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Busy Things hosts over 1600 curriculum-linked activities and games for early years and primary aged children. A school subscription also includes lots of features and tools for teachers that promise to save planning time.  Take a free trial to have a proper play or book a demo here. 

Monster grid

Each monster makes a different sound. Drag monsters into the squares on the grid to build a piece of music. The sticky pointer setting replaces the dragging function for pick-up-and-put-down function that may be easier for some children.

Monsters can be repositioned in the grid by moving them, or removed from the grid by moving them off it, or using the space bar while you select them.

There are different grid sizes in the settings.

The controls in the bottom left allow you to play/stop the tune, loop/play once, select one of three tempos.

The buttons in the bottom right allow you clear the grid, save your tune, load a saved tune of yours, or load a demonstration piece.



Discussion points

Age 3-4, Age 4, Age 5Age 5-6, Age 6-7Age 7-9, Age 9-11

  • Which monster sound/s do you like the most?
  • Can you make the music play faster and then slowly?
  • Can you make a pattern with the monsters?
  • What do you like about the music you have created?
  • Which monsters sound good together?
  • What happens when you change the tempo (speed)?
  • What do you like about the music you created?
  • What does the music remind you of?
  • How could you use demonstration pieces to help you with your own tune?


Teaching tips:

Age 3-4, Age 4, Age 5Age 5-6, Age 6-7Age 7-9, Age 9-11

Let children explore, experiment and engage in free-play music making by placing different monsters into the grid.

They could collaborate with a partner to develop communication and listening skills to create a piece of music that they both like.
Children could try making up their own signs and symbols to represent a certain sound or to represent each monster, and then placing them alongside each other to represent a piece of music.

Examples: lines going up or down to represent a change of pitch, swirly lines to represent dynamics (volume) changing or dots close together to show a fast tempo.

This is good preparation for reading musical notation more formally in higher years.
Encourage children to select monsters carefully to create a piece of music. Children will need plenty of time to experiment with the grid, changing the grid size if needed, and think about the texture of the music and timbre of each monster and how they work together.

Children could use the numbered folder icon at the bottom right to see examples of monsters placed in the grid to create a pleasing tune. They might like to replicate this or use a similar example of their own.
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Nursery

 £110+VAT yr

  Unlimited children in a single nursery

  Single shared login

  xx games for independent play

  Areas of Learning?

  Printable worksheets

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  • Play on desktop computers, laptops and tablets

 

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