Earlier this summer, I wrote a blog post called “How to Make (Inexpensive) Individual Music Kits. At the time, I didn’t know what my school year would look like. Would I be face-to-face with students, pushing into classrooms, or fully remote? No matter the situation, I knew one thing – I wanted my students to have access to instruments and manipulatives for music making.
As the school year approached, I found out that our elementary students would remain fully remote. I put together 200 kits for my Kindergarten & First Grade students and sent them home with their classroom materials during the first week of school. I had no idea how impactful that simple decision would be for my students. As we sang, moved, and played through the first trimester, my students came eagerly to the camera each week holding their “Music At Home” kits. The magic of two corn dog skewers, a tulle scarf, an egg shaker, a foam leaf, pool noodle scrapers, and googly eye ring have proven to be well worth the cost of materials and sweat equity to put those kits together.
Winter Music Kits
The music kits were so impactful that I decided to do it again! For the winter, I’m adding a few things that we use in instruction each winter as well as things that were inspired by seeing the many Facebook posts of your own music kits! So what did I add to our kits? For my K-1 students, they each received:
- Two 5″ paper plates for “ice skating”
- One foam snowflake
- One streamer
- One jingle bell ring
- One corrugated cardboard guiro
- One craft stick & paper puppet cut out
Funding Your Music Kits
I know for many, the first thought it, where do I get the money for these kits? The reality is that it’s a combination of PTA support, donations, and using some left over funds I had from last year. I’ve seen some people put items on their Amazon Wishlists and share them with friends and family. I know that others have asked local businesses for donations. The reality is that although the total cost of materials may feel overwhelming, the reality is the total cost of each kit per student is relatively low. Here’s how my K-1 kits turned out.
Paper Plate Ice Skating
If you have never done paper plate ice skating with little kids, you don’t know what you are missing! It’s MAGIC! I ordered 5″ paper plates from Amazon and gave each student 2 plates in their kit. Cost per student was 9 cents each.
Streamer
My students loved using their tulle scarves for movement activities. For our streamers, I ordered 2 packs of satin wrapping ribbon (approximately 800 yards). I also ordered 20 packs of shower curtain rings from the Dollar Tree. I cut the ribbon into 3 yard pieces and used three piece of ribbon per streamer. A simple slip knot over the part where the shower curtain ring connects keeps the ribbon in place. Each streamer cost 16 cents each.
Foam Snowflake
Foam snowflakes are great for body awareness activities with little ones! We loved moving our leaves in the fall and singing the resting tone as it fell to the floor. I bought crafting foam from Michaels for 99 cents per sheet. I used our Ellison Die-Cut machine at school and cut the sheets into 3-6″ strips. I then cut 3 snowflakes per strip. I was able to get 9 snowflakes per sheet. Each snowflake cost 11 cents each.
Jingle Bell Ring
I ordered 2-200 piece sets of 1″ key rings. I chose to put 2 bells on each ring, but you could easily put one bell per ring. I ordered 2-300 packs of 1″ jingle bells for our jingle bell rings. You could put the materials in the bag and have parents put them together, but it took my son and I about 2 hours to put 360+ bells together. Each jingle bell ring cost approximately 18 cents.
Corrugated Cardboard Guiro
This is an idea I saw as I was searching some of the music Facebook groups. One person purchased corrugated cardboard rolls from E-bay. She cut the cardboard into 6″ pieces. It makes a fabulous sound! I cut 6″ pieces for my older students, but for my K-1 students, I cut 4″ pieces and then cut them in half. Total cost for each cardboard guiro? 5 cents per student.
Craft Stick Puppet
The last thing I added to my winter music kits came from my good friend, Kristin Kreiss! She’s teaching students face-to-face and shared how she took one of my children’s songs and made it into a craftivity! Using empty toilet paper rolls (you can purchase them as craft tubes too), she made copies of little paper clowns the students could color and personalize. The students attached their clown to a craft stick to create their own little stick puppet!
When I teach the song to my students, I use a cone puppet that pops out to sing the resting tone through out the song. I LOVED the idea of my students creating their own resting tone puppet. I made copies of a black and white image of a boy & girl and included it in the kit with a craft stick. I included a note to parents to set aside a toilet paper tube from their home for this activity as well. I happened to have a box of 1000 craft sticks donated to me, so the cost for this activity? FREE!
So what was the total cost per student for our Winter Music Kits? 59 cents per student!. I can’t wait to see my students faces as we make music this winter with our new additions to our music kits!
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