Australian Glass Percussion Project – Music with Glass

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As I looked around for something interesting to write about and share with all of you, I came across the blog for Glass Quarterly. they were mentioning an Australian group of musicians that use glass bowls and glasses and rods as their instruments. They are called The Glass Percussion Project and you should check out what they do. There’s a video on the blog.

It’s not the first time glass has been used to make music. You all remember and sometimes still see people playing crystal wine glasses by rubbing the edges to make them sing. Water is placed in each glass to varying degrees to achieve different notes. That’s been a method for making music for centuries. Then there’s the glass harmonica also known as a crystallophone invented by Ben Franklin. Check wikipedia if you think I’m kidding. He got his idea from watching the wine glass being played. Check out the glass harmonica made by Thomas Bloch. Pretty cool.

Thomas Bloch Glass Harmonica

Back to the Australians…check out their web site to see the glass that was blown from them and learn more about what they do.

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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