Unit 4: Making Music

Display the letter “Ii” card and show children how to use various materials to shape the uppercase and lowercase letters.

Use the Letter Sort Routine to help children recognize the uppercase and lowercase letter “Ii.”

Encourage children to move their hands to the music as they finger paint. Talk about the music and the ways children are moving their fingers to it.

Invite children to become percussionists like the little girl in My Family Plays Music.  Have them tap the blocks lightly with wooden spoons.

Encourage children to select a book that interests them and to look at the words and pictures on their own or with other children.

Read aloud My Family Plays Music to individuals or small groups. Encourage children to look carefully at the illustrations to find and name the different instruments.

Invite children to sing, dance, and play along with recordings of children’s songs.  Encourage children to name and talk about the different musical instruments in their band.

Have children to pretend they are taking dancing lessons. Encourage them to experiment with different kinds of dance movement.

Have children organize pictures of musical instruments by the method of how an instrument is played.

Have children press “Ii” letter molds into the sand. Encourage them to use their fingers to make the letters in the sand as well.

Demonstrate how to play the PEEP online game “Sounds like Fun.” Show children how to click on the animals to hear the sounds they make.

Invite children to make suggestions for a band name.  Have them dictate their suggestion and write it on a construction paper t-shirt.  Have children decorate the shirt.