Play with Sound with the Junk Jam Music Game

Since we were talking about doing taste tests to explore the sense of taste, I thought it would be fun to look at ways to explore other senses as well. When it comes to learning about sound, music and rhythms are a great place to start.

This Junk Jam idea from Mosswood Connections (which came from the Exploratorium in San Francisco) is really simple to set up and uses trash to help kids play with and learn about sound.

You can play with matching rhythm, exploring pitch, counting as you hit different bottles, exploring how filling containers with different things (rice, beans, water, air) causes them to make different sounds, writing numbers on the containers and writing a song based on the order you play the bottles and more.

These containers are great to keep around and use as recycled instruments even when you’re not playing the game, and your kids will have as much fun with them as they do with purchased musical instruments.

Do you play any musical/sound games with your kids? I’d love to hear about them.

[Photo via Mosswood Connections.]There are lot’s of music learning resources available online too. Check out these Music games and Learning tools and Music Learning Flash Cards.

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Easy Sensory Activities for Valentine's Day

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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