Cardboard Music & Animal Songs

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the brain pathways to make new connections.

Music Activities for Infants and Toddlers

Cardboard Music
Playing this game will develop rhythm and memory.

You will need a toilet tissue paper tube (ARTROLL) for each child.

Show the children how to make a musical sound by singing into the tube.

If you sing "toot, toot, toot" you will make an interesting sound.

Try "toot tooting" familiar songs like " Happy Birthday" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

Playing this game is a forerunner to playing a kazoo and later perhaps a wind instrument.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Ask the child to toot a song and you sing along.

For developing the idea - Try tooting the songs in a high voice and a low voice.

For moving forward – Pick out three favorite songs and play them together. Let the child choose which song he will toot in the morning, the afternoon and the evening. 

If your child is enjoying this, change to new songs every few days.

This is a great pre-cursor to poetry and reading in general.

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Animal Songs
This activity encourages creativity, cognitive thinking and the joy of singing.

Young children are particularly fond of songs, games and books about animals. 

The more that you sing with your child, the better language he will have and the better reader he will be.

Here are some songs about animals. Can you think of some more?

Itsy Bitsy Spider, Five Little Ducks, Old Macdonald, All the Fish, Shoo Fly, Bingo, and Hickory Dickory Dock.

A wonderful website to find Animal Songs is Kididdles.com.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:For building confidence –Sing an animal song with the child and praise him for doing such a good job.

For developing the idea - Pick an animal song and ask the child to make the sound of that animal. Now sing the song in the animal voice that the child made.

For moving forward – Make up a song with the child about an animal. It’s best to use a familiar tune like “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Here is an example.

Bobby had a little dog, little dog, little dog,
Bobby had a little dog
It’s fur was black and white.

Products from Discount School Supply® that I recommend:
Indestructibles™ Nursery Rhymes Books - Set of 6 (INDY2)
Maestro Baby Instruments - Set of 4 (MAESTRO)
Circus Sorting Train Banner - 29 Pieces (CHUCHU)