Shapes and Sizes

• When making their own xylophone craft, kids will learn about the shapes of the xylophone. Each bar on the xylophone is a rectangle, giving you the opportunity to talk to the kids about the difference between a rectangle and a square. To help the kids order the different bars on their xylophone by size, also have them cut out a triangular piece of paper as a backdrop, giving you the chance to also talk about what makes a triangle. The kids will also learn about placing objects in order from largest to smallest, since they must do that with the bars on the xylophone.
  
  

Colors

• Some xylophones come with different colored bars to represent different notes. Since you are designing your own xylophones, you can also use different colors, representing the colors in the rainbow. If you want to talk about the rainbow, consider having the kids arrange the colors in the order they appear in a real rainbow. You can also talk about what the primary colors are and how they combine to make the other colors.
  
  

Counting

• By using your xylophone craft activity to encourage counting, you give the kids a concrete object to count with instead of just talking to them abstractly about counting. Each child will need to count out the number of bars he needs for his xylophone. You can further encourage counting by placing numbers on each of the bars on the xylophone, directing the children to count out loud as they hit each bar on their instrument.
  
  

Music

• A real xylophone is a musical instrument, and so your xylophone craft can also produce a musical xylophone the kids can play after they are done creating. The xylophone's bars can be made of a variety of materials, including cans, wood blocks or cardboard tubes. You can also attach bells or other noise-making devices to the bars, helping to create music when the kids hit them. If possible, use different sized noise making devices so each bar creates a different note like a real xylophone, helping kids to start learning about notes.