Play With Me: Family [Part 4]

By: Shannon Mallery, Program Assistant Sr. - Mature Adults

This week of Play With Me: Ages 6-9 finishes the Family series. The Play With Me: Family activities will help you and your child get to know each other and your family better.

Play With Me is a series of interactive and meaningful activities that you can do over technology with the children in your life. Before getting started, adult assistance will be needed to help collect and setup supplies for the children. Consider sending the supply list ahead of time so the adult can prepare in advance.

Activity: Who makes music in my family?

Supplies/Setup

• Printout of Musical Family Tree
• Scissors
• Glue
• Wax paper
• Sprinkles or dried beans
• Cardboard paper tube
• Cardboard fruit container
• Popsicle stick or piece of stiff cardboard
• Rubber bands
• Tape
• Q tip
• Foam bead or eraser to support Q tip
• Markers or Crayons

In this activity you and your little one will be learning about the music makers in your family. Talk together about all of the people in your family who make music. Anyone who enjoys making any sort music should be included. Everyone from Auntie Maria singing in the kitchen to Grandpa Joe playing the clarinet in a band after college. Most people enjoy making and listening to music regardless of level of skill. Music brings joy to people and for thousands of years has been used as a way to celebrate and hand down family traditions. It is nice to feel like you can make music and make it part of your life even if there is not a great streak of talent that runs through your family history. Use the questions below to fill in your Musical Family Tree.

Questions for you to be written in the trunk of the tree:

• Who are you?
• What do you play?
• Who do you play with?

Questions about your family to be written in the top of the tree:

• Who plays music in your family?
• What did they play?
• When did they play it?

After talking about all members of your family who make music you and your child may be very inspired to make music too. Don't worry if you have instruments you can make your own with a few simple things from the kitchen.

Guitar

1. Glue a small piece of foam (I used a foam bead) or piece of eraser with a hole cut into it to the inside of a paper fruit carton.
2. Take the cotton off of the top of the Q tip and glue the stick into the foam or eraser.
3. Attach a support to the inside of the carton to keep it from collapsing, I used a popsicle stick.
4. Add two crisscrossing rubber bands around the fruit container close to the Q tip stick.
5. Color the outside of the container to make it festive.
6. Pull the Q tip stick back and let it go so that it hits the rubber bands to make a sound.

Shaker

1. Cut out two circles of wax paper large enough to cover the ends of a small carboard tube.
2. Fold the wax paper over one end of the tube. Secure a rubber band over the wax paper so that it holds it onto the tube.
3. Fill the tube with either dried beans or sprinkles.
4. Repeat the second step to keep the beans or sprinkles from falling out of the tube.

We hope you enjoyed this activity and the entire Family series! Next week's Play With Me starts the Book review series! Until then, Stay Energized, Sing Out Loud and remember to Play More with DPR!