THE PICCOLO!
Some valid facts about the piccolo from Wikipedia: The piccolo (Italian for small) is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo mostly has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name "ottavino," the name by which the instrument is referred to in the scores of Italian composers.
Piccolos are now only manufactured in the key of C; however, they were once also available in D♭. It was for this D♭ piccolo that John Philip Sousa wrote the famous solo in the final repeat of the closing section (trio) of his march "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
Today in music class I showed the children a video on my tablet of a woman playing the piccolo very beautifully! They really enjoyed this. Watch the video here, for yourself!
I also brought a piccolo to class and allowed the students to hear it and touch it as well. For an instrument with such high pitch sounds, all the students seem to really enjoy it's mellow woodwind tone.
In keeping with Irish melodies, we read and sang this large book about lions and cubs based to the melody, "My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean".
The toddlers immediately fell asleep after I played a soothing lullaby on the piccolo. JUST KIDDING! These kids just love singing "Knees Up Mother Brown" and pretending to "sleep on the floor".
I discussed the parts of the piccolo with the children, including the cleaning rod, the case, the two parts of the body and head joint, and also the wax compound shaped like chapstick that helps to lubricate the pieces that fit together.
We had fun dancing an Irish jig in the three's class to the sounds of the piccolo!
Also, the four year old class and schoolagers performed a fun "freeze dance" to the melodies of this tiny woodwind.