- drums
- rubber band guitars
- scarves
- tappers
- toy instruments
- tubes
- music
- musical instrument
- practice
- sound
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners during daily routines and play.
MA Draft Standards:
Physical Sciences/Energy PS4.A Investigate different sounds made by different objects and different materials and reason about what is making the sounds. [Cause and Effect]
Head Start Outcomes:
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving Recognizes cause and effect relationships.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 2 Participate actively in discussions, listen to the ideas of others, and ask and answer relevant questions.
Explore Together (indoors): Music Day Performance
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
STEM Key Concepts: Sounds have a source; Sounds vary in three ways: by volume (loud or soft), pitch (high or low), and timbre (quality)
ELA Focus Skills: Creative Expression, Speaking and Listening
Educator Prep: Schedule children’s Music Day performance for parents to see. If this is not possible, invite another group or set up an “audience” of stuffed animals for children’s performance. You may want to designate a parent to video the performance so you can review it with children during reflection time.
Display musical instruments for children to choose from. Say, Choose your instrument to play for Music Day! Encourage children to share instruments if there are not enough to go around or to sing or dance to contribute.
Gather children in a circle and have children practice making music with their instruments or dancing and singing together. Say, Let’s practice, or try out, our music and dance. Explain to children that you practice before a performance so everyone will know when it is their turn and what they will be performing.
As children are practicing, ask, How do you think the music sounds? Do we want to change any of the sounds we are playing? Are we playing too loud for the singers? Too fast for the dancers? How can we change the sounds? Encourage children to discuss how to change the sounds together.
Signal children when it is time to perform. Say, Let’s play our music now! Give children time to sing, dance, and play their instruments. If you want, you can add background music for children as they play. Signal for children when the performance is over. Have children take a bow.
Reflect and Share
Play the video recording of the performance for children. Allow children to enjoy the performance and talk about the day.