Music activity
Instrument Families: Winds
Blow across a bottle and make a wind instrument!
Materials and setup
- plastic bottles
- water
- plastic straws
- scissors
- paper towel tube
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Blow across a bottle and make a wind instrument!
Steps
- SAFETY: use plastic bottles only so nothing breaks.
- A grown-up blows across the top of a bottle to make a tone. You try.
- Put a little water in the bottle. Blow again. Does the sound change?
- Put more water in. Blow. Higher or lower?
- Try a paper-towel tube as a kazoo — hum into it.
Learning objectives
- Produce a tone by blowing across a bottle
- Notice how water level changes pitch
- Explore voiced vs. blown tone
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Meet the woodwind and brass families.
Steps
- Woodwinds use a reed or an edge to split air: flute, clarinet, oboe, saxophone.
- Brass uses the player's buzzing lips: trumpet, trombone, French horn, tuba.
- Listen to one short clip of each, chosen by a grown-up.
- Play a matching game: point to the picture when you hear the sound.
- Try to make a buzzing lips 'trumpet' sound yourself.
Learning objectives
- Distinguish woodwind from brass by mechanism
- Match sound to instrument by ear
- Produce a lip-buzz tone
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Build a straw oboe and study how a reed works.
Steps
- Take a plastic straw. Flatten one end with your teeth to make a double-reed.
- Cut the flattened end into a point.
- Put the flattened end in your mouth and blow hard — it should buzz.
- Cut the straw shorter and blow again. Higher or lower?
- Listen to a real oboe clip (e.g., the opening of Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf' — the oboe plays the duck).
- Write 3 sentences comparing your straw oboe to a real oboe.
Learning objectives
- Build a working double-reed model
- Relate tube length to pitch
- Connect a handmade model to a real instrument
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Study Louis Armstrong's trumpet sound and analyze a solo.
Steps
- A grown-up shares 3 facts: Louis Armstrong was born in New Orleans in 1901. He was a trumpet player and singer. He helped shape jazz.
- Listen to 'West End Blues' (1928) — the opening cadenza is widely studied.
- Focus on the first 12 seconds — Armstrong's unaccompanied trumpet cadenza.
- On paper, sketch the contour of the solo (a line that goes up when pitch goes up).
- Write 3 sentences on what makes Armstrong's tone recognizable (bright, clear, with slight vibrato).
- Try humming the cadenza yourself.
Learning objectives
- Sketch melodic contour
- Describe a specific player's tone
- Connect a musician to a historical moment
Safety and evidence note
Read the full activity before beginning. An adult should supervise tools, heat, food, outdoor work, movement, and experiments as appropriate. Completion records that the activity was done; the child’s explanation, work sample, photo, or demonstration is stronger evidence of learning than a completion check alone.
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