Showing posts with label rhythms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rhythms. Show all posts
Friday, December 16, 2016
Christmas Rhythms
The Kindergarteners have been working on their long (soon to be 'ta') and short-short ('ti-ti') rhythms. In groups of two, they composed patterns using trees/hats (longs) and presents/mittens (short-shorts) and then notated the rhythms below. Then they clapped the rhythm. This was their first time actually writing the long and short-short patterns instead of just reading it off of the board.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Rhythm Practice
Here are two games I use to help my K-2nd graders practice rhythms. In Kindergarten we used giant beat strips and then notated ta and ti-ti rhythms with our shoes! This really helped us visualize the different number of sounds on each beat. I'll use this with my older students as well because they never seem to remember how many beats each note gets!
I also like to use caterpillar rhythms. I have a bunch of circles with different rhythms notated on them. I often have them work with a partner to create a 4 beat rhythm and then combine with another group to create an 8-beat rhythm. Sometimes we put 4 groups together to create 16 beats. When we use half notes, we put the circle next to it upside down so that we see it takes up two circles.
I also like to use caterpillar rhythms. I have a bunch of circles with different rhythms notated on them. I often have them work with a partner to create a 4 beat rhythm and then combine with another group to create an 8-beat rhythm. Sometimes we put 4 groups together to create 16 beats. When we use half notes, we put the circle next to it upside down so that we see it takes up two circles.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Turkey Tunes
Every music teacher knows that Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year for us. Musicals, concerts, programs...you name it, we have at least 3 to direct! So of course I am just now getting around to updating my posts. I had a meeting the week of Thanksgiving and wanted a fun activity for the sub to do with the 1st graders that would be easy, so I created these Turkey Tunes (although I know they aren't really tunes, they're just rhythms...but let's not get too technical!). You could add solfege syllables to each rhythm and then perform it on a pitched percussion instrument or boomwhackers, then it really would be a Turkey Tune!
I created turkeys and then several feathers containing tas, ti-tis, and rests for the kids to put on the turkeys. Working with a partner, they created a rhythm pattern and then clapped it. After a while, they got a worksheet and copied down one of the rhythms they created. Then, they got to color their turkeys. It was a simple, easy rhythm lesson and the turkeys looked really cool!!
I created turkeys and then several feathers containing tas, ti-tis, and rests for the kids to put on the turkeys. Working with a partner, they created a rhythm pattern and then clapped it. After a while, they got a worksheet and copied down one of the rhythms they created. Then, they got to color their turkeys. It was a simple, easy rhythm lesson and the turkeys looked really cool!!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Chair Rhythms
I have been looking for a way to help students remember the difference between the number of beats and the number of sounds that notes get. I decided to try chair rhythms with my 5th graders because I thought it would also be a good way to practice our new rhythm, short-long, short (prep for syncopa). It got a bit noisy and a bit cozy, but I think it worked! Here's what we did:
1. I put 4 chairs in the front of the room and explained that each chair equaled one beat.
2. I had one person sit in each chair. The class was able to figure out that they were quarter notes.
3. I had 2 students sit on each chair and the class discovered they were ti-tis (or pairs of eighth notes).
4. I had 4 students on each chair (this is where things got a bit cozy!) and they discovered they were tika-tikas (4 sixteenth notes). I stopped here to re-explain that they were 4 sounds on 1 beat. NOT 4 beats long.
5. I had 3 students sit on each chair. The first time I had one student sit on the lap of the person on the left and then one person next to them. This was a tika-ti (2 people had to share half a chair/beat). Then we figured out how to make a ti-tika.
6. I had 1 student lay across two chairs. The class discovered this person was a half note. I did the same with 3 chairs for dotted half and 4 chairs for whole note. By this point the kids were starting to really understand. YAY!!
7. The last step was to make 3 people fit on 2 chairs to create our short-long-short. After telling the 2 outside people they only got half of a chair and the middle person got 2 halves (or a whole), kids started putting together the pieces and trying to guess what rhythms made up a short-long-short pattern. Some of the kids were really close to discovering it was eighth-quarter-eighth, but I didn't reveal that answer just yet.
