Nancy Stewart

Children's Music  ·  Seattle, Washington

← Activities

🎁 Music Box Makeover

Music Box Makeover

The goal is to have useful, musical-sounding instruments, specific ways to use them, and have everything organized.

1

Sort Instruments Into Categories

  • Good condition, pleasant-sounding
  • Good condition, but annoying-sounding
  • Needing repair
  • Items to discard
2

Inventory Assessment

  • What instruments do you have?
  • Any single items that can't be used in a group?
  • How many children are in your group?
  • How many of each instrument do you want?
3

Create a Music Box Container

  • Purchase and decorate a large, colorful container big enough to hold all your instruments
  • Use Decocolor markers and electrical tape for decoration and labeling
  • Separate instruments into labeled inner containers
4

Organize Contents

  • Create a 3-ring binder with visuals showing how to use each instrument
  • Store frequently-used recordings (CDs) in the music box
  • Add a "Song and Story Sounds" reference notebook with magazine pictures and felt pieces

💡 Implementation Tip

Organize a craft party with 3–6 childcare providers to collectively build instruments together. See Homemade Instruments for instructions on building your own, and Story Sounds for ideas on using them.