Great Ideas for Making Music Outdoors

Music has the power to lift us- body, mind and spirit. This is especially true for young children. Making and moving to music promotes all areas of development:

• physical- coordination, muscle tone, fine and gross motor skills develop as children play instruments or dance to music
• cognitive- creating and listening to music includes problem solving, logical thinking, patterning, counting, cause and effect, scientific discoveries, imagination and creativity
• language- vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and rhyming can all be developed through songs
• social- cooperation, turn-taking, give and take and the creation of shared experiences are all a part of the music making process
• emotional- self-expression, personal reflection and the exploration of moods and feelings

When we take music outdoors all of these wonderful qualities are enhanced. Outdoors children (and teachers) have a heightened sense of freedom. Outdoors we feel more comfortable to let go and explore. We can sing loud, we can play loud, we can get silly and experimental.

So consider creating a music corner in your outdoor space. Every-day items can make wonderful instruments.

• Plastic flower pots or 5 gallon tubs make great drums
• a variety of old spoons hanging on a coat hanger can be chimes
• PVC pipes of various lengths can be tapped with an old flip-flop to create all kinds of cool sounds
• Pea gravel makes a neat sound when poured over an old washboard
• Put a little water into a metal bowl and tap it with a stick to hear more funky sounds

Let the Children Play is another blog full of all kids of photos and ideas for musical fun outdoors. Check it out! And if you want even more info on how to create fun and inexpensive musical experiences to your children check out our Music with Little Ones binder for Infants and Toddlers, or our Making Music binder for ages 3-8.

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