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Session 10:
Musical Instruments
Music and Movement Activities
LANGUAGE
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Playing instruments Equipment Possible adaptions for special needs
Various instruments – you can make your own. Let learners find instruments that
Skills development CD and CD player, or MP3 player they are comfortable playing.
Fine motor skills
Hand-eye co-ordination Instructions
skills Give learners a variety of instruments.
Cognitive skills Play some music and encourage them to play along.
Playing on a homemade guitar for example, helps children practise their hand
and finger control - a skill necessary for writing and handling small objects.
Rhythms Equipment Tips
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles etc.) Make the rhythm easier or more
difficult to suit the abilities of the
Instructions learners.
Clap a rhythm.
Have learners repeat the rhythm with instruments.
This is an auditory sequencing and memory activity. This skill is needed for
spelling.
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Music and Movement Activities
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Syllables Equipment
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles etc.)
Instructions
Let learners clap out the syllables in their names, e.g. Si-bu-si-so.
Count the claps.
Let them repeat this with a percussion instrument like a drum or shaker.
This exercise can be done with any words.
Variation
You can also break words into letters instead of syllables.
Say a word, e.g. cat.
Ask learners to break the word into sounds, e.g. c-a-t.
Let them say and clap the sounds.
Repeat using instruments.
Word endings Equipment
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles etc.)
Instructions
When you teach word endings like ‘–ing’, have learners clap or bang a drum
every time they hear it in a list of words you say out loud, e.g. running, ran,
skipped, skipping.
You can do this when teaching blends etc.
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Music and Movement Activities
MATHEMATICS
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Counting Equipment Possible adaptions for special needs
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles Count slowly so learners can keep pace.
Skills development etc.) Choose a number range that the learner
Auditory perceptual skills can operate in.
Number patterns Instructions
Number sequencing Let learners count forwards and backwards.
As they count they can clap, bang a drum or shake a
maracas.
Vary the activity by having them clap or bang on every 2nd
or 5th count.
Skip numbers Equipment
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles
Skills development etc.)
Auditory perceptual skills
Number patterns Instructions
Number sequencing Let learners count forwards, backwards or in multiples.
Tables E.g. 2, bang, 6, bang, 10, bang, 14.
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Music and Movement Activities
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Measuring Equipment
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles
etc.)
Instructions
Use instruments in informal measuring activities.
Lay out instruments from the same family, e.g. percussion
family, alongside each other.
Let learners arrange them from smallest to biggest and
then play each instrument to see how the quality of sound
differs from one instrument to the other.
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Music and Movement Activities
LIFE SKILLS
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Rhythm Equipment Tips
Percussion instruments (maracas, drums, cymbals, triangles Set aside a corner where the musical
Skills development etc.) instruments are kept. Children can take turns
Fine motor co-ordination to be in charge of these instruments and to
Instructions hand them out.
Hand-eye co-ordination
Each child gets an instrument. When learners are restless, channel their
Auditory perceptual skills
They can shake, bang and strike these instruments in time to energy by letting them play with instruments.
Collaboration
the beat of rhymes and songs.
Possible adaptions for special needs
Pair learners with poor rhythm with learners
who have a good sense of rhythm.
Transition music Equipment Tips
A variety of instruments The key with transition songs is to have
Skills development specific songs for designated transitions.
Fine motor co-ordination Instructions
Learners love repetition and knowing what
Hand-eye co-ordination Use instruments to transition between classes, e.g. from class comes next.
to break time.
Auditory perceptual skills
You can also sing.
Collaboration
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Music and Movement Activities
Activity Instructions Tips and Adaptations
Guess the instrument Equipment
Various instruments
Skills development
Fine motor co-ordination Instructions
Hand-eye co-ordination Ask one of the children to play an instrument without showing the
class what it is.
Auditory perceptual skills
The first child to raise their hand and guess it correctly gets to take a
Collaboration
turn.
This game can be played over a week, until all the children have had a
turn.
Play along songs Equipment Tips
Various instruments Songs with motions help children
Skills development practice fine motor co-ordination.
Fine motor co-ordination Instructions
Playing on a homemade guitar for
Gross motor co-ordination Select songs that allow each child or several groups or the whole class example, helps children practice their
to play with a different musical instruments. hand and finger control – a skill
Hand-eye co-ordination
They can also sing. necessary for writing and handling
Balance small objects.
Children can even dress up in a costume if you like.
Auditory perceptual skills
For each verse of the song, give a specific child or group of children a
Collaboration
chance to make their own music using the musical instruments.
You can divide the class into several groups by instrument. For
example, in the bells group each child rings a bell, in the drums group
each child bangs a drum.
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Links to CAPS
LINKS TO THE CURRICULUM
Language
Grade 1
Listening and speaking
Join in the choruses of songs, stories, rhymes
Say poems and rhymes
Reading and phonics
Participate in whole class phonemic awareness oral activities: blending sounds (c-a-t into cat); segmenting
words (cat into c-a-t) etc.
