Fiddle

Pa played his fiddle for Laura & Mary. Their favorite song was "Pop, Goes the Weasel." Today, we made an instrument.

Supplies:
- tissue box
- paper towel roll
- rubber bands (different thicknesses)
- scissors
- glue or tape

1. With the tissue box, take out the plastic and cut the tissue box into an oval. (Just trimming a little off of the sides).
2. Stretch the rubber bands around the box. We talked about how the thicker rubber bands make a different sound than the thin ones. The same is with a fiddle: the thicker strings have a lower tone than the thin strings.
3. Cut one end of the paper towel roll. Tuck it under the rubberbands to hold it in place. Use glue or tape if needed.
All done.
If you hold it up to your chin, it looks like a fiddle.
What is the difference between a fiddle and violin? Answer: The way it is played. A Fiddler plays Bluegrass or Country type music and a Violinist plays Classical music. The fiddle & violin are the same instrument.
When you hold our homemade instrument to the side, it looks like a guitar.
Our musicians! We sang "Pop, Goes the Weasel" and the girls would POP their fiddle strings.
Then we gathered around the Autoharp. We looked at the strings (thicker & longer-lower, thinner & shorter -higher). Each child took turns strumming it. We sang "Skip to my Lou" while the girls danced to the Autoharp.
Then we documented the activity for our Lap Book.
I love the lap book because even when our fiddles get over-loved and fall apart, we will still have the rubber band in our book to POP. Here is the address for putting the Lap Book together. http://lapbooklessons.com/LittleHouseintheBigWoodsLapbook.html