Music activity
Instrument Families: Percussion
Tap, shake, and scrape household items to explore percussion.
Materials and setup
- household percussion
- bucket or lap drum
- streaming service
How this changes by age
Pre-K (ages 3–4)
Tap, shake, and scrape household items to explore percussion.
Steps
- Gather a pot, a spoon, a plastic container with rice, and a box.
- Tap each one. Which is the loudest?
- Shake the rice container. Make a fast shake and a slow shake.
- Scrape the spoon gently on the box.
- Play along to a song using 3 of them.
Learning objectives
- Recognize three percussion actions (tap, shake, scrape)
- Compare loudness of percussion sources
- Play along with a recording
Kindergarten (ages 5–6)
Learn the difference between pitched and unpitched percussion.
Steps
- Pitched percussion plays specific notes: xylophone, marimba, timpani.
- Unpitched percussion has no specific note: snare drum, cymbals, triangle.
- Listen to one clip of each kind, chosen by a grown-up.
- Sort a list (written by the grown-up) of 10 percussion instruments into the two groups.
- Name the one you'd most like to try playing.
Learning objectives
- Distinguish pitched from unpitched percussion
- Sort instruments into categories
- Articulate a preference
Early elementary (ages 6–8)
Explore percussion traditions from West Africa (djembe) and Latin America (congas).
Steps
- Watch (with a grown-up) a short clip of a djembe ensemble from Mali or Guinea.
- Watch a short clip of a Cuban conga player.
- Learn: djembe is a goblet-shaped drum from West Africa; congas are tall barrel drums developed in Cuba.
- Practice 3 hand-drum sounds: open tone, bass, slap (grown-up demonstrates on a lap drum or upside-down bucket).
- Create a 4-beat pattern using the three sounds and loop it for 1 minute.
Learning objectives
- Identify djembe and conga by sight and sound
- Practice three fundamental hand-drum sounds
- Create a looping rhythm pattern
Upper elementary (ages 8–10)
Study a real percussion piece and describe what each drum is doing.
Steps
- Listen to the 4th movement of Steve Reich's 'Drumming' (1971) — a widely studied minimalist percussion work. A 3-minute excerpt is enough.
- Identify the instruments you hear (marimba, glockenspiel, voice).
- Notice how patterns shift gradually — that's called phasing.
- Try a simple phasing exercise with a partner: both clap the same 4-beat pattern, then one person speeds up very slightly until you're one beat off, then re-align.
- Write 4 sentences describing what phasing sounds like and how it made you feel.
Learning objectives
- Recognize phasing as a compositional technique
- Identify percussion instruments by timbre
- Attempt a phasing exercise with a partner
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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