Teaching Instrument Families to Elementary Students

Every year, I do a pretty extensive instrument family unit with my 3rd and 4th graders. As someone with an instrumental background, I love to open up students’ minds to the possibility of someday playing an instrument!

Grades K-2 Pre-Teaching

Kids of all ages are fascinated by instruments, so it is never too early to teach them a little about selected instruments. I occasionally bring some of my personal instruments in to play (violin, flute, trumpet, and clarinet), but if that isn’t an option for you, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Music Explorer videos are a good way to introduce one instrument at a time to your kindergarten classes. They’re about 5 minutes each, which is perfect if you fly through the 73 other activities you planned for the class that day and need to fill a bit of time. I’ve used these videos with 1st grade before, but they find them too babyish.

In 1st grade, we really focus on the percussion family, since those are the instruments we’re playing. If I can get them to remember the word “percussion” and understand the 3 S’s (strike, shake, scrape), it helps with learning the other 3 families in the future.

By 2nd grade, we start talking about the 4 instrument families. I try to get the students to be able to name one instrument from each family (usually violin, flute, trumpet, and drum). We play a simplified version of Instrument 4 Corners, which I’ll explain below!

Intro to Instrument Families

In 3rd grade, we spend a class period learning about the various instruments that make up each family. We label and talk about each instrument using this Instrument Family Workbook, ($3) and by the end of several classes, the kids have a reference book that they use when we complete our Instrument Family Centers. We watch the instrument demos from this video for winds and percussion and this video for strings. Note: there are ads on both of these videos, so have the mute button ready!

Instrument 4 Corners

In 3rd grade, we expand on the Instrument 4 corners game that we learned in 2nd grade. Each corner represents a family (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion). Students choose a corner, and then I pull an instrument card out of a basket. Whatever family the instrument card belongs to is out (i.e., if I chose “flute,” the woodwind corner would be out).

To make it more fun and keep students engaged, everyone can re-enter the game if I pull out an instrument from the keyboard family (piano, organ, harpsichord, etc.) This does make the games go on a little longer than they normally would, but the kids who are out are still paying attention to each round rather than tuning out. Many of my classes will chant “Keyboard! Keyboard! Keyboard!” which is fun for me!

You can get my Instrument 4 Corners Plus One here ($2.50), or make your own!

Auditory Activities

Once students can recognize the instruments visually, we work on identifying them by sound. I personally do not think we will ever get to 100% accuracy from every kid at the elementary age. A lot of adults cannot identify the difference between the sound of a trombone and a French horn, so it’s unfair to expect young kids to be able to do that.

With that said, we still complete some activities to help them at least think about what they’re hearing. Our society is so visual that I think there’s value in taking the effort to discern between sounds.

More 4 corners! We play Mr. Henry’s instrument 4 corners to start with identifying by sound. It’s pretty easy for upper elementary, but it gives them some confidence.

We also do a quick review of Peter and the Wolf (which we learn in 1st grade) and try to identify the instruments that are heard as the music plays.

Finally, the big challenge: the instrument family listening test! We take this quiz in 4th and 5th grade in groups. I’ve done it with 3rd grade, but I had to give them a multiple choice sheet for each question. I give 4th and 5th grade a word bank (plus leave the picture up on the screen). It amazes me how good some kids are at this, but not all of them will be. Still, they have fun with it!

Instrument Family Centers

We spend two classes working through 6 instrument family centers. You can read more about each center here—it’s too much to put in this blog post! There are 6 centers available in my TPT store for $10 here if you are interested. The centers are Percussion Instrument Labeling, Instrument Family Board Game, Guess the Mystery Instrument, Busted, Task Card Sort, and Color by Instrument Family Sheets. More details about each center here!

Scoot

I use this with my 5th graders once we’ve reviewed instruments and talked about their options for next school year. I’ve done it with 3rd and 4th before as well using the differentiated answer sheet.

I set up the cards around the room on the backs of the chairs. We take 30-45 seconds per card and cycle through all the questions. It’s a little more fun than just answering the questions on a paper since the kids are up and moving. I ring a bell when it’s time to “scoot” to the next question. We always do a practice scoot before trying the instrument scoot. I just make up a few easy questions (What is your name? What is your teacher’s name? What school do you go to?) so we can get the hang of how to rotate around the room.

You can get Instrument Family Scoot here for $2.50!

Online Resources

I don’t use online resources every year, but if we have time to fit some in (usually during PLC time), these are the ones we use:

Inside the Orchestra: Students can pick an instrument family and practice identifying by sound, or complete games like musical memory, or compose with a digital keyboard.

Kennedy Center.org: Instruments are grouped by musical era, and students can play a “baseball game” by answering questions about the instruments. Click the home plate on the bottom left of the screen and hit “play ball” for the game.

Carnegie Hall Young Person’s Guide: I’ve done this with kids as young as 2nd grade. Students will go on an instrument safari and play games along the way.

Make it Fun!

There are so many ways to teach kids about instruments. I try to balance teaching the content with fun activities like games and quizzes. You never know when you might inspire a kid to to try learning an instrument and discover a lifelong passion!