Musical Math

I've always loved music and played piano from a very young age. 

I'm also excited to have enrolled Possum in a Mini Maestro program for the first term of 2013. 

I can't wait to see what instruments they have the kids play. 

Here is a great activity you can do with your school aged children. 
The great thing is that it incorporates learning about musical pitch and maths!!!! 

How great do these glasses look! 

 

I simply added a few drops of food colouring to each glass. 

I was quite mathematical about it because I wanted them all to be of similar shades, however, if I was to add say 5 drops to all of the glasses I would have a considerably dark colour in the one that had the least amount of water. So this is something you could discuss with your child and problem solve the solution. For me, I added 1 drop of colouring to the glass with the least amount and increased a drop with each glass as the volume of water increased. 

I decided to use the end of a spoon to tap (carefully) each glass and test it's sound. 

Here I would pose questions - 

"What happens if I tapped it at a different part of the glass? Does it make a difference?"

"What would happen if I used plastic instead of glass?"

"What other items could I use to tap the glass? Would the material make a difference to the sound?"

Now this is an activity that will require supervision AND parents are the best judge and will know if their child is capable to softly tap each glass to hear the various sounds. 

Before I knew it I found myself starting to experiment!!!! 

What happens when I add this water to this glass of water??? 

A flood of mathematical questions began to flood my head. 

Some great questions you can ask and have your child test may be - 

"What happens when I add this colour to this colour of water?"

"Do you think this volume of water to the glass with the most water?"

"What will happen if we leave these glasses for 30 minutes, what do you think they will look like? Will they change?"

"Which glass of water do you like the sound of the most? Can you play a tune?"

Grab a large sheet of paper and have the children write their questions down, compose an outcome and test their ideas. BRILLIANT!!!! 

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I would LOVE to read any comments you have below. 

Kate