Making a Musical Instrument

Handbells and castanets. Triangles and timpani. Trumpets and trombones. As part of their study of instruments, young musicians label, trace and color the parts of seven instruments. Also included in the resource packet are tracing...

The principles of levers and simple machines are presented here. An easy-to-make lever is constructed by each group of scientists, and they use it to explore how this simple machine makes heavy things so much easier to lift and move. A...

Sound engineers investigate the structural design of a musical instrument, the recorder. They work in collaborative groups to choose an instrument to build out of everyday craft materials. It must be able to repeat a three-note sequence...

Using graphics, and an easy-to-understand format, this resource outlines the different kinds of instruments and their characteristics. This presentation could be used as an introduction to instruments for students getting ready to...

Young scholars observe the sounds of different brass instruments in order to understand how to create different pitches. In this musical lesson, students create a "brass" instrument from everyday household objects. The young scholars...

Here is a tri-faceted resource that has a slide show, a quiz, and a vocabulary list that you can use to teach simple machines. Six machines are introduced: wheels and axles, planes, levers, pulleys, wedges, and screws. Slides contain...

From the clarinet to maracas, this PowerPoint covers various instruments in the 4 instrument families: woodwinds, brass, strings, percussion. Descriptions and pictures of instruments in the four families are provided. Slides 19-22...

Students explore musical pitch. In this cross curriculum musical instruments and "sound" physics lesson, students identify and describe common traits of woodwind instruments. Students research "pitch" and what causes pitch fluctuation by...

Music, culture, social studies, and plant growth all in one! Kids explore the various type of traditional African instruments that are made out of gourds. They then grow their own gourds and use them to create a wide variety of African...

Groups rotate through a series of stations and work with a partner to observe sound waves. Children describe sound in terms of pitch, volume, and frequency. To apply their new knowledge, the class considers how these observations can...