First Instrument: Glockenspiel (and Japanese Folk Tale–Momotaro)

I have found the glockenspiel to be a wonderful first instrument for LD and DD. (LD has since moved on to the piano.) In our music classes, we are learning the basics of rhythm (quarter notes, eighth notes and the half note at this point).  And, I’ve introduced a few notes to the kids.  The first song DD learned on the glockenspiel was Bee, Bee Bumble Bee (to the tune of Rain Rain Go Away).

Last week we learned about a Japanese folk tale called Momotaro. The story is about a boy who sets off to try to defeat some giants who are destroying fishermen’s boats.  Along the way, he befriends a pheasant, dog and monkey and offers to share his rice with each of them if they come with him. The animals help him defeat the giants and Momotaro brings lots of gold back to his village.  As I told the story, the kids played instruments when various characters/things were mentioned — giants, gold, or rice. And whenever the hero of the story was mentioned, we sang his name–Momotarosan, Momotarosan.  So, this week we went over the rhythm for the bit we sing for Momotarosan and then we learned to play it on the glockenspiel:

You can find out more about the rhythm cards here.
And I’ve been very pleased with the glockenspiel. I got mine several years ago from Amazon, but they’re still under $20.
You can read one version of Momotaro at web-japan.org, though this is not the version I used.