8. The last thing I did was split the kids into 2 groups. Their group had to form a rhythm using all of their group members and the other group had to notate it. Now they had to use some math to decide how to divide themselves up among the four chairs!
Like I said, it got a bit noisy and a bit uncomfortable at times, but I think the lesson really worked well. Kids were problem solving, drawing conclusions, and notating rhythms. And they had fun!! Woohoo!
1. I put 4 chairs in the front of the room and explained that each chair equaled one beat.
2. I had one person sit in each chair. The class was able to figure out that they were quarter notes.
3. I had 2 students sit on each chair and the class discovered they were ti-tis (or pairs of eighth notes).
4. I had 4 students on each chair (this is where things got a bit cozy!) and they discovered they were tika-tikas (4 sixteenth notes). I stopped here to re-explain that they were 4 sounds on 1 beat. NOT 4 beats long.
5. I had 3 students sit on each chair. The first time I had one student sit on the lap of the person on the left and then one person next to them. This was a tika-ti (2 people had to share half a chair/beat). Then we figured out how to make a ti-tika.
6. I had 1 student lay across two chairs. The class discovered this person was a half note. I did the same with 3 chairs for dotted half and 4 chairs for whole note. By this point the kids were starting to really understand. YAY!!
7. The last step was to make 3 people fit on 2 chairs to create our short-long-short. After telling the 2 outside people they only got half of a chair and the middle person got 2 halves (or a whole), kids started putting together the pieces and trying to guess what rhythms made up a short-long-short pattern. Some of the kids were really close to discovering it was eighth-quarter-eighth, but I didn't reveal that answer just yet.
8. The last thing I did was split the kids into 2 groups. Their group had to form a rhythm using all of their group members and the other group had to notate it. Now they had to use some math to decide how to divide themselves up among the four chairs!
Like I said, it got a bit noisy and a bit uncomfortable at times, but I think the lesson really worked well. Kids were problem solving, drawing conclusions, and notating rhythms. And they had fun!! Woohoo!
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| A Whole Note! |
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| Tika-tika, tika-tika, ta, ti-ti |
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| Ti-ti, tika-tika, ta, tika-tika |
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Valentine's Day Fun!
I am a little behind this month, but here is my massive post of all of the fun Valentine's Day activities we did last month. It was a little crazy because I also had my 1st and 2nd grade musical and a music contest in February, but we did manage to get some Valentine-themed lessons covered.
"A Song for My Sweetart"
This is a lesson idea from the book "Kids Can Compose". I always have one of those giant bags of mixed candy on hand for Bingo prizes and such, and luckily the last bag I bought was FULL of Sweetart candies. The Sweetarts came in packets similar to Smarties, so it was easy to distribute them to each of my groups. Everyone simply got one packet to share.
The 4th graders are just starting the treble clef, so we used this lesson simply to practice the space notes. I would call out a note and they had to put their Sweetart candy on the correct space. I wanted them to also practice putting notes on the staff from left to right so that when we start reading music for recorders they are used to that. I found that several of the kids were just squishing them together in one spot or stacking them vertically, so I had them divide their staff into 4 sections. Then I would say, "notate an A in box 1, a C in box 2", etc. This made things much easier for everyone. After a while, I let them partner up and quiz their partners. The students who already knew the note names were partnered together and allowed to do lines and spaces or use ledger lines.
In 5th grade, each student was partnered up and given a glockenspiel and a cup of Sweetarts. They then had to compose a 4-8 note melody and play it on their instrument. Each group had to perform their melody for me before they could eat their candy.
Giant Beat Strips
This is an idea I got off of Pinterest from www.abbottmusic.blogspot.com . Kindergarten just learned about ta and ti-ti, but we were still reviewing how a ta is one sound and a ti-ti is two. To reinforce this concept and tie in Valentine's Day a little bit, I used giant beat strips with large hearts on them and split the class into 4 groups. Everyone took their shoes off and put them in the middle of the room (this part can get a bit wild!). I then clapped a rhythm pattern and they had to race to made the rhythm on the hearts. A ta was notated with one shoe and a ti-ti with two. It took a while for some of the kids to catch on, but once they did, we were able to cruise through the entire class. Although it was just a tad crazy (and stinky!), it was a LOT of fun!
