to accomplish. You can also feel free to play the spoons with young children by using them like rhythm sticks. Tap them gently together to make a beat. Sit opposite your child and tap the spoons together, making a beat while singing a song or playing music. Have your child match your movements to make the beat, too!

It’s a simple rhythm and music game with items that everyone has around their house. And; yes, you can use plastic spoons as well!

Russian wooden spoonsWOODEN SPOONS IN RUSSIA

It’s probably not surprising that other cultures discovered these everyday items could be used for as musical fun.Russian musical spoons, known as lozhki (Ло́жки), are the beautifully carved and decorated wooden spoons famous in that region of the world.

If you’d like to check out that form of musical spoons including some truly sensational hand (and foot) work, check out this post and video from Making Multicultural Music, below.

SPOONING FOR VIDEOS!

Want to see musical spoons in action? Here’s one American spoon video and one that features a Russian spoon expert.

Musical Spoons – American Style  http://multikidsmusicvids.com/?p=1519

Russian Musical Spoons   https://makingmulticulturalmusic.wordpress.com/tag/russian-spoons/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, First Instruments, Simple Instruments

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Doum – beka- Doum-beka – Doum! Middle Eastern Drums!

doumbek imageMusic is a great way to explore the world with your kids. If your cultural heritage is from the Middle East, doumbek and darbuka drums are probably part of the soundtrack of your life. If you’re adding music to your family’s fun or studying that region, then this easy-to-play drum is a great first instrument for any child.

Doumbeks and Darbukas

Both the doumbek and darbuka are goblet shaped played throughout the Middle boy and darbukaEast, Turkey and North Africa. There are lots of names for each drum and plenty of variations for the spelling of each name. For doumbeks, you might see “dumbec”, “dumbek” or “doumbec”.  Darbuka style drums are also called debuka, dumbelek tablah, tarabuka and toumperleki.

Historians think that these drums date back to Ancient Babylonia and that the name comes from the Arabic word “darba”, meaning “to strike”.

How Do You Play?

little girl plays darbukaOne of these simple Middle Eastern drums, there are three basic sounds. The “doum” sound comes from striking the drum in the center. Tapping the drum near the edge produces a higher sound called a “tek”. Tapping then muting the drum creates a third sound called a “pa”.

What If You Don’t Have a Drum?

Don’t have a drum? Although it may not sound exactly the same, you can also tap on a round container in these three different ways and make all the basics sounds you might hear on a doumbek or darbuka. You’d be surprised how good a “recycled drum” may sound when using even the most basic material found around your home or garage!

doumbek black and white imageColor A Doumbek!

Although some are plain, many doumbeks and goblet drums have beautiful folk or mosaic patterns that wrap around the body of the drum. In the coloring page below you can create your own colorful Middle Eastern drum.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Middle-Eastern-Drums-Doumbek-Background-Coloring-Page-2049118

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Posted in Early Learning With Music, Family Fun, Homeschool Musical Fun, Multicultural Music, Simple Instruments

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