Marvelous Maracas
By Johnette Downing

Activity:

    Making Maracas

Subject:

    Music and Art

Materials:

1. Cardboard tubes
2. Paint
3. Beans or Mardi Gras beads
4. Stapler
5. Yarn or colored tissue

Instructions:

1. Have children paint tubes and let dry over night.
2. Staple one end of the tube.
3. If using Mardi Gras beads, cut beads into little pieces.
4. Place a small handful of beads or beans (about ten beads or beans) into tube. Do not fill tube. Fewer beads sound better.
5. Staple the open end of the tube perpendicular to the stapled end. This will allow more room inside the tube for the beads to move around.
6. Staple yarn or colored tissue to the stapled ends as fringe for decoration.
7. Play music, shake maracas and enjoy

Water Bottle Guiro (Scraper)
By Johnette Downing

Materials:

1. Empty plastic water bottle (with grooves on the outside)
2. Unsharpened pencil

Instructions:

1. Dig through the recycle bin to find an empty plastic water bottle.
2. Make sure the water bottle has grooves on the outside.
3. Gently scrape a pencil back and forth across the grooves on the outside of the bottle to create a scraping percussive sound.
4. Create a rhythmic pattern while scraping.
5. Play some recorded music or sing your favorite tune and create interesting rhythms to accompany the music.
6. Next, try making guiros with different sized water bottles and listen to the different tones produced.
7. Then try playing the guiros with the cap on and with the cap off and listen to the different tones produced.
8. Now, just have fun creating rhythms and sounds on your new bottle guiro!

Straw Instrument
By Johnette Downing

Materials:

1. One or more straws
2. Safety scissors

Instructions:

1. Using the scissors, snip one end of the straw into a spear shape or an upside down “V” ( ^ ) to make a mouthpiece called a reed.

2. With your fingers or teeth, press the two reeds together to flatten. The opposite end of the straw will still be round and open.
3. Place the reeds on your lips and close your lips.
4. Blow air through the straw to cause the reeds to vibrate. It takes some practice to make a sound, so keep tiring if at first you do not succeed. You may need to flatten the reeds more if you are unsuccessful at first.
5. Once you have produced a sound, try making another straw of a shorter length and listen to the difference in the sound produced. Do you think the shorter straw will have a higher or lower pitch? Try it and see!
6. Then try making several straws of various lengths and listen to the different sounds produced.
7. Next, use two straws, one slightly larger than the other, to create a trombone-like instrument.
8. Enjoy the music!

Cajun Spoons
By Johnette Downing

Materials:

1. Two table spoons
2. One cork
3. Large rubber band

Instructions:

1. Place the spoons back to back.
2. Place the cork in between the heels (lower portion of handles) of the spoons.
3. Secure the cork in between the spoons with the rubber band.
4. Gently tap the spoons on the palm of your hand to produce a percussive sound.
5. Next, try tapping the spoons between your palm and your thigh.
6. Once you have mastered the spoons, try playing the spoons across your fingers. Spread the fingers on one hand and make the fingers rigid. Next, rub the spoons across the rigid fingers to make a horse trotting sound.
7. Play along with some Cajun or any type of music. Enjoy!

Pie Tin Cymbals
By Music Crafts for Kids by Noel Fiarotta & Phyllis Fiarotta, Sterling Publishing Company, NY

1. Two disposable aluminum pie tins
2. Two small drawer knobs and screws
3. One pencil

Instructions:

1. Using the scissors, snip one end of the straw into a spear shape or an upside down “V” ( ^ ) to make a mouthpiece called a reed.
2. With your fingers or teeth, press the two reeds together to flatten. The opposite end of the straw will still be round and open.
3. Place the reeds on your lips and close your lips
4. Blow air through the straw to cause the reeds to vibrate. It takes some practice to make a sound, so keep tiring if at first you do not succeed. You may need to flatten the reeds more if you are unsuccessful at first.
5. Once you have produced a sound, try making another straw of a shorter length and listen to the difference in the sound produced. Do you think the shorter straw will have a higher or lower pitch? Try it and see!
6. Then try making several straws of various lengths and listen to the different sounds produced.
7. Next, use two straws, one slightly larger than the other, to create a trombone-like instrument.
8. Enjoy the music!

Kitchen Band
By Johnette Downing

Materials:

1. Metal pots, pot lids, pans and plastic bowls
2. Safe cooking utensils such as metal and wooden spoons (no sharp objects)
3. Optional: The recording of the “Kitchen Band” song on my “From the Gumbo Pot” CD/Cassette.
4. Paper and pencil

Instructions:

1. Select a few pots, pot lids, pans, bowls and safe cooking utensils from your kitchen thinking about which ones would produce a good sound when struck.
2. Ask your parent(s) for permission to use the items you selected to create a kitchen band
3. Identify the names of the kitchen utensils and cookware you selected.
4. Using the utensils, gently tap the pots, pot lids and bowls to produce music.
5. Listen to the various sounds each pot, lid, pan and bowl makes.
6. Optional: Play along with the recording of the “Kitchen Band” song on my “From the Gumbo Pot” CD/Cassette. Try to identify and match the sounds of the utensils and cookware I used to create my Kitchen Band.
7. Next, using paper and a pencil, create your own song by writing down the rhythm pattern for a musical score. For instance, you may write:

   pot, pot, pan, lid
   pot, pot, bowl, spoon.

8. Play the Kitchen Band song you created by following your own song chart playing the instruments according to the pattern.
9. Next, play recorded music and march around following the various tempos of the different songs. The tempo is the speed of the song i.e. a fast tempo or a slow tempo.
10. Invite your family to join the fun.
11. When you are finished with the Kitchen Band, remember to clean up and pick up.

Film Canister Shakers
By Johnette Downing

Materials:

1. Empty film canister with lid
2. One teaspoon of rice

Instructions:

1. Open lid of film canister.
2. Place a teaspoon of rice into canister.
3. Fasten lid.
4. Shake canister to produce a sound.
5. Play along with recorded or live music and enjoy!.

Haiku For Educators and Parents
By Johnette Downing
Copyright 2002 Johnette Downing

In my opinion, one of the best descriptions of haiku that I have read is by, my friend and cofounder of the New Orleans Haiku Society, David Lanoue:

“Haiku is a short, concrete poem of Japanese origin. Haiku in English usually appears as an unrhymed three-line verse. Its use of intense, fragmentary imagery and its stress on rhythm and sound place it in the poetry side of the language spectrum. Though it can be presented on the page in three lines, a haiku structurally consists of two parts with a pause in between. Its power as poetry derives from juxtaposition of the two images and the sense of surprise or revelation that the second image produces. A good haiku is like a good joke: the set up (image 1), then the punch line (image 2).”
– David Lanoue

Here are some poems.

pink tutus
fluttering in the wind
spring butterflies

-Johnette Downing

lazy afternoon-
in and out of the sprinkler
children’s voices/

-Stanford M. Forrester

the toddler
runs to third base
first

-Tom Painting

buttercups-
a child’s
yellow nose

-Johnette Downing

flying to Japan
my guitar back home
frets

-David Lanoue

origami class-
a butterfly on the window
unfolds its wings

-Stanford M. Forrester

rainy afternoon
the only child
plays dot to dot

-Tom Painting

across the fish tank
a child’s
eyes

-Johnette Downing

sibling rivalry-
my sister
always wrong

-Stanford M. Forrester