I just finished up two weeks of Dynamic Centers with my 3rd graders. They worked on pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo, crescendo, and decrescendo. Now that they know all of the terms and symbols, we can start applying them. I put 8 rhythm flashcards in my chart stand and gave each row of rhythms a dynamic. Using coffee can drums, we performed each rhythm with its designated dynamic level. I let kids take turns creating new rhythms and switching the dynamics. The first few times I would review the dynamic level with them, but after a bit of practice they were able to perform the rhythms from beginning to end with the correct dynamic changes.
On another day, we listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and they had to map out the dynamics of the piece. I put four of their answers on the board and we compared them. Some had listed the dynamics as going pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff. Others listed it as pp Cresc. ff. Others started on mp instead of pp. We discussed the similarities and differences between all of the options and kids got the chance to debate which version they thought was more accurate. It led to some very upper level discussions and it was great to hear them use their new vocabulary words!!
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