Choose an instrument you can play

Last night Daisy explained, with great enthusiasm, a game her class had played in their music lesson that afternoon. Then she asked if we could all play it right away, please and went off to get our bag of toy instruments.

Daisy soon returned and carefully set out some drums, an egg shaker, the jingle bells, a swanee whistle, maracas and a tambourine on the floor. Then we were directed to sit in a circle and she taught us the game's song as we passed round an object (she used our toy Moomin Papa, as he was close to hand).

Here's the song - sung to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down

Choose an instrument you can play

You can play

You can play

Choose an instrument you can play

What's your favourite?

Whoever was holding Moomin Papa at the end of the song had to pick up an instrument and play along to the next part, stopping as instructed. Daisy added a fabulously ostentatious hand gesture to help, just like an orchestra's conductor; she'd clearly lifted this straight from her teacher - hilarious.

You can play and play and stop

Play and stop

Play and stop

You can play and play and stop...

She couldn't remember that last line, but was happy when we suggested

...That was lovely.

I am of course intrigued as to what the actual line might be but I've since been making myself chuckle by thinking of cheeky alternatives like ... stop it ple-ase. Or... I have a headache. Well, those percussion instruments can be rather cacophonous in small hands, can they not.

But the best, and rather more melodious, was yet to come. After we'd all had a couple of turns, they asked whether they could have a guitar lesson. As Daddy was not about to head off to work he happily obliged; as you can see they were transfixed.

They listened so carefully as he demonstrated how to make chord shapes and then they practised their strumming techniques assiduously.

Now, that really was lovely.

I spy a spider...

Spiders and flies

bees in the sky

they flit and they flitter

and some, they crawl by...

Back at the Geffrye Museum today, continuing our theme of things-that-move, we focused on spiders. We made a giant (and I mean room-sized) web using a ball of silvery wool and a huge spider puppet that the children named - guess what? - Incy Wincy, of course. We created a beautiful, angular 2D structure that stretched between us all and lasted as long as everyone held on to their bit of wool. It was wonderfully ephemeral too, collapsing just like a real spider's web when we finally let go.

We investigated how spiders move by looking closely and handling lots of the plastic variety; big, small and hairy, black, brown and colourful. Then they each made their own spider; colouring and cutting it out, trying not to cut off any of its eight legs. These were stuck to wrist-cuffs and immediately worn with pride.

We sang some spidery songs and enjoyed Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider. Finally the children made individual postcard-size cobwebs using black card as background and drippy-droppy PVA glue to create their own unique design. Glitter, snow dust and sequins were scattered over the glue to make their web glisten as if it had been raining.

The weather magically matched the idea behind this artwork; a sharp shower during the session was followed by bright sunshine. The cobwebs in the garden were waiting to be spotted, glimmering and shimmering in the sunlight - it couldn't have worked out better!

Singin' in the rain

Just when I thought the rain might put a dampener on our plans for the day, my two children grabbed their umbrellas and headed out to the garden excitedly.

Daisy announced it was time for The Umbrella Show and I was to be the audience. This was a great excuse to just stand and watch them singing and dancing around in the warm summer rain. Daisy sang I've got a jolly brolly - something she must have got from nursery, and Bud started them off on Any umbrellas to mend today - one of our favourite half-remembered songs of yesteryear.

The Umbrella Show reminded me of the famous Singin' in the Rain routine and later, thanks to YouTube, I was able to show them Gene Kelly in a similar frame of mind. And they loved it. They also laughed heartily at the Morecambe and Wise comedy version; I'd forgotten what a classic that is.

But for me it was The Umbrella Show which put the biggest smile on my face today. Just Buddy and Daisy dancin' and singin' in the rain...