Music theory worksheet · Instrument families
Instrument Riddles
Read each riddle and write the instrument from the word bank.
- Grade level
- Grades 2–5
- Time
- About 20 minutes
- Topic
- Instrument families
- Answer key
- Yes, page 2 of the PDF
- Kids practice
- Naming the four instrument families, Sorting instruments into families, Explaining how each family makes sound, Describing an instrument
What kids do
Printed on the sheet:
- Who am I? Write the instrument.
- I have 88 black and white keys.
- I am made of brass. I change notes with a long slide.
- I am a woodwind with no reed. You hold me sideways and blow across a hole.
- I am tall and I have many strings. You pluck me with both hands.
- I am a metal bar bent into three sides. Tap me and I ring.
- I am the biggest brass instrument and I play the lowest notes.
- I am the smallest string instrument in the orchestra. You tuck me under your chin.
Words on this sheet
fluteharppianotubaviolin
Teacher tip
Read each riddle aloud and let kids hold up an answer on a whiteboard before they write it. Then have each child write one new riddle for the class.
How to use it
- Bring in any real instrument you can and let kids see how it works.
- Sort picture cards as a class before kids sort on paper.
- End by clapping, singing or playing something from the sheet, so the page turns back into music.
Watch for
Thinking the piano is only a string instrument. Hammers hit its strings, so many people call it percussion too.
Talk about it
- Why is the saxophone a woodwind and not brass?
- Where have you seen or heard this in a song we know?
Take it further
Make a shoebox guitar or a straw oboe and talk about its family.
US Letter, prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use: print as many copies as you need.
More instrument families worksheets
Grades K–5
Invent an Instrument
Draw a brand new instrument. Then tell how you play it, what family it is in and how it sounds.
Grades 1–3
Instrument Families Sort
Write each instrument from the word bank under its family: strings, woodwinds, brass or percussion.
Grades 2–4
How Instruments Make Sound
Every sound starts with something that vibrates. Match each family to how it makes sound, then answer the questions.
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