What it is: Next year we are adding a kindergarten to Anastasis (currently we are a 1st-8th grade school). In honor of this addition, I’ve been digging up some fun primary sites and resources. Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great primary site to teach students about music and instruments. The site is enchanting with it’s interactive story/video platform. It invites students to take part in the story and introduces them to various “magic” instruments. As students learn, they get mouse practice (dragging dropping) for some fine motor skills; matching shapes, and identifying different types of instruments. Students also get exposed to a variety of types of music that instruments are used to create.
How to integrate Quincy and the Magic Instruments into the classroom: Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a great site to introduce students to some basic fine motor mouse skills. When I taught in the computer lab, I quickly learned that mouse manipulation doesn’t come as second nature for all students. They have to build up that fine motor skill to click, drag and drop. I can’t tell you how many times I had to show students that their mouse wasn’t actually “broken” – they just had it upside down. 🙂
Quincy and the Magic Instruments is a fun place for students to learn about different kinds of instruments and the sounds they make. As the instruments appear, you can help students identify what the name of each instrument is and even introduce them to the idea of major and minor notes. If you are using the site as a class with an interactive whiteboard, annotate over each instrument with the name of the instrument and what part it plays in a band.
To expand on this little online game, ask students to make up a story about how Quincy’s baton got lost and why the magic instruments turned into different animals and objects. How did the instruments come to be magic?
Please leave a comment and share how you are using Quincy and the Magic Instruments in your classroom!
