Humans, just like many of our animal friends, generate sounds to communicate. And, from the beginning of time, music has allowed us to communicate a wide range of things—ideas, emotions and even cultural heritage. What better way to infuse music-making into your family’s play time than with a celebratory family concert! Here’s how:
The Guide
The idea for a family jam session was sparked in the midst of 2020's shelter-in-place, inspired in part, by the wonderful online jam sessions by Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. If you haven’t yet, check out their performance of Helpless from the Musical Hamilton.
Step 1: Get Inspired by reading or watching musical stories.
Start out by lying down, closing your eyes and listening for the natural sounds around you (this is great, challenging practice with self control). Talk about the many sounds you hear. You can also scan the QR codes on these printable Critter Sound Cards to listen to the music that different insects and amphibians make.
Step 3: Gather materials and make instruments.
Nearly any object can be used to make sounds. Here are some of our favorite homemade musical instruments:
Drums: Metal bowls, buckets or boxes with sticks.
Shakers: Recycled containers with lids (e.g. yogurt tubs, tupperware, oatmeal containers) + small treasures to fill shakers (e.g. wood chips, small pebbles, acorns rice, beans).
Guitars: "Y" shaped sticks + rubber bands to string across the gap.
Want more ideas? Find more examples of homemade musical instruments here.
Step 4: Make sounds!
Ask kids, "How many different sounds can we make?" If they need a jump start, gather pairs of sticks and explore how many ways you can use them to make sounds (e.g. bang them together and on logs, trees, objects from home, rub them against rough bark, shuffle leaves or dirt around).
If your child has a favorite song, welcome them to use their homemade instruments to create the tune or rhythm. Experiment with playing the song loudly, softly, slowly, fast, super fast, and then back to loud again. Take inspiration from animal friends and play your song in the style of another creature. How would a gorilla, butterfly or cat sing and move to the song? If you watch the read-aloud of Noisy Frog Sing-Along, try out some frog sounds to add background vocals to your song.
Extend Play!
Perform a song for friends and family!
Connect with family or friends and invite them to join your for a family jam session in person or via group video conference like Zoom. Or, take a video of your family’s musical show and send it to loved ones to spread the musical joy.
Invite kids to put together an outfit that they are excited to perform in. Or, use fabric markers to turn old t-shirts into band shirts.
Use paper or an old bed sheet and other art materials to create a colorful stage backdrop.
Be sure to capture the big moment and share photos and video on our free #OutdoorsAll4 Facebook group to inspire more music making.
Why is this activity great for kids?
Not only is sound making super fun and engaging for kids, but it also gives kids a chance to balance listening and controlling the sounds we make, a key component of conversation. Making music provides kids with a form of creative self-expression from a very early age. And, research shows that participation in music can help improve a child’s learning ability and memory by stimulating parts of the brain that are related to memory, language, patterns and emotional development. Finally, if you are able to connect with family and share in jamming on a song that is special to you all, you foster children's sense of belonging, nurturing their roots, too!
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By communication, we mean the ability to listen, understand, speak, read and write and more. In order to communicate effectively, kids must learn to understand what they want to get across, then decide on how to convey their messages, working to coordinate the mind and body to do so. They also need to learn to anticipate how the message will be received by another person(s). This is rather elegant and requires a symphony of physical, cognitive and social capabilities. The more children can practice, the better!
Why does it matter?
On a very practical level, kids need to be able to express questions and ideas in order to learn. Kids who communicate effectively can test ideas, seek help and let their formal and informal teachers in the world know what they understand and where they need support. Kids will also need strong and nuanced communication skills in order to work well in peer groups and manage relationships with authority figures, critical parts of life in classrooms and beyond. Later in life, they will need these skills to form close relationships, advocate for themselves within communities and be effective in the workplace.
Creativity
Category:
Thinking Skills
What is Creativity?
By creativity, we mean the ability to both imagine original ideas or solutions to problems and actually do what needs to be done to make them happen. So, to help kids develop creativity, we parents need to nurture kids' imaginations and give them lots of chances to design, test, redesign and implement their ideas.
"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Why, you ask? For one, it is through being creative that a person is able to get senses, sensibility and spirit working together. Simply put, without creativity, we don't think our kids will live a full life.
On a more practical level, it's also the means by which humans of all ages make an impact on the world and other people around them. A lot of heavy stuff is going to go down in our kids' lifetime, and their generation will need to imagine and implement solutions to big and very complicated problems. Although our kids are still far from public office or the boardroom, today's political and business leaders worldwide are already pointing to creativity as the most important leadership quality for the future.
Although years from the art studio or design lab, little kids can learn to think and act creatively if you give them time and the right practice.
Sensory
Category:
Body Skills
What is Sensory Development?
Although some scientists classify as many as 20 senses, when childhood educators talk about "developing the senses," we typically mean developing the five standard senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. In addition to honing these senses, educators care about sensory integration, which is the ability to take in, sort out, process and make use of information gathered from the world around us via the senses.
Why does it matter?
The better kids are able to tune and integrate their senses, the more they can learn. First, if their senses are sharper, the information kids can gather should be of greater quantity and quality, making their understanding of the world more sophisticated. Further, until the lower levels of the brain can efficiently and accurately sort out information gathered through the senses, the higher levels cannot begin to develop thinking and organization skills kids need to succeed. Senses also have a powerful connection to memory. Children (and adults) often retain new learning when the senses are an active part of the learning.
So, if kids have more sensory experiences, they will learn more, retain better and be better able to think at a higher level. Makes the days they get all wet and dirty in the sandbox seem better, doesn't it?
Self Esteem
Category:
Social Skills
What is Self Esteem?
Self esteem can be described as a sense of who we really are. It does not mean feeling good about ourselves or feeling successful at all times or in all situations. To us, true self esteem has three key components: kids experience and understand their own strengths and struggles; kids trust that the treasured adults in their lives both understand and value them, including both their strengths and struggles; and that kids believe that they can learn and grow, strengthening both strengths and weaknesses.
How do we help our kids build self esteem? Look for chances to show that we understand their likes, dislikes, abilities and challenges and that we value them for all of it. How do you find such chances? Great opportunities can be found in activities that are challenging but not too frustrating so that they can both find their limits and experience genuine, well-earned success. Help them as needed but make sure that they still feel ownership over the work and play they are doing. Praise their effort and appear fascinated by their decisions, preferences and passions.
Why does it matter?
Children who have positive self esteem feel like they have something worthwhile to contribute and a sense of internal worth. They are able to take on new challenges, persist towards their goals, work collaboratively with others and welcome life with anticipation and joy. If children have poor self esteem, they will likely struggle or even withdraw from many aspects of learning and may even struggle to find and feel happiness. New research shows that the ability to accurately and compassionately assess one’s own strengths and weaknesses enables kids not only to become more emotionally balanced but also increases motivation to improve which, ultimately, leads to greater success.
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: Various household items and art materials
