Make and Play: Pellet Drum

It's a new month, which means a new unit in our Homeschool Preschool from Mother Goose Time.

This month we are studying Sights and Sounds with the first week focusing on the Orchestra.

"By exploring musical instruments, children hear sounds, tones and learn to communicate without words."-MGT

Today we studied DRUMS, and it is the percussion instrument my one year old son knows full well and can play right alongside his older sister. Ha! 

Our lesson started with me asking my 4 year old, "What could we use to make drums?" 

 Avaleigh proceeded to beat on the wall, globe, chair, table, and even her legs.  

Anything can be made into a drum, and I explained that today we would make a Pellet Drum.

The supplies needed are: thick paper plate(s), straw, beads, yarn, crayons or markers, and a stapler.

The first thing my girl did was decide on tha pattern of the beads she wanted to place on her 2 pieces of yarn.  Because she is into all things rainbow, naturally that is the pattern she chose.

I only tied off the 2 ends so the beads would stay towards the end of the piece of yarn.  

She completed 2 of these and it was fantastic fine motor skills practice.

After lacing her beads, she colored her plate with a rainbow circular pattern like that depicted on the "Make and Play" card.  I then used a stapler to attach all the parts.  I only lined up the spots for Avaleigh and she then pressed hard on the stapler to connect everything.

In hindsight, I should have had her use 2 plates (one for the front and one for the back) but it still worked out well and she had fun.  By only using one plate, her straw seemed a little more bendy and too flexible.  Having 2 plates would have provided the stability needed to keep the drum beating easier.  She played with her drum quite a bit by twisting the straw in her hands causing the beads to hit her plate and create beats.  She really enjoyed this activity.

As she played, I struggled to capture non blurry pictures!  This was the best I was able to take.

My little percussionist.

The rest of this week we will be discussing woodwinds, horns, stringed instruments, and the piano!
So go make your pellet drum with your little one and come back and see us next week as we study the Sights and Sounds of the Outdoors.  Until then,

Happy Music Making!


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