5 Percussion Instruments Children Love

One of the children's favourite parts of a music time is getting the percussion instruments out. I’m going to share with you 5 percussion instruments that I know the children love getting their hands on.  

Maracas or Shakers

These are a must for your instrument collection as they are easy for children to play.  Due to the accessibility they are great for children to play whilst singing any well-known song. 

Frog Guiro

When played, these make a croaking sound. I use different shape guiros with the children but this is definitely their favourite. Here’s a recording of me playing one so that you can hear the croaking sound:

Wave drum

The children are always fascinated by wave drums so I try to give them time to explore them before we use them in an activity. These are great for listening and practising being still; any slight movement and they will make a sound. Recently I used them with preschool age children during the song ‘Down in the Jungle’. On the 'rub-a-dub here, rub-a-dub there' part they were encouraged to move them rapidly as if washing the clothes and then contrast this with keeping the wave drums quiet for the rest of the song. They all did really well, there were, of course, some sounds made at other parts during the song but it made the 'rub-a-dub' playing part really stand out.

Boomwhackers

These are fantastic inexpensive tuned instruments which are so easy to play. The link below is for the pentatonic set; I use these with the children because no matter which notes are played at the same time the sound will be good. These are great to use inside and out.

Bells

Below is a selection of the different type of bells that I use. Some the children can hold and some they can clip around their wrist.  The clip/velcro on bells are really useful because they enable the children to play whilst also being able to dance/move safely.

If you have some of these instruments in your cupboard get them out and let the children start exploring them. If you don’t have any yet consider purchasing some as it is one of the children’s highlights when I do a music time.

If you would like to learn more about using instruments please take a look at my Musical Instrument in the Early Years online training: https://www.musicintheearlyyears.com/musical-instruments-in-the-early-years 

Happy music making!