This game is a good way to help younger students distinguish between different instruments based on sound. Introduce a variety of simple instruments to your students and play each instrument so they can hear what it sounds like. Instruments that work well for this activity include drums, maracas, tambourines, xylophones, triangles and keyboard or piano. Next have choose one student to be "it" and have him sit in a chair at the front of the classroom. Have the student close his eyes or blindfold him. Then select another student to play one of the instruments that you showed the class. The student doesn't have to be able to play a song; she just needs to make a few sounds on the instrument. The student who is "it" then must identify which instrument was played. If he can correctly identify the instrument and guess who played it, he gets to go again. If not, he can choose the next person to be "it."
This activity helps students explore various types of music through movement. First discuss with your class how different types of music can make you feel happy, sad, excited or calm, for example. Then instruct them to stand up and begin moving through the room once they hear music playing. Set a few rules, such as no touching others or talking and freeze when the music stops. Use music from different genres and with different tempos and instruments. Once the students have moved to a variety of musical pieces, have them sit down again. Discuss how music affects movement and have them give examples of movements that "fit" the music when it is fast, slow, cheerful or melancholy.
This activity helps students become familiar with the instrument families in the orchestra. Pass out four index cards to each student and have them color one card red, one blue, one yellow and one green. Have the students color only one side of each card. On the other side of the red card, write "strings." On the blue, write "percussion." Write "woodwinds" on the yellow card and write "brass" on the green card. Discuss the different families and give examples of instruments within each family. Play recordings of various instruments and have the students hold up the card they think correctly identifies the instrument family. You also can have the class make their own instruments. You can make percussion instruments by placing small objects such as dried beans or rice in plastic eggs or you can make drums out of coffee cans or oatmeal containers. Have your students play their homemade instruments in a class performance.