KIZZ DANIEL

I decided to use the 16 block grid as a means for students to create and organize rhythm patterns based on the erasers.  I talk a little bit more about the grid and the lap packs they are used with in THIS blog post.

At this workstation, students choose an erase and put it in a square.  Then, students decide what to call the eraser.  They can be creative with this part (and often are!).  When they decide what to call the eraser they write the name under it.  In this picture they actually put it in the second row, but usually we put it in the same box as the eraser.

Note Knacks are wooden blocks that are strategically cut so that note value is represented by block length.  So a half note is half the size of a whole note and a quarter note is half the size of a half note and so on.  The set comes with 3 different frames to hold the Note Knacks.  They measure 4 beats, 3 beats and 2 beats.  One side of the block has a note and the back side has the corresponding rest.  

I am lucky enough to have a magnetic set of Note Knacks and I keep them on my dry erase board.  They are much larger so that they can be seen by an entire classroom.  I've used them to decipher rhythms in familiar songs and to create ostinatos for various activities.  I've also used them in workstations.

I've also had students trace the outline of the blocks on long strips of bulletin board paper.  I only have one set of the blocks, so I could only do this activity with small groups as they rotated through workstations.  I hope to get a few more sets because I have SO many ideas I want to try out!

I bet I know what you are thinking.  Couldn't you just make something similar?  Well, sure.  I've made Noodle Notes which are similar.  The tactile experience of Note Knacks is what I like.  I mean, who doesn't like playing with blocks?

You can get Note Knacks from Rhythm Band Instruments.  If you liked these ideas PIN this post for later!

"You want me to teach music QUIETLY?" I said in disbelief.  "Is that even possible?"

One of my favorite quiet activities for teaching pitch is to use my bottle cap staff sheets.  I have them laminated and use them for a variety of lesson.  For this lesson I pass out the sheets and a hand full of bottle caps.  I will say a word that can be spelled on the staff and students "write" it by putting their bottle caps in order.  In the picture, we just spelled "cafe".

 There are many ways to work on rhythm quietly.  Consider using chopsticks instead of rhythm sticks to play on the back of chairs or even on the floor.  The sound is light and intriguing for even 6th graders.

Another great quiet drumming activity (I know...quiet drumming?) is to use drum sticks on  foam garden kneeling pads.  I found purple and blue ones at Dollar Tree and LOVE that kids can really beat on them, but they sound delightfully muted.  :-)

Rhythmic dictation is a pretty quiet activity too.  I use dry erase boards or lap packs (staff paper or blank paper stuffed into a page protector) and dry erase markers.  You might consider using craft sticks, rhythm cards, mini erasers (matching the syllables in the name of the eraser to the number of sounds in the rhythm) and more.  Clap or tap the rhythms on an instrument, students echo and then write it down.  It is a great assessment and requires great listening skills.

Instead of writing the rhythms down, you might consider having students listen to the rhythm that you play and then circling the correct notation from a few examples.  I have an entire set of "What Do You Hear" worksheets that ask students to do just that.  They vary in complexity so you can use the set with multiple grade levels.  Click HERE to learn more.

If you are able to show videos, I highly recommend the Composer Series of movies about the lives of famous composers.  (not an affiliate link)  You probably already have these in your classroom.  

In addition to showing composer videos, you might consider planning time for your students to just listen to, read about and color pictures of popular composers.  I've talked about this kind of thing in a previous blog post: Coloring Composers.  You can get the set that I use HERE.

I also LOVE Jena Hudson's composer flip books.  You can find them in her store, Sew Much Music on TpT, or follow this link to try the American Composers Set for free!  

Another quiet, creative activity is listening and responding.  Choose a piece of music that inspires a story or vivid mental images.  Have students listen the first time.  For wiggly classes you may want to have them lightly tap the beat or follow you as you tap the beat in various ways.  

Next, have students lie down (if possible), close their eyes and imagine what kind of story the composer wanted them to "see" in the music.

Pass out blank pieces of paper and have them illustrate what they have heard.  For K-2, I often use THIS set of writing prompts that already have a few words written and blank writing lines.

"Stars and Stripes Forever" by Sousa (Shh! You might want to turn this one down a little!)

"Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" by Mussorgsky

"Funeral March of a Marionette" by Gounod

"Minute Waltz" by Chopin

"Hungarian Dance No. 5" by Brahms

If you are able to show videos, I highly recommend the Instrumental Classmates set of videos to introduce the instrument families.  I found my set on Amazon.  Quaver also has a great series of videos about instruments that your students will enjoy.  

If you are unable to show a video, your students might enjoy putting together a book of instruments.  Students can color the instruments, copy their name or add information about the instrument (with the add-on sheets included).  Click the picture above to get the full set of instrument families or click HERE to get the sampler for free.  Although this takes some time to make all of the copies you'll need, it is a great activity for a quiet day in music.

Another great quiet day activity is to read the book "The Remarkable Farkle McBride".  My 5th graders enjoy this story, so I can use this lesson with all of my classes.  At the end of the story, we will review instrument families and I'll pass out these simple coloring sheets.  While students are coloring we will listen to my classical music playlist for some quiet background music.

Quiet games are not usually favorites in my classroom, but over the years I've come up with a few that students will give a reluctant thumbs up.  They would much rather be drumming and dancing and singing, but quiet days don't always allow for that.

Telephone - This traditional game is played by having students sit in a circle and whispering a message to each other until it makes it all the way around the circle.  Hilarity ensues when the message at the end sounds nothing like the message that started.  The same idea can work with rhythms.  Have students tap a 4 beat measure on the back of the person next to them and then pass that around the group.  Students can usually master this in a couple of tries so then we make it a bit more difficult.  Instead of sending one rhythm around in one direction, start two rhythms.  One goes to the left and the other to the right and they all end up back at the same person.  Tricky!

I hope that you are never asked to teach music quietly, but if you are I hope that some of these ideas will prove helpful.  Like these ideas?  PIN THEM for later.

 

I have really been having a great time with the Music-Go-Rounds that I received from Music in Motion.  In a previous blog post, I talked about how I used them with vocal activities.  You can read about those activities HERE.  In this post I want to share with you some of the ways I have used them to teach rhythm.  Although these manipulatives are called Music-Go-Rounds, I borrowed the name "Rhythm Go Rounds" from a clever student that dubbed them as such.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Music-Go-Rounds are thin, silicone circles that cling to a variety of surfaces.  They are so much fun to touch!  While working at some of these rhythm stations I had to continually get on to kids that loved playing with them.  I found one student that had folded them and placed them between each of his fingers.  I scolded him, but not until after laughing at him.  I could completely relate!

At this station, I introduced students to the duration relationship between the whole note, half note, quarter note and barred eighth notes by setting the Music-Go-Rounds up in this order.  We clapped through the patterns together and then I left them to create their own patterns.  In the photo below, you can see one of their examples.  This activity gave me the opportunity to work with students in small groups and to differentiate if needed.  This is a cabinet door in my classroom.  It has a smooth surface the the Music-Go-Rounds cling to it nicely.

This is another example from a group that only sort of paid attention.  I appreciate that they were sorting correctly though!

In another activity, we used the Music-Go-Rounds to match the syllables of words with rhythm that could represent it.  After singing "Ode to Composers" from Music K-8 magazine, I thought I would use composer names for this closing activity of the lesson. 

I used masking tape to create this staff on a dry erase board.  I labelled the staff with "stomp", "pat", "clap" and "snap".  Students arranged rhythms for their small group and the group performed them.  They had such a great time that they didn't realize how much they were reading and performing rhythms.  Teacher win!

There are probably many other ways to do this, but I prefer using the Music-Go-Rounds over dry erase markers.  For some reason, I always have kids that draw on themselves with them.  That makes me crazy.  The Music-Go-Rounds are also such a novel way to keep students engaged too.

After the small groups had a chance to experiment with this station, we created some patterns as a class.  We took turns performing each line, performing them all together and even reading the vertically!  

I hope this post has given you a few new ideas for teaching rhythm.  If you like these ideas PIN THEM for later. 

At this station, students review instruments and their names as they determine how many syllables are in each instrument name.  Then they take a clothespin and pin the note or rhythