ABC Music | App Review & Activities

ABC Music

ABC Music guides learning through research and discovery. Traditional encyclopedia-style presentation combined with real instrument sounds, videos, interaction and quality images makes all the ABC apps from Peapod Labs truly special. This is an absolute MUST HAVE on your iPhone or iPad.

What makes this app unique is how the free-flowing design helps children to learn in multiple ways. Instead of guiding children through a series of activities, Peapod Labs created an environment where children get to choose what is interesting and important to them. The interface models how adults search for information, moving between websites and relevant texts to gather knowledge. What an amazing early learning experience to give your child.

Activity 1: Create Your Own Music Dictionary

What You’ll Need:

• Paper.
• Scissors.
• Stapler.
• Pencils, crayons markers.
• The ABC Music app.

Start by creating a simple flip book for your child. Go ahead and teach your older child how to make their own flip book. A simple flip book is made by folding a piece of paper into 4 equal parts. Cut along the folds, compile the pieces. You might want to wait to staple the edges until your child has finished writing and illustrating the pages. Find more fun flip books at Vicki Blackwell’s website.

Open up the ABC Music app. As your child learns about each instrument help them or have them write the name of the instrument and draw a quick picture. This is a great way for your child to keep track of their favorite instruments or instruments they want to learn how to play. You might need to plan a trip to your music store to see, touch and explore real instruments.

This activity is a great way to start talking about alphabetical order. Help your child (or challenge your child who knows the whole alphabet) to lay out all their pictures and order them from A to Z. You might want to write out the alphabet on a strip of paper for help. When the pages are ready, staple your book and add it to your child’s library!

Activity 2: Make Your Own Xylophone

Make a xylophone with this exploratory and entertaining at-home activity.

What You’ll Need:

• Tin cans.
• Rubber bands or duct tape.
• Pencils, sticks, or anything you can use to bang on the cans.
• Earplugs?

Go through the recycling bin looking for tin cans of a variety of sizes. Coffee cans are fantastic for a nice deep sound. Try to find between 5-8 cans. After collecting and washing out the cans, strike each one to hear the different sounds they make.

Choose two cans to start and rubber band them together. If you don’t have a lot of rubber bands make sure to tape the cans together so they don’t move or fly around while playing. Add more cans creating a circle. Rubber band or tape together each can as you add it.

It is quite challenging to get the cans in straight line and have them stay put. By making a group of cans in a tight circle your child will be able to use their xylophone in many places around your home. Including their bedroom after the music making starts to wear on your nerves.