Artful, Tuneful, Beatful

The Smartboard activity is going GREAT. The kids really enjoy interacting with the board and the site I’m using provides just enough interaction for them to get their feet wet but not so much that we’re overwhelmed or have to spend ages giving directions.

One of the other things I’m doing this week is a shaker activity out of this wonderful book called 101 Rhythm Instrument Activities for Young Children.

I think of all the books I use in my classroom this is one of the ones I go to the most. It features a LOT of activities that are appropriate for my 4 and 5 year olds, using all sorts of rhythm instruments and incorporating some of their curriculum objectives as well. For example right now many of our classes are learning about eggs and seeds and the life cycle of animals and plants, so the shaker activity we did involved pretending to dig a hole, plant a seed and watch it grow. As we put our shakers away I let each child tell me what they “grew”… their imaginations are so impressive!!

Anyway, I’d be lost without this book. If you teach young children and you want to get them onto some simply rhythm instruments but aren’t sure what exactly to do, it would be a great investment.

I am using this great flash activity on my Smartboard today. It is from the Reading is Fundamental website (which has lots of great flash songs and stories) and offers the children an opportunity to interact with the story.

There is not a musical element to this flash, but I am creating one by having the children sing the words on the main page as a refrain on so-mi:

I went to the jungle and what did I see?
I saw a lot of jungle eyes looking back at me!

This is a perfect activity for my pre-schoolers because it gives them a chance to use the Smartboard for the first time without being too complicated. They also love almost anything with animal sounds, especially jungle animals!

Link to this activity on RIF.org