In our lively family, we have...
...a 7 year old who is obsessed with drums, guitars, a great beat, and a catchy tune.
...a 5 year old who can not wait to play the piano and is always singing along to the radio.
...a 3 year old who just loves noise!
...a 1 year year old who is CRAZY about "woofs"
and
...a mom who is always on the look out for great toys. Toys that encourage purposeful play, look enticing, and maybe even appeal to all 4 little ones at the same time!
As I have mentioned before, I am especially impressed with B. Toys. Since musical expression is such a hit in our home I was excited to buy the kids Meowsic, a colorful keyboard with a retractable microphone. The kids love the chance to play their own songs, experiment with tempo, and discover the different tones of the keys based on the instrument buttons they choose.
Well, you can only imagine how excited our quartet was when B. Toys sent Woofer {a ruff raff guitar} for our review!
Woofer has 8 buttons that allow for play of each guitar chord from C to C. The guitar can be played in acoustic or electic guitar mode. For some extra hound dog fun there is also a howling mode which howls out each chord strummed. The younger kids have the chance to strum along to pre-recorded songs, but there is also a great option for our 7 year old son to play his own progressions. The pre-recordings include 29 songs: several familiar sing alongs and a handful of creative puppy tunes.
Gibson {3} wants me to be sure I also tell everyone that "Woofer is blue and blue is my FAVORITE color." While it is true that Woofer has a fair share of blue on it, true to B. Toys there are also many other colors making it B. You tiful!
The mamas and papas in the crowd will be glad to know that Woofer also has a volume control knob and an automatic shut off.
Check out Woofer in action!
Woofer has 8 buttons that allow for play of each guitar chord from C to C. The guitar can be played in acoustic or electic guitar mode. For some extra hound dog fun there is also a howling mode which howls out each chord strummed. The younger kids have the chance to strum along to pre-recorded songs, but there is also a great option for our 7 year old son to play his own progressions. The pre-recordings include 29 songs: several familiar sing alongs and a handful of creative puppy tunes.
Gibson {3} wants me to be sure I also tell everyone that "Woofer is blue and blue is my FAVORITE color." While it is true that Woofer has a fair share of blue on it, true to B. Toys there are also many other colors making it B. You tiful!
The mamas and papas in the crowd will be glad to know that Woofer also has a volume control knob and an automatic shut off.
Check out Woofer in action!
Now, all our little garage band needs is a great percussion section!
In the classroom Woofer would be a creative prop for Readers' Theatre. {Here is a great collection of scripts to get you started: Reader's Theatre.} Students would enjoy using the instrument to create an introduction to their production, a background tune, and sound effect drops.
In my classroom we often came up with our own special chants and songs for reviewing spelling words, celebrating everyday accomplishments, following through on orderly transitions, encouraging our brain breaks . It may be fun to use Woofer to compose a tune for these chants and have a different student in charge or playing these tunes each day.
There are educators who have devoted themselves to studying the "Music of Math" and offer many ideas for integrating music into math instruction. One great idea would be to have Woofer, Meowsic, and Piccolo Carousel Bells all available for students and encourage them to use the instrument to create and practice many different types of patterns.
On a related note...
March is National Music in our Schools Month!
The theme of this year's celebration, promoted by the National Association for Music Education is Music Lasts a Lifetime!
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Children naturally seem to be drawn to music and the arts. My little girl especially looooooooooves music and dance. These instruments look like much fun. We have a little keyboard and a few other little "music makers" in our home. My father is also a talented self-taught musician. Every week the kiddos get a fun music lesson with their 80 year-old grandpa! :) I think that is just fantastic!
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