Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club
One of my favorite activities traditional to the Montessori Preschool curriculum is gathering the children together to place the signs of the four directions on the appropriate walls of the room. East-South-West & North. Here's a link for more about this lesson: Map Study & the Cardinal Points in the Classroom.
When we are exploring the seven continents, its fun to make up a drama play about walking in the direction of "South" for a very long time until we get to South America...
Our little drama play has the rich addition of musical instruments and can easily turn into a little classroom performance!
Here's how it goes:
Let's pretend that we are hiking for a long, long time to the continent of South America. First, we pack up our clothes & camping gear and then we begin our very long hike down South all the way to South America. We can even go to the Rainforest and see all the many animals and beautiful trees & flowers that live there.
All photos are from the artists at Dollar Photo Club unless otherwise noted
When we finally arrive in South America, we're all really tired, so we set up our tent and go straight to bed!
It's here that we all discuss what animals we might find in the Rainforest of South America and what sounds they might make in the morning when everybody wakes up!
I show the children the various rhythm instruments I have set out on the rugs in the middle of our circle:
- Bells
- Maracas
- Guiros
- Afuches
- Tambourines
- A "Stir Drum"
- A Child-size Frame Drum
- Rainsticks
- Several Rainbow Wrist Ribbons
I always make sure there are enough instruments/ props for each child to have something to play in our little musical story.
Now back to our little musical story!
And, in the morning, just as the sun is coming up, we hear the first sounds of the day.
THE BIRDS!
Next...THE INSECTS!
Then...THE FROGS!
There are even LIZARDS scampering around!
We all decide that its time to get up, get dressed and take a walk to the river. On the way we see... THE MONKEYS! They're very lively and making lots of noise!
Soon, we hear the sound of THE WATERFALL at the river!
We hear ALL THE ANIMALS making their sounds. It's like a beautiful concert! (Now all the children play their instruments.) Just as we arrive at the river, we look up at the sky and see storm clouds and even hear THE THUNDER!
All the sounds of the rainforest suddenly stop and everything is still! (Here everyone stops playing and there is silence.) It's just about to rain, so we run up the river bank and huddle under the tree branches that are like our umbrellas. Then, we see and hear... THE RAIN!
It rains and rains and rains and then... it stops! We come out from under the branches of the trees and look up into the sky to see... THE RAINBOW! So, of course we dance a beautiful rainbow dance and all the rainforest creatures make their lovely, happy sounds. (Here all the children play their instruments while the "rainbow dancers" do their dance.)
At the end of the rainbow dance, all the instruments are put to rest and the children take nice long bows after such a lovely performance!
Then, it's time to travel back to our school & hometown!
I've play-acted this little musical story (and lots of variations) many times over the years with children as young as 2 1/2 and all the way to 8 yrs old. And, it is always a big hit! Some groups love performing it so much, that we have scheduled it into our end of the year performance celebration. Then, we even have an older child tell the story to the audience as the rest of the children play the various instruments to go along with the sweet little musical story. It's always a big hit with the parents, too!
The instruments I pictured in the above story can be found at Amazon and also at my favorite music supplier at this link: http://www.westmusic.com. The rainbow ribbons I like best can be purchased in lots of six at this link: Discount School Supply.
The animals pictured above are:
- Bird: Andean Rupicola
- Insect: Mosquito
- Frog: Tiger Legged Monkey Tree Frog
- Lizard: Peruvian Lizard photographed in Machu Pichu
- Monkey: Amazon Squirrel Monkey
This little musical story is quite versatile and you can vary it with the animals your group wants to feature, and there are many, many more instruments that can be included, as well! The more involved the children are in designing the musical story...the more success (and fun!) everyone feels.
I am delighted that you are reading this post and hope it inspires you to create musical stories with your group! I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Just leave a comment or two in the section at the end of this post!
Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius Photography
This photo was taken by Jeri-Jo Idarius during a fun children's summer music festival at the Muse in Willits, CA. You can check out her portfolio at this link: http://photosbyjj.com/portfolios.html In my upcoming posts, I'll be writing more about the Muse children's summer music festival activities featuring puppets & puppet making from the rainforest of South America. (and more!)
I hope your little ones enjoy the "Rainforest Musical" Story Activity as much as we have!
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