Tuesday 2 October 2018

Musical instruments


This week at Do Re Mi we have been focusing on using instruments. We are lucky to have a huge range of fantastic quality instruments to use in our music sessions and of course during explorative play in the nursery as well.

We have been using our squeezer shakers, which make a lovely gentle sound, and these are a particular favourite with the babies as they are able to easily manipulate them and successfully make a sound. The older children enjoy using the shakers to imitate sounds in nature, in particular the rain. This ties in really well with our song of the week this week: ‘Rain is falling down’. Check out the video of this song on our facebook page if you haven’t seen it yet.

‘Rain is falling down’ is a song we use right through the different rooms in nursery. As the song is repetitive, it is perfectly suited to the Diddies and Explorers room and encourages them to find their voices and join in, as it has a limited number of words for them to be able to perfect. In the baby room, this song is ideal because of the lovely strong “P” sound in “pitter patter” which the babies love to mimic. This strong "p" sound provides a useful emphasis of the beat as well.

The pre school children can master the song independently and, because it is relatively simple, we can challenge them to sing the song and play their shakers at the same time. We use the shakers to mimic the rain falling down, moving the shakers from head height and gradually down our bodies. We then give a sharp definite shake in time to the beat for the “pitter patter” section.

Some other instruments we’ve been using this week at Do Re Mi include our ocean drum, which the children in the Diddies room have been fascinated with. We love to follow the children’s lead at Do Re Mi, and so Lizzie dedicated a whole music time in the Diddies on Monday to exploring the ocean drum with the children. All the lovely songs about fishes swimming in the sea can wait until next week, as this week the children were mesmerized by all the different sounds the ocean drum makes. It can be hit like a normal drum, but also shaken to create a wave like effect (hence the name!). The drum is also visually stimulating for the children as it is decorated with lots of beautiful brightly coloured fish swimming round the edge.

If you’d like any more information about how we use instruments, or how you can use them at home to support your child’s musical development, please feel free as always to get in touch. We do have a wide selection of our beautiful fairtrade instruments that are available to purchase, so let us know if you are interested. Our instrument stall will also be available at our Open Day on Saturday 3rd November – more about that next week!



Lizzie x

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