X is for Xylophone!

Today we did some xylophone activities to learn about the letter X and make some music. Keep scrolling to see what we did, or click on one of the links below to revisit similar themes from the past.

X is for X-Ray - 2015

The Letter X - 2014

Music - 2012

Forming the Letter

Instead of worksheets today I provided Sweet E with various materials, and invited her to create an X out of each one.

Sometimes she had them straightened out, like a cross or lowercase t, so we practiced making lots of X's! We used gems, craft sticks, playdoh, stickers, pipe cleaners, and a stamp!

Create a Pattern + Play a Song

I printed out an empty music staff, and provided Sweet E with her xylophone and pom poms to match each color on it.

Then I created a pattern (ABC ABC) for her to play!

Then she wanted to do all the notes. So she named each color as she played each one.

Finally she was ready to build her own pattern and song! AB AB was first.

Then I created a nice major chord with an ABCD ABCD pattern.

We had fun making lots of variations. Here's an ABBC ABBC pattern she made.

And then she placed random pom poms, which turned out to be nice songs too!

Build a Xylophone - Smallest to Largest

We compared sizes again today, by building a xylophone out of paper strips.

I asked her which piece was the smallest, and showed her how to place it on the xylophone. Then we continued looking for the smallest until there were none left.

Then she glued each piece onto the paper.

Love it!

Connect-the-Dots - Music Notes

For a final quick activity I made a connect-the-dots out of music notes. She needed to connect each by color.

She did a terrific job!

X is for X-Ray!

Books

I borrowed these books for today's x-ray theme. I wanted to extend the lesson to bones and parts of the body, so these were just perfect. And we love the Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That books by Tish Rabe. The rhymes make each of them so fun to read and keeps the kids' attention.

Letter Recognition Activity

For today's activity we did a classic, the x-ray X, using q-tips that I happen to have in multitude. First I drew an X onto black construction paper with a white crayon.

Then the kids each used their glue to make lines down each side of the X. Look at those hand muscles at work!

Then they carefully placed their "bones" onto the x-ray.

Here is what they look like when they're completed!

X-Ray Match-Up and Pretend Play

I found this incredible free printable from Tried and True. First I printed each of the x-rays onto vellum paper, and then I printed their matching drawings onto regular printer paper. I lined up the drawings on the floor for the kids.

Then they took turns picking up an x-ray and holding it up to the window. (The light box we made recently would have been a fun option too!)

After looking at the x-ray, they had to find its match among the body parts and animals. I love how perfectly they fit onto the drawings, giving the kids a great idea of what the bones really look like.

Here is Honey Pot observing an x-ray of a human skull.

And here it is after she matched it up. Awesome!

They had fun doing this game, and seeing what the bones look like.

After all the pictures had been matched up, we did a little doctor's office pretend play. We took turns being the doctors and patients. If there were any broken bones, we wrapped them up with crepe paper "bandages."

Here is Doctor Honey Pot, looking at an x-ray she took of Little M&M's hand.

It was broken, so she carefully wrapped it up in bandages.

Then it was her turn to be the patient, and Little M&M had to take an x-ray of her knee. I helped him wrap up her bandage.

They had such a great time, and their Dad even joined in later.

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If you like this, take a look at Honey Pot's letter X theme from 2014!

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The Letter X

Monday - Literacy

Letter X Tracing Page

We started the week with a tracing worksheet from Kid's Learning Station. This was actually more challenging than I imagined. Honey Pot wanted to trace them as four, short lines rather than two, long lines. We talked about the word diagonal in order to correct this.

X Marks the Spot - Tracing Lines

The letter X isn't very ubiquitous in a child's vocabulary, so I had to really think about how to incorporate it into our activities this week. I decided the pirate phrase "X marks the spot" would be perfect. As I researched ideas, I discovered that I wasn't the only one with this idea. This paper bag idea came from Parker Prep. I drew tracing lines on paper bags, to imitate the paper of a pirate's map.

I drew some more on the backs of them, as optional practice. She wanted to do them all.

