Child’s Play Music is permanently closed due to ill health, and we are no longer able to take bookings. We thank our many former clients for their support over the last 25 years.

What happens in a typical school incursion?

Each incursion is a full hour of fun, excitement & learning!

Contact us today to book your incursion!

Every child will play with every instrument and we guarantee we can keep your students focused and learning for the whole program.

I set up all the drums and other un-tuned percussion up outside in your playground and the tuned instruments inside one of your rooms.

The program begins with a brief and entertaining introduction where I show how some of the instruments can be played, make an instrument from scratch in one minute (amazing!), and set some ground rules about sharing and behaviour. I include brief information about recycling and sustainability, and the cultural background of the instruments, many of which are based on ethnic instruments.

Then I split the class, half to go outside to explore the drums and other un-tuned percussion, the other half inside with the melodic instruments.

This is pure free play!  Children can choose which instruments to play, how to play them, when to move to another instrument.  I’m going around helping kids explore, modelling playing techniques, answering questions and supervising their exploration. It’s loud, it’s fun and it’s totally hands-on!

After 12-15 minutes we swap the groups over, for a whole new set of challenges and instruments to explore.  When the children have thoroughly explored all the instruments it’s time for more structured play and intentional teaching!

I bring all the children inside and conduct them as an orchestra – this is so much fun!  Starting and stopping, loud and quiet (forte & piano), getting louder and softer (crescendo and diminuendo), fast and slow (allegro and adagio).  For children older than kindergarten I also do rhythm activities while I sing a song – these are increasingly sophisticated with older years, and the exact orchestral activities I do vary with the age and development of your students.

Then it’s time for reflection, discussion and questions.  Children can ask about anything we have done, about how I make the instruments, how they can make their own instruments, about recycled materials … whatever they are interested in, I can help.

For kindergarten children this section is more about the children reflecting on the incursion than on questioning me (questions are hard!), but most kindergarten children ask me spontaneous questions during the incursion.