Music Math Centers

2nd graders are working on music and math and completed a rotation of Music Math Centers to help them. The main goal of this unit is to help students understand the amount of beats that each note receives. Through 6th grade I will still have students tell me that a pair of eighth notes is 2 beats and a quarter rest is 0 beats! Ugh! So we spend a little time each year really drilling note values. Here are the Music Math Stations that I use.

Station 1: Pot O' Gold
I found this game Pot of Gold Game on Pinterest. Students answer a music math flashcard, and the number of your answer is how many coins (Bingo chips in my case) you get to place in your pot of gold. The first student to fill his/her pot wins. I found free, printable flashcards online one year that have worked great. Sorry, I don't remember exactly where they came from though!

Station 2: Mad Minute
I have 3 different levels of worksheets all taken from www.makingmusicfun.net. Students select a worksheet that fits their ability level and then race to complete the sheet with the fewest mistakes. I laminated each of the worksheets so that students could erase and try again to beat their previous scores. It also cut down on a lot of wasted paper.

Station 3: Cup Stack Attack!
I know, almost all of my centers have this game, but the kids absolutely love it! On the bottom of each cup is a math problem and inside of the cup is the correct answer. Students must correctly answer a cup before it can be used in the tower.

Station 4: Noodle Notes
This station was a new one for me this year, and was a bit confusing for the students at first. I cut pool noodles into 3 different sizes (quarter notes or pairs of eighth notes, half notes, and whole notes). Students had to work to create 4 measures in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time. Each measure had to be different. They put the noodles on jump ropes to create a long strand. They then had to write their answers on the included worksheet. This was a great way for me to check that they understood the project.

A strand in 2/4 time

Station 5: Dueling Dice

This was a game I found at www.notablemusicstudio.com. Each member gets a "Dueling Dice" card. Before beginning, they role the dice to get numbers for their first four boxes. Then, they race to come up with notes that equal the number in the box.


Each station has a folder to keep all of the worksheets and directions in it. I also included a cheat sheet on the inside cover of each folder that tells how many beats each note and rest receives. Everything is laminated. Here are the directions that go on the outside cover of each folder.

Hansel and Gretel

Kids love opera, right?! By the end of my opera unit, my 3rd graders are usually buzzing about it. Most kids (and adults) just don't understand what opera is. When I ask my students what it is, they always respond that it's "girls who sing really loud and break windows, boring, or annoying". I do Engelbert Humperdink's opera, Hansel and Gretel, because the kids are familiar with the story and have fun acting it out. It's not some strange, complex tale in another language!

When I first introduce opera, we play this interactive online game: Design your own opera and talk about all of the jobs that are involved in creating an opera. Then, we act out the opera on our own. I let several students be costume designers. Their job is to pick out costumes for everyone from my costume closet. I let some kids be casting directors, and they get to pick the lead characters. My kids who aren't completely sold yet get to be set designers and lighting technicians. They help me choose props for our set and turn the lights on and off. And finally I have my performers. Everyone plays the part of an angel or a gingerbread child. I play music from the opera and the kids act it out. They don't do any actual singing, but some do have fun pretending! It's not a huge fancy production. Just a small informal play in the classroom, but the kids love it! One class this year wanted to do it 3 times! We usually invite their classroom teacher in to watch, but I've even had students invite their parents in the past.

Hansel and Gretel

Father and Mother

My angels with boas instead of wings!

14 angels guarding over Hansel and Gretel during "Children's Prayer"

Kindergarten Program

This year there were 3 sections of kindergarten, so I got to do 3 programs. I only do one program per grade level just because of scheduling issues and the amount of time it takes to put a program together. The kindergarten program always happens at the end of the school year, kind of like a graduation. It's a very small program held in the cafeteria. We usually sing 7-8 songs from the year and then they do a poem or two with their classroom teachers.
Our songs this year were:
"Hello Song" (which we do at the beginning of every class)
"Loose Tooth Song" (we do every time someone loses a tooth)
"Time for Music" (with classroom instruments)
"Johnny Works with One Hammer"
"Sing...Sing a Song" (in English and Spanish)
"What Do You Do With a Water Waster?" (song from MK8)
"Wiggleworm/Statue" (song from MK8)

Some of the girls from Mrs. Raymond's class (I forgot to get a whole group picture!)

Mrs. Rham's class

Mrs. Bartsch's class

Choir Pizza Party

We always have a choir pizza party for the last concert rehearsal of the year. The kids stay after school and we practice our concert songs for an extra half hour and then we feast!! It's always a fun way to end the year and gives us that little bit of extra practice time we need.

What can you do with 100 solo cups?!

Make a giant cup tower, of course!!