Making Music Activities from Montessori By Mom

Do you feel inadequate to help your child with musical activities? Montessori By Mom to the rescue! Montessori by Mom toolboxes are designed for ages 3-6, but many of the activities work well with toddlers, and others even work well with elementary-age kids.

The Making Music Toolbox is an amazing resource, even if you have no experience with music. It wasn’t hard to put together some great hands-on activities using the Making Music Toolbox from Montessori By Mom!

Disclosure: I’m a Montessori By Mom affiliate. I was given the Making Music Toolbox for this review. This post contains affiliate links (at no cost to you).

 

Montessori By Mom

Montessori By Mom is a small business started by Nathan and Teresa Hadsall, two teachers who wanted to empower parents to teach their own children using Montessori principles and activities. Nathan and Teresa offer a subscription service, sending a box of themed Montessori materials and activities for 3-5 year olds each month. Everything you need for teaching your child with the materials is included in the monthly subscription. With each box, you’ll get

• Video instruction for many activities (The videos are wonderful! Parents with no Montessori experience can feel comfortable introducing the Montessori activities after watching the video instructions.)
• Video instruction about basic Montessori principles and teaching techniques
• All the materials needed
• Extension activities with other materials from home
• Access to an online forum where you can ask questions and connect with other parents

Montessori By Mom now has a Montessori By Mom store where you can buy single toolboxes, activity sets, single items and refills, and printables and videos.

There’s also a Marketplace where parents and teachers can sell homemade or used Montessori-related products. You can post products free. Montessori By Mom just takes a 15% commission from each sale for providing credit card processing and the platform.

Making Music Toolbox and Activities

The Making Music Toolbox has a large number of activities you can create with the materials.

Teresa and Nathan give many ideas for various ages and levels of difficulty. Each material can be used in multiple ways, and the extensions ensure that the activities can grow with your child. The instructional videos and online resources are wonderful … and it’s so nice to have all the materials included. The Making Music Toolbox is available in the Montessori By Mom store.

The toolbox contains:

• Irish Penny Whistle
• Montessori Sound Cylinders Set
• Instrument Matching Set
  • Musical Instrument Models
  • MBM Instrument Cards Set
• Rhythm and Patterning Set
  • Rhythm Pattern Card Set
  • Paper Mache Drum
  • Rhythm Sticks
•  Jingle Bells
• Leather Cord
• Making Music Toolbox Guide
• Instructional Videos (online)
• Online Printables and Resources

Making Music Activities Using the Montessori By Mom Materials

These are just a few of the activities you can prepare using the Making Music materials. There are many additional ideas in the videos and online parent resources that are included with the toolbox. I’m impressed that there are so many different levels of activities included in the Making Music Toolbox. It’s especially helpful for homeschoolers to have activities for toddlers through elementary. (Note: The trays and baskets in my photos don’t come with the Making Music Toolbox.)

In the extension activities, there are some very fun activities, such as conducting, circus tricks, freeze dance, and creative musical activities to “BINGO” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”

Montessori Sound Cylinders

Montessori sound cylinders are a perfect way to focus young children on differentiating sounds. The Making Music Toolbox includes a sound matching tubes set with 5 white cylinders and 5 black cylinders. Normally, sound cylinders are divided into two boxes. If all five cylinders are used, I think they should be divided into two boxes. For toddlers and young preschoolers, you could put both sets of loud, medium, and soft tubes into a single basket for the child to match. (My basket is from a craft store.) Later on, your child could match all five pairs and then grade them from loudest to softest.

