Fun with Music -- Ribbon Dancing!

We had rain all day, and the girls needed to burn off some energy. So we tied some ribbon onto some canning lids, cranked up some Latin music, and had a DANCING fiesta in our living room!!

Woo hoo!! Both of the girls had so much fun!!!

Easy City Scape Mural

During taping for a segment on today's 10! Show, I had the pleasure of meeting Eren Cannata, a very talented singer/songwriter who was today's musical guest. Eren performed his title track from his latest CD "Blame it on the City" -- a fantastic song, and it was the inspiration for our lovely city scape mural!

Emily and I put the mural together using inexpensive masking tape, construction paper for buildings, and Post-It Notes of various sizes for the windows. I love how bright and colorful it looks in our living room!

Added bonus -- it makes a super-fun backdrop for spontaneous jumping on the couch sessions!!

Repurposing Toys -- Peter and the Wolf Play Set

Last weekend, our family went to see Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" (Thank you, Aunt Julia!) We all really enjoyed the ballet and music! So much so that Emily wanted a play set so she could re-enact the story. I thought that was a fabulous idea, so I sent her on a scavenger hunt to find toys she already had around the house to use for her play set! This kept her busy for a long time, but she was able to find everything she needed.

Without having to buy anything, she found two men dolls (one for Peter, and we added a white beard and cane to the other one to make him into the Grandfather), a small duck, a cat, a gate, a wolf, and even some hunters!

5 Little Snowmen Play Set

Last year, my friend Erin and her two little girls taught Emily the Five Little Snowmen song. I had never heard it before, but it became an instant favorite of Emily's and was sung over and over again in our household many times during the Winter months.

To go along with the song, I made a little play set out of felt. Emily loved re-enacting the song, building the snowmen, and then letting the sun come out to melt them all one by one. She especially loved building crazy snowmen all out of order and thought that was hilarious!

I cut out the shapes, and drew the eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons on each snowman with a Sharpie. Easy!

Emily's internet singing debut!!!

Five Little Snowmen

Five little snowmen, fat!

Each with a funny hat.

Out came the sun,

and melted one.

What a sad day was that!

Thank you, Erin, for sharing this fun song with us!

Pumpkin Ring Toss Game

If you have a couple of pumpkins and some canning rings, you can put together your own pumpkin ring toss game! Emily enjoyed playing this, and it is challenging. When we played, each canning ring that hit a pumpkin was 1 point, but if we got a ringer around the pumpkin stem, it was worth 10 points!

Clara was happy to put the canning rings over the pumpkin stems and clapped every time. She was so proud of herself!

Then, we attached some ribbon to the canning rings to make dancing ribbon rings. We cranked up the music and danced!

I had no idea canning rings could be so much fun!!

Ribbon Dancer

I could not believe what a hit this was -- so simple and Emily adored it! I was cleaning out a "junk" drawer in the kitchen and came across a plastic spatula that I rarely use. It inspired a day of ribbon dancing.

We played some Brazilian music on the stereo, and this little girl could not keep herself from dancing! We even decorated the spatula with some sparkly stickers.

She is still dancing away as I am typing up this post! We taped strips of tissue paper to the spatula, although ribbon or brightly colored plastic bags cut into strips would also work well.

I love how she has so much fun with the most simplest things.

I think someone will be going to bed early tonight!

Tip -- No spatula to part with? Try a wooden paint stick instead!

Frugal Fun with Music

This afternoon we made musical instruments from recyclables. This was a big hit and Emily is still making lots of new sounds with her drum, guitar, and shaker. We made the drum with an empty oatmeal canister. If you saw this post, you would understand why we have a lot of these!

This version of a guitar was made with an empty plastic chocolate container and some rubber bands. Emily liked the sound this made, and it was so easy!

This one was probably her favorite -- a shaker made from an empty paper towel roll, some wax paper, rubber bands, and filled with some dry beans.

Have an idea for a recycled musical instrument that I forgot to add? I would love to hear about it! Leave a comment and share your ideas with us!

25 Free MP3 Music Downloads + 1 Bonus Audiobook

Looking for some free tunes for your iPod?  Check out emusic.com for a free trial that includes 25 free music downloads and 1 bonus audiobook.  Take 2 weeks to decide if you like emusic and if you don't, cancel and keep the 25 music files as their gift to you for trying!