Racing Heart Rhythm Race (or something catchy like that-I couldn't think of a good name!!)
Last year I cut out a bunch of paper hearts with the intent of using them for a lesson and never did. So this year, I took those hearts and wrote a whole bunch of 4-beat rhythm patterns on them. I designed this to be used with 3rd-5th grade, so the rhythms contained mostly 16th note rhythms (which 3rd grade is working on now) and dotted quarter note rhythms (which 5th grade is working on). There were 2 of each rhythm. I scattered the hearts all over my floor and split the class into 4 teams. I would call out a rhythm and one person from each team had to race to find the correct heart. Since there were 2 of each, two teams could score or one team could get 2 points. The first team to 6 points won. (Side note, I would recommend laminating the hearts. The students tend to get a bit grabby when they get over-excited!). This was a great game and you could make it even harder by only clapping the rhythms and not saying them out loud. I often did that as a tie breaker or for extra points.
"A Song for My Sweetart"
This is a lesson idea from the book "Kids Can Compose". I always have one of those giant bags of mixed candy on hand for Bingo prizes and such, and luckily the last bag I bought was FULL of Sweetart candies. The Sweetarts came in packets similar to Smarties, so it was easy to distribute them to each of my groups. Everyone simply got one packet to share.
The 4th graders are just starting the treble clef, so we used this lesson simply to practice the space notes. I would call out a note and they had to put their Sweetart candy on the correct space. I wanted them to also practice putting notes on the staff from left to right so that when we start reading music for recorders they are used to that. I found that several of the kids were just squishing them together in one spot or stacking them vertically, so I had them divide their staff into 4 sections. Then I would say, "notate an A in box 1, a C in box 2", etc. This made things much easier for everyone. After a while, I let them partner up and quiz their partners. The students who already knew the note names were partnered together and allowed to do lines and spaces or use ledger lines.
In 5th grade, each student was partnered up and given a glockenspiel and a cup of Sweetarts. They then had to compose a 4-8 note melody and play it on their instrument. Each group had to perform their melody for me before they could eat their candy.
Giant Beat Strips
This is an idea I got off of Pinterest from www.abbottmusic.blogspot.com . Kindergarten just learned about ta and ti-ti, but we were still reviewing how a ta is one sound and a ti-ti is two. To reinforce this concept and tie in Valentine's Day a little bit, I used giant beat strips with large hearts on them and split the class into 4 groups. Everyone took their shoes off and put them in the middle of the room (this part can get a bit wild!). I then clapped a rhythm pattern and they had to race to made the rhythm on the hearts. A ta was notated with one shoe and a ti-ti with two. It took a while for some of the kids to catch on, but once they did, we were able to cruise through the entire class. Although it was just a tad crazy (and stinky!), it was a LOT of fun!
Racing Heart Rhythm Race (or something catchy like that-I couldn't think of a good name!!)
Last year I cut out a bunch of paper hearts with the intent of using them for a lesson and never did. So this year, I took those hearts and wrote a whole bunch of 4-beat rhythm patterns on them. I designed this to be used with 3rd-5th grade, so the rhythms contained mostly 16th note rhythms (which 3rd grade is working on now) and dotted quarter note rhythms (which 5th grade is working on). There were 2 of each rhythm. I scattered the hearts all over my floor and split the class into 4 teams. I would call out a rhythm and one person from each team had to race to find the correct heart. Since there were 2 of each, two teams could score or one team could get 2 points. The first team to 6 points won. (Side note, I would recommend laminating the hearts. The students tend to get a bit grabby when they get over-excited!). This was a great game and you could make it even harder by only clapping the rhythms and not saying them out loud. I often did that as a tie breaker or for extra points.
