Singing with Bells / Funky Sounds

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

Singing with Bells

Place a jingle bell inside an empty film canister. Tape or glue the lid on securely. Shake the canister and sing familiar songs like "This Old Man," "A B C Song," and "One Elephant."

Play this game with the bell.

Sing to the tune of "If You’re Happy and You Know It."

Shake the bell in the air, in the air, (hold your hands over your head to shake the bell)
Shake the bell in the air, in the air,
Shake the bell in the air and hold it up right there,
Shake the bell in the air, in the air.
Shake the bell on the side, on the side, (hold hands to one side for shaking)
Shake the bell on the side, on the side,
Shake the bell on the side as you smile very wide,
Shake the bell on the side, on the side.
Shake the bell down below, down below, (shake the bell below your knees)
Shake the bell down below, down below.
Shake the bell down below and smile and say “hello,”
Shake the bell down below, down below.

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:
For building confidence - “This jingle bell will make our singing sound beautiful.” Sing several familiar songs and shake the bells.

For developing the idea –“Which song did you like singing? Can you think of another song we could sing?”

For moving forward – “Do we have to shake our bells all through the song or could we shake them at certain times?” Try singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and only shaking the bells on word “lamb.”

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Funky Sounds

 

Brain research says that auditory discrimination of various types of sounds must be developed in order to be able to process letter sounds.

 

This activity is an important pre-reading experience.

Locate several types of containers with lids.

 

Fill each container with a different object such as sand, buttons, bells, stones, beads, birdseed, etc.

 

Securely attach the lid with super glue and/or tape. You can decorate the outside of the container if you like.

 

Give your child the opportunity to shake and make some noise with each filled container. You may even wish to leave one container empty just for novelty.

 

Talk to your child about the different types of sounds you hear when the container is shaken.

 

Choose familiar songs to sing as you shake the different containers. You might sing some of them loudly or softly, in a high or a low voice. Let the sound help you decide what to do with your voice.

 

Ideas for taking this activity to the next level:

For building confidence – Shake each container and talk about how it sounds. Is it loud or soft? Is it light or heavy? Is it tinkley or thundering?

 

For developing the idea - Select a container and ask your child to select one also. Choose a familiar song and sing and shake together.

 

For moving for forward – Go outside with your child. Listen to the different sounds. Airplanes, birds, the wind and cars.

 

Products from Discount School Supply® that I recommend:

Wooden Wind Chimes - set of 12 (BREEZY)

Kitchen Bottle Collection - set of 5 (BOTTLES)

Big Mouth Animal Puppets - set of 8 (FUNPUP)

Brawny Tough Jingle Wrap - set of 10 (JBELLSET)

Gold Jingle Bells - 150 pieces (BELLS)

Cluster Bells (CLUS)

 

Color 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 pathways of their brains to make new connections.

Learning Objective - Developing motor skills

Color Songs

The children should be sitting in front of you in a circle.
Give each child a piece of drawing paper.
Have an array of crayons next to you so that all the children can see the colors.
Sing a song to your children that has a color word in the lyrics. Here are some suggestions.
"Skip to My Lou"
"Yellow Bird"
"Red Red Robin"
"Miss Mary Mack"
"Jennie Jenkins"

Ask them to listen for a color word.
Then, select a child to come and find that color crayon and draw a circle on his paper.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: The song "Skip to My Lou" has the names of two colors. What are they?
(Little red wagon painted blue.)

For developing the idea: Let’s sing some of these songs again.

For moving forward: Let’s make up a song with a color word in it.

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Learning objective – Developing motor skills

From infancy, as babies develop, the sounds of rattles and musical toys intrigue them. Toddlers begin composing their own rhythmic patterns by banging on pots and other surfaces. A tune on the radio or television can spontaneously inspire a toddler to respond by swaying and bouncing his little body.

Here is a rhythm action poem that children enjoy.

MY BODY HAS RHYTHM by Jackie Silberg
I use my brain to think, think, think
(touch your head with your index finger)
I use my nose to smell
(touch your nose)
I use my eyes to blink, blink, blink
(blink your eyes)
And I use my mouth to YELL
(yell)
I use my mouth to giggle, giggle, giggle
(touch your mouth)
I use my hips to bump
(sway your hips)
I use my toes to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
(wiggle your toes)
And I use my legs to jump
(Jump)

1. Clap the rhythm of the poem. Notice that the rhythm is the same every other line.

2. Clap two lines and speak two lines

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Say the poem and do the actions with your child. Give her lots of praise.

For developing the idea: Clap the rhythm with your child as you say the words. She will soon become familiar with the rhythm changing every other line.

