Xylophone

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!

Psalm 98:4

Preschool Activities
We went to our Christmas Eve service at church last night as a family (the kids usually go to their own age appropriate program).  Much to the delight of my middle child who just started drum lessons, the very first song played was Little Drummer Boy.  As we left church, we enjoyed our very favorite version of that song again by TobyMac.

There were lots of other percussion instruments in last night's worship band: jingle bells and xylophones among them.  I wanted to continue that theme of worship today by making music at home.  So we decided to try to make some instruments at home using recycled items we already have around the house.

I filled four glasses with different volumes of water and dyed the water green and red.  Then I let the boys softly strike the side of the glass with a pencil to listen to the different sounds made by our homemade xylophone.
We turned an old oatmeal container into a drum, using unsharpened pencils as drum sticks.
The boys made some maracas by filling small plastic food storage containers with beads.
We pulled out our jingle sticks (jingle bells on pipe cleaners) from J is Jingle Bells.
Our toilet paper roll horns didn't last more than a few days, so we pulled out some kazoos.
I stretched several rubber bands over the open end of a small shoe box to make a small guitar.
I tried to teach them to play the spoons, but they all found it a little difficult and lost interest very quickly!

Service Activities
Go caroling at a nursing home.  It's best to call ahead and find out the best time of day to stop by.  Right before or after lunch, there is often a congregation of people in the common or dining areas.


Snacks
Mixed nuts in a metal can.  After pouring snack portions into individual cups, I left the metal cans on the table and allowed the kids to shake and drum on them along to our Christmas music!

Songs
 
 
Books
The Little Drummer Boy, by Ezra Jack Keats