She even did the crazy swirly one that I drew without any clear idea of what I was doing.

Circling X Sounds - Worksheet

Last week I made my own worksheet for letter sounds practice. But I found this from the Education website, and it worked well for us. 

Tuesday - Math and Cognitive Skills + Craft

X Maze

I printed this maze from 1+1+1=1.

Tic Tac Toe Game

I introduced Honey Pot to the game of Tic Tac Toe this week! We used her chalkboard.

And here I noticed that we needed to talk about the word diagonal again, because Honey Pot kept making plus signs instead of x's.

After a few rounds, we switched so she could be O's and I could be X's.

Puzzle

I recently bought a self-correcting alphabet puzzle for Honey Pot, so we could work on matching upper and lowercase letters this summer. We pulled it out for the first time today. I love it, and I think it'll prove incredibly useful. Here is an example of the x puzzle:

X is for X-Ray - Craft

I saw many versions of this, but my favorite comes from Snippets...it's the Little Things. We talked about what an x-ray is and for what doctor's use them. Then I traced Honey Pot's hands onto black construction paper, and she colored them in with white chalk.

She glued q-tips into each finger and wrist to look like bones.

Here is the completed craft!

Wednesday - Social Studies and Social Skills

X Marks the Spot - Map-Reading

Honey Pot hasn't had much exposure to geography. So this week we had a fun pirate activity that could show her the basic map-reading skills, such as locating landmarks and finding a direction. First she dressed like a pirate. I asked her to give herself a name, and she called herself Pirate Wendy.

I had drawn a map of our dining room + living room, being careful to include large pieces of furniture (landmarks). I drew x's in various places, where I placed gold doubloons.

Before we began, she told me we had to roll up the map, so she could unroll it. LOL. So we did that. Here she is studying the map before setting out to find her treasure.

Some of it was hidden under things...

...and some was out in the open. The main part of the activity was map-reading, so we would always look at the map first, try to find where the x was in relation to the room, then head to our location.

She had tons of fun with this activity. After she had found all of the gold doubloons, we counted them up. I think there were 54, so it was a nice review in counting in the bigger numbers.

Thursday - Sensory + Music

Creating X's out of Various Materials - Sensory

I gathered a variety of materials, in all colors of the rainbow, with which Honey Pot could build the letter x.

X seems like a fairly simple letter to create. However, earlier in the week I noticed how easily it can be confused with a plus sign. Honey Pot started off making a plus sign with her first material. But we corrected it, and she seemed to grasp the x shape after that. This was a great activity, and I'm actually a little bummed that we haven't been doing it all along. What a great way to really understand the shapes of letters!

For this one, she first had to roll the playdough into two snakes. Extra skills in play here!

And she saved the hardest for last. Instead of just placing two pieces into place, she had to envision the x before building it out of several pieces. This was pretty difficult! At first she made one of the lines much longer than the other. But we discussed how both lines should be equal, and crossing in the middle.

X is for Xylophone - Color Matching and Song Writing - Music

This was such a great activity! I feel like I saw this on Pinterest somewhere, originating from one of the major kid activity blogs, but have been unable to find it again. If you have seen this, please let me know so I may give credit to my inspiration! First I "wrote" the song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in colored rectangles. She had to match the colors to play the song. Such fun!

Then she was able to write her own song. I drew empty rectangles for her to color in herself. Then she played her own song on the xylophone.

She loved it so much, she asked to do it again. So I drew more rectangles. It actually sounded pretty good!

Friday - Science

Xylophone Water Experiment

We did this a long time ago, during Honey Pot's music unit, when she was 21 months old. Where has the time gone??

So I set it up again. We talked about why each glass sounded different. She played with it for a while. Then we played a game of Simon! I asked her to copy whatever I played. So first I played one note, and she copied me. Then I added to it by playing the same note again followed by another note, and she copied. We did this several times up to about six notes! Fun game!

Little M&M woke up from his nap and wanted to participate for a few minutes too.

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