Title – Instrument Family Identification

By – Kate Porter

Primary Subject – Music

Grade Level – 2-6

Activity time:

10-15 minutes

Materials:

• Recordings of pieces being played exclusively by one family of instruments or Brittens Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
• Deck of Uno cards separated into four card units – one of each color.

Procedure:

• Hand out a set of Uno cards to each student, so everyone has one of each color.
  

  red – brass blue – strings yellow – woodwinds green – percussion

• You can do this activity different ways.

• I started by having the students listen to Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and told the students to put their cards in order for the families of instruments that they heard.

• On a separate day, I had several recordings of string quartets, woodwind quartets, percussion ensemble and brass quintets and played examples while the students identified what they heard by showing the appropriate card.

E-Mail

Kate Porter

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