Grade 2
Reading and phonics
Word building and aural recognition activities
Read well-known nursery rhymes, poems and songs
Grade 3
Reading and phonics
Word building and aural recognition activities
Listen to stories, poems and songs
Read a range of different types of poems
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Links to CAPS
Mathematics
Grade 1: Numbers, operations and relationships
Count forwards and backwards
Count forwards and backwards in ones, from any number between 1 and 20
Count forwards in tens from any multiple of 10, in fives from any multiple of 5, and in twos from any
multiple of 2
Addition and Subtraction
Practise number bonds to 10
Calculations
Add the same number repeatedly to 20
Grade 2: Numbers, operations and relationships
Counts forwards and backwards
Count in tens from any multiple of 10
Addition and Subtraction
Practise number bonds to 20
Calculations
Multiply numbers 1 to 10 by 2, 5, 3, and 4 to a total of 50
Measurement - Length
Informal measuring
Estimate, measure, compare, order and record length using non-standard measures
Describe the length of objects by counting and stating the length in informal units
Grade 3: Numbers, operations and relationships
Count forwards and backwards
Count in 20s, 25s, 50s, 100s
Addition and Subtraction
Practise number bonds to 30
Calculations
Multiply any number by 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 to a total of 100
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Links to CAPS
LIFE SKILLS
Grade 1: Life skills – creative arts
Creative games and skills
Keeping a steady beat with changes in tempo
Listening skills through music games using different tempo, pitch, dynamics, duration
Moving to music in three or four time
Grade 2: Life skills – creative arts
Creative games and skills
Body percussion: keeping a steady beat and the use of different timbres
Rhythm games focusing on listening skills and recalling contrasting rhythm patterns
Playing percussion instruments/body percussion in time to music and/or class singing
Keep the beat of music or drumming
Polyrhythms using body percussion and/or percussion instruments
Grade 3 Life skills – creative arts
Creative games and skills
Playing rhythm patterns and simple polyrhythms in 2, 3 or 4 time on percussion instruments
Rhythm games: listening skills, recall contrasting rhythm patterns, keep a steady beat, use different
timbres
Body percussion and/or percussion instruments to accompany South African music (recorded or live),
focusing on cyclic (circular) rhythm patterns
Improvise and interpret
Rhythm games: listening skills, recall contrasting rhythm patterns, keep a steady beat, use different
timbres
Compose cyclic rhythm patterns based on South African music
Listening to South African music: focus on how tempo, dynamics, timbre contribute to unique sound
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Additional Resources
VOCABULARY
Here are some important words to use when playing musical instruments:
move rhythm soft
balance fast high
dance slow low
play quick
beat loud
ADDITIONAL VIDEOS TO WATCH
How to make a cereal box guitar
[Link]
Ten Little Fingers | finger family songs
[Link]
How to make shakers | musical instruments
[Link]
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Additional Resources
SOUTH AFRICAN SONGS
Here are songs from Mama Lisa’s world: songs and rhymes from South Africa for you to choose from:
1. Vusi Drives the Kombi
Vusi drives the kombi that takes us all to school.
We open all the windows so the air blows nice and cool.
He hoots when he fetches us, he hoots when he goes,
He hoots at the cows that are standing in the road.
Vusi drives the kombi that we all love to ride.
If you want to travel with us, there's lots of room inside!
2. Walking Through Africa
Walking through Africa, what do I see?
I can see inyoka looking at me.
Walking through Africa, what do I see?
I can see ufudu looking at me.
Walking through Africa, what do I see?
I can see indlovu looking at me.
Walking through Africa, what do I see?
I can see ikhozi looking at me.
Note: This is a Zulu chant the children can "sing".
These are the animal translations.
inyoka (een-yoh'-gkah): a snake
ufudu (oo-foo'-doo – the /oo/ is pronounced as in fool): a tortoise
indlovu (een-dloh'-voo): an elephant
ikhozi (ee-koh'zee): an eagle
3. Rain Song
Imvula, Imvula (eem-voo'-lah)
Chapha, chapha, chapha, (c=click sound with tongue in back of front teeth, like the sound of exasperation)
(cah'-pah)
Chapha, chapha, chapha.
Imanz'impahla yam',
Imanz'impahla yam'. (ee-mahn'zeem pah'hla yahm)
Gqum, Gqum, (q=click made when pulling tongue down Gqum, gqum, liyaduduma from roof of mouth)
(gqoom lee-yah doo'-mah)
Liyaduduma!
Imanz'impahla yam'!
Imanz'impahla yam'!
Note: This is a very old and traditional rain song. The translation goes like this:
It's raining, it's raining,
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Additional Resources
Chapha, chapha, chapha
Chapha, chapha, chapha. (sound of the rain falling)
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet.
Gqum, gqum. (sound of the thunder)
There's the thunder!
Gqum, gqum,
There's the thunder!
My clothes are getting wet,
My clothes are getting wet!
5. The Xhosa version of "London's Burning”
Umzi watsha,
Umzi watsha,
Umzi watsha.
Khangela phaya,
Khangela phaya.
Umlilo, umlilo.
Galel amanzi,
Galel amanzi.
Source: Mama Lisa’s world: Songs and rhymes from South Africa
[Link]
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