Valentine Post Office
I posted about this game last year. It is a game I downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers and it works great with K and 1st. I grouped my classes into groups of 2 and gave them each a Valentine bag with rhythm cards inside. They take out the cards and I clap or play a rhythm and they have to find it and put it in their bags.
Monday, January 5, 2015
Christmas Rhythms
Christmas break has come and gone and I didn't get any blogging done! So here I sit the first day back with a ton of posts to catch up on. Oh well!
The Kindergarteners are still working on long and short rhythm patterns. I will soon be introducing them to ta and ti-ti. To give them practice writing rhythms, I made a bunch of tree/present, elf/reindeer, hat/mitten manipulatives for them to work with. They created a 4-beat pattern and then wrote the correct rhythm underneath. I did the same activity in 1st grade, only they wrote the tas (quarter notes) and ti-tis (eighth note pairs).
The Kindergarteners are still working on long and short rhythm patterns. I will soon be introducing them to ta and ti-ti. To give them practice writing rhythms, I made a bunch of tree/present, elf/reindeer, hat/mitten manipulatives for them to work with. They created a 4-beat pattern and then wrote the correct rhythm underneath. I did the same activity in 1st grade, only they wrote the tas (quarter notes) and ti-tis (eighth note pairs).
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| Tree, present, tree, present=long, short-short, long, short-short |
.JPG) |
| Mittens, hat, mittens, hat=short-short, long, short-short, long |
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Valentine's Day
Happy Valentine's Day!
There are so many great ways to celebrate Valentine's Day in music class. Here are a few of the things we did this year.
The 5th graders learned a Valentine Line Dance, the "Cupid Shuffle", and created Secret Valentines using the notes on the staff.
There are so many great ways to celebrate Valentine's Day in music class. Here are a few of the things we did this year.
The 5th graders learned a Valentine Line Dance, the "Cupid Shuffle", and created Secret Valentines using the notes on the staff.
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| "Kiss Me" and "Text Me" using a treble clefs for 's' and the line note 'E'. |
The 1st graders made Sweet Rhythms with candy hearts. 1 heart represented a 'ta' and 2 hearts represented a 'ti-ti'. I would clap a rhythm and they notated it on their lap packs. Afterwards they created their own patterns and shared them with a partner.
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| Ti-ti, ta, ta, ti-ti Ti-ti, ta, ta, ti-ti |
Foamie Rhythms
The Kindergarteners have just transitioned from long and short-short to ta and ti-ti (in 1st grade, they will learn that these are quarter notes and eighth notes). To help practice our new rhythms, we notated 4-beat patterns on our lap packs using foamie shapes. I would clap a rhythm and then they notated it. They got to improvise their own 4-beat pattern for the last four beats and clap it for the class. What a great way to notate and compose music!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Eggcellent Rhythms!
Several of the classes decorated eggs with "eggcellent rhythms" the week of Easter. The lower grades had to compose 3 measures of music using the various note values we have learned over the year. The upper grades had to compose a measure each of 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time using a combination of note values learned over the year.
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| Filling in their rhythms. |
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| A very proud Kindergartner showing off his egg. |
HOPPY EASTER EVERYONE!!
Monday, February 14, 2011
1st Graders Make "Sweet" Rhythms
Happy Valentine's Day! Today, the 1st graders made rhythm patterns using Sweetheart candies. 1 heart represented a ta and 2 hearts represented a ti-ti. For the last rhythm, the students got to compose their own pattern and then share it with a partner. And of course, when they finished they got to eat their notes! What a tasty way to practice rhythms!
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| Ta, ti-ti, ta, ti-ti Ti-ti, ti-ti, ta, ta |
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| Clapping each others' compositions |
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Foamie Rhythms
The Kindergarteners have just begun learning about ta's and ti-ti's and they are catching on so fast! To practice creating rhythms, each student was given a packet of shapes with rhythms on them and a paper with 4-beat measures on it. I would clap a rhythm and they had to notate it on their papers. When we finished 3 measures, I let them compose their own rhythm for the last line. Composing in Kindergarten?! WOW!
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| Helping a student figure out the last pattern. Good teamwork, guys! |
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