Tempo Centers

I created another new center this fall. This one is for tempos. The words we were working on were: Largo, Lento, Andante, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, Allegro con brio, Presto, Ritardando, and Accelerando. I used this with 4th grade.
Here are the centers I had:

1: Fishbowl: I found some fishbowl bulletin board decorations on Amazon to make this center. I simply wrote the definition in the bowl and the term on the fish. The students had to match the correct term and definition.

2: Listening Lab: I have always wanted to incorporate some kind of a listening lab into my centers, but was never really sure how. This year, I got a new portable Bose speaker that will play music from my iTunes using Bluetooth. I let the students have my school iPod, which is full of over 800 songs that are completely clean and school appropriate. The goal was for the group to select a song to listen to and then guess what the tempo of that song was. Once they had made a guess, they used a metronome to check their answer. One of my metronomes allows you to tap the beat and will then register the tempo you are tapping. They used a sheet I created with approximate BPM of each tempo marking. Once they learned how to use the metronome and iPod, the kids seemed to really like this center, and the music was soft enough that it wasn't distracting to the other groups. 

In case you are wondering, it was Minion Day at school on this day!

3: Cup Stacking: I know that I always use this one, but the kids like it and it's easy to make. I wrote the tempo terms on the bottom of each cup, and in order to use the cup to make a tower, the student must correctly define the term. 

4: Metronome Masters: I think that teaching the kids what a metronome is and how it works is a big part of learning about tempo. At this station, each student had a job. Student 1 created a tempo pattern using ta and ti-ti flashcards. Student 2 selected a tempo marking. Student 3 set the metronome to play at a beat somewhere within that tempo's range. Student 4 performed the rhythm on rhythm sticks at the appropriate tempo. 

*Note: This one was a bit hard because the students really struggled to play each flashcard at different tempos and didn't know whether or not they were correct. It was especially hard because everyone wanted to use the fastest tempos! I"m not sure how well this center worked, but at least it exposed them to the difficulty of playing at very fast and very slow tempos and taught them how to use a metronome. I guess that's something!

5: Tempo Showdown!: Showdown is a game that I got from the idea of Kagan structures. To briefly explain, Kagan structures are different methods/activities that help students practice information in small groups. 

Here is how Showdown works: Every student has a marker board and a marker (or a piece of paper would work if you don't have marker boards). I created a set of cards using notecards that contained the tempo definition on one side. The students placed the cards face down in the middle of the circle. One student flips a card over for everyone to see. Each student writes the correct answer on his/her marker board. When everyone is done, one person yells, "Showdown!" The groups shows their answer at the same time. If everyone is correct, they give each other a high five/fist bump. If someone is wrong, they help find the mistake. 

Here are the centers directions I posted on each file folder, the Tempo sheets that are included in each folder, and the Listening lab sheet to fill out.