Tasty Time Signatures

The 5th Graders have been studying time signatures the past few weeks. To help review meter in 2, 3, and 4 we have done several activities. (Some of these may seem a bit easy for 5th grade, but I'm finding that it's really helping to reinforce the number of beats each note receives for those students who always struggle with that concept.) Here are a few of them.

Build A Cupcake: In groups, students match the time signature on the frosting to the correct number of beats on the cupcake. When they were finished, I had them line up the cupcakes and create two large rhythms. (This game can be found on TeachersPayTeachers)

 

 

 

Noodle Notation: Using an idea I got from www.mrskingrocks.blogspot.com , I cut up a bunch of pool noodles that I bought at the dollar store this summer and made them into rhythms. The 5th graders had to compose rhythms in 3/4 and 4/4 time using the noodles.

 

 

Autumn Leaves: I have a bunch of autumn leaves laminated with different rhythms on them. Using those leaves, students created measures of 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. Once they had finished, they notated their rhythms onto a worksheet.

 

Tasty Time Signatures: This will be my final assessment on time signatures for the students. It is as worksheet that I created. Since we are in the month of October and close to Halloween, I used the idea of candy rhythms. Students have to color each piece of candy to represent the meter it belongs in. I added in the rhythms after I printed it off. This way I can modify the worksheet to be easier or harder for different students/grade levels.

We are also doing some listening activities to identify whether a song is in duple or triple time. All of these activities will springboard us into our introduction to 6/8 time later this month.