It can often be hard to come up with ideas to do and play with children. I sometimes find it quite useful, to think of a theme and gear our activities around it. A lot of the time, if you suggest to your children a theme, they will come up with the ideas themselves, be guided by them.
I am going to write a series of weekly posts, every monday, where I suggest a theme. I will also provide some suggestions of activities you could try within that theme. I will then post about what we got up to here every Wednesday, if you’d like to pop back for more ideas.
This weeks theme is: Music
I believe music is very important for children, it helps language, movement, listening skills and is most definitely fun!
Here are some suggestions for musical play, fun and craft:
- Nursery rhymes – sing nursery rhymes together, complete with the actions. Put on a cd if you are not very good at singing like me.
- Listen & dance to music – Maybe put on a dance cd and have a bop around the room together. You will be surprised how fun it is and how much exercise you both get.
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Make your own instruments – Get creative and make some easy shakers with some lentils or rice in a plastic pot. Make some drums with upturned plastic boxes and a pencil for the stick, or how about some elastic bands around an empty tissue box for a guitar, or get even more creative like this one from Makedo
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Have a go at some musical letters – lots of fun and learning at the same time.
- Play DJ – get the children to have a DJ session, great for pretend play and older kids.
- Put on a show – often children love putting on shows for you, encourage them to give you a music show with singing and dancing.
- Musical bumps/statues – Kids love party games, why not have a go at some at home.
- Talk about music – talk to your children about music, discuss what you each like an why, discover rhythms together.
- Experiment with sound – take a stick and (gently) hit lots of different objects around the house and garden, to hear the differences.
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Go on a sound walk – go for a walk and listen to how many different sounds you can hear and identify.
Those are my 10 suggestions, but there are so many possibilities for musical play and fun. Take a look at my pinterest board for more inspiration here.
Please pop back later in the week, to see what we got up to within our music theme.
I hope you find this series of weekly themed prompts for play useful. Please get in touch if you can think of something you’d like featured.