Music can be found everywhere, even Water. Explore music with your child using a few simple household items. Let’s see if you can line up a chorus line as well as Bing did in A Chorus Line!

Materials

• Water
• 10 glass jars or bottles
• Sticky labels
• Spoon, fork or stick/pencil
• Food coloring (optional)

Instructions

• Fill each jar with different amounts of water. Start with very little water in the first jar and continue to fill each jar with an increasing amount.
•  Have your child strike the jars carefully with a spoon (or whatever object you chose). Make sure to listen for the variety of pitches!
• Help your child put the sounds in order from low to high.
• Once they are in order, label the jars from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).
• Mix up the jars — see what beautiful musical tunes the two of you can make together!

Extend the activity by asking your child to add or subtract water from the jars to see what happens. Does this change the pattern? Add food coloring. Does that change the pitches? Play around and explore together!

How It Works

The more water you have in a jar, the lower the pitch will be. You see, the sound vibrations you hear come from the jar, not water. So, as you add water it takes up more space — providing greater vibrating mass. The less water in the jar means there’s less weight to vibrate so the pitch is higher.

Health & Safety

• Encourage your child to strike the jars gently and supervise them at all times. Explain the dangers of glass jars and breakages.

Happy exploring!