For moving forward: Give your child a stuffed animal and help her do the actions with the toy.

Recommended Products:
Find & Fit a Shape (TODFIT)
Chunky Mix & Stack Farm (MIXFARM)
Edushape® Train Set (TRAINBL)

Music for Learning

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 pathways of their brains to make new connections.


Learning Objective - Using different parts of the body
Sit on the floor with the children and ask them to follow the actions. Sing to the tune of "London Bridge."
Now it's time to touch our nose, touch our nose, touch our nose
Now it's time to touch our nose
Here it is! (touch your nose)

Now it's time to blink our eyes – here they are
Now it's time to touch our toes
Now it's time to shake our feet
Now it's time to stand up tall – I am tall
Now it's time to sit back down – I can sit

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Say, “I can touch my nose. Where is your nose?” Continue on with different parts of the body.
For developing the idea – Say, “can you touch my nose?” Name different body parts and let the child touch them on your body.
For moving forward - Ask the children to do the actions in the song with a stuffed animal.
Learning Objective - Using music for transitions
Children need time for finishing one activity and to get ready for the next one.
Music is a wonderful way to help children recognize that it’s time to finish what they are doing. Remember that their time line is different from yours. They are focusing on their project and time is not on their mind.
You can play music using the same song each time or you can sing something.
For example, you can sing to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down.”

Now it’s time to have a snack, have a snack, have a snack,
Now it’s time to have a snack,
Please pass the juice.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Compliment the children on what a good job they are doing.
For developing the idea – Ask the children how they change activities at home.
Going from sleeping to getting up and getting dressed.
Stop playing to get ready for dinner.
Getting ready to play outside.
For moving forward – Say, “let’s make up another song about changing activities.”

Recommended Products
Hand Tom Tom (TOM)
Wooden Sorting and Matching Ducks (CLRDUCK)
Gingerbread Sort and Snap (GINGERB)

Toddler Brain Development

These games will help to grow the brains of toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.
Learning Objective - Learning to communicate verbally
You will need a rhythm stick and some smiley face stickers.
Decorate a brightly colored rhythm stick with smiley face stickers.
Seat the children in a circle and pass the stick around one child at a time. The child who is holding the stick taps it on the floor and says "My name is -----, and I like -----. Then she passes it on to the next child.

The children really enjoy this game and also discover that they have similar likes. This games is also excellent for eye-hand coordination.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step.
For building confidence - “I like the way you hit the stick and told what you like.”
For developing the idea - “Can you tell me other things that you like?”
For moving forward: - “Lets draw some pictures of things that you like.”

Learning Objective - Developing fine motor skills
Say this finger play with your children.
Two nice fathers met in the lane
(hold thumbs up)
Bowed most politely and bowed again.
(bend thumbs toward each other)
How do you do, how do you do
And how do you do again
(move thumbs as if they were talking to one another)

Continue on with the finger play.
Index finger - two nice mothers met in the lane....etc
Middle finger - two nice teachers....etc
Ring finger - two nice children....etc
Little fingers - two little babies....etc

When you say "babies" it's fun to talk "baby talk."

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step.
For building confidence –“ Let’s say the poem again as we move our fingers.”
For developing the idea - “You be one father and I’ll be the other as we move our thumbs.”
For moving forward – “What other family members could you make up to go with this poem?”

Infant Brain Development

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

Learning Objective - Identifying Body Parts
Sit in front of a mirror with your baby in your lap.
Say, “Who is that baby?”
Wave your baby’s hand and say, “Hi, baby.”
Say, “Where’s the baby’s foot?”
Wave your baby’s foot and say, “Hi, foot.”
Continue asking questions and moving different parts of your baby’s body.
Shake heads, wave bye-bye, clap hands, etc.

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – Repeat the actions with a complimentary remark. For example, you can say, “What a nice foot.”
For developing the idea – Add new actions with each body part. Move the body part up and down or back and forth.
For moving forward – Ask the person in the mirror questions about additional body parts, For example, “Where are your fingernails?”

Learning Objective - Developing fine motor skills
Show the children how to take the thumb of one hand and put it into the fist of the other hand.
Practice this activity several times.
Take your thumb and put it into the fist of the other hand.
Say the following rhyme with great drama.
Jack in the box
You sit so still
Can you come out?
Yes, I will. – pull thumb out of fist

Things you can do to take this activity to the next step:
For building confidence – “Can you show me your thumb? Can you make a fist?”
For developing the idea – “Can you put your thumb of one hand in the fist of your other hand?” (help the child if they cannot do it themselves)
For moving forward - “You did a good shop with that poem. Let’s try to make our bodies be a jack-in-the-box.