Using an Irish Penny Whistle and Rhythm Sticks with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” – Making Music with a Toddler Video

My daughter, Christina, my 23-month-old granddaughter, Zoey (Christina’s niece), and I had so much fun making music with the Making Music Toolbox materials! When I was younger, I was a clarinetist and played soprano and alto recorders. I had never tried playing an Irish penny whistle, though. I was very impressed with how easy it is to play. It would make a great first instrument for an advanced preschooler or for a kindergartener or elementary-age child. It has a lot of similarities to a recorder but doesn’t have a thumb hole, so it’s even easier to learn to play than a recorder. In this 40-second video, you’ll see the fun we had when I played the penny whistle while Christina and Zoey sang and tapped rhythm sticks to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Matching Music Cards with Musical Instrument Models

This is a very inviting 3-part card activity. The 3-part music cards and musical instrument models would work well for preschoolers through early elementary.

Toddlers will love them, too! Zoey enjoyed matching the instrument models to the pictures. Older children and readers can use the entire set of 3-part cards.

Musical Instrument Sound Identification

Zoey and I both LOVED this activity! I brought my iPhone to the rug where Zoey had matched the musical instrument models to the cards. Then I played each piece of music using the links provided in the Montessori By Mom online resources for people who’ve purchased the Making Music Toolbox. Zoey wanted to “play” the musical instruments, so I showed her how to “play” each one during the music. 

Decorating a Drum

If you have the Art Appreciation Toolbox, you can use those pigments to decorate your drum. I just showed how you could paint it with materials you already have. I just used some acrylic paints, a paint palette, and paint brushes I had at home to prepare a tray for decoarating the drum.

Rhythm Pattern Card Matching

This is a wonderful activity for introducing children to musical notation before they read notes while playing an instrument. It’s hands on, and even includes the rhythm sticks for practicing the rhythms.

Making a Jingle Bell Bracelet and Ringing Bells to Rhythm Patterns

Younger children could make a jingle bell bracelet and use the bells to practice rhythms. I just added the strips with the whole notes and the half notes. You could hold up a strip and have your child play the rhythm.

Montessori By Mom Toolboxes + Toolbox Review and Activity Posts

(Update) Here are all the Montessori By Mom toolbox review and activity posts I’ve published here at Living Montessori Now:

Shells and Starfish Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom

Shoots and Sprouts Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom

Practical Life Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom

Building and Blocks Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom

Land, Water, Air Activities from Montessori By Mom

Art Appreciation Activities from Montessori By Mom

Learning Language Activities from Montessori By Mom

Making Music Activities from Montessori By Mom

Earth Exploration Activities from Montessori By Mom

Montessori By Mom has a few other Toolboxes, too: Mad Scientist (for skills such as pouring, color mixing, volume, and measurement), Space Explorer Toolbox, Movement and Motion, Caves and Caverns, Journey to Japan, Dinosaur Discovery, Delicious Discoveries, and Kings, Queens, and Castles.

I’ll be adding my review and activity posts to this post as I publish them. Montessori By Mom is actively working to restock several of their Toolboxes, so there should be more available every month.

MONTESSORI BY MOM SPECIAL OFFER FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS!

I really love the Montessori By Mom materials and curriculum. I definitely recommend Montessori By Mom for parents looking for a simple and fun way to start using Montessori at home.

Montessori By Mom offers $10 off to new subscribers with the coupon code AFFDECH at checkout.

Montessori By Mom is based in the U.S., but there’s even international shipping! Montessori By Mom also has a Montessori By Mom store where you can buy single toolboxes, activity sets, single items and refills, and printables and videos! You can connect with Nathan and Teresa on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, and YouTube (where you can see their public videos, including a Montessori By Mom subscription sample). They also have a blog with more helpful information. Montessori By Mom runs the Montessori By Mom Family (Facebook group), too, “as a way way to support anyone interested in providing children with a Montessori experience. We also want our customers and fans to be able to connect with us and each other!”

Learn more about my eBook Montessori at Home or School: How to. Teach Grace and Courtesy! I’m also one of the coauthors of the book Learn with Play – 150+ Activities for Year-round Fun & Learning!

The Montessori at Home! eBook and Montessori at Home! eBook and Materials Bundle are AMAZING resources! You can learn more about them here. Buy them in the Living Montessori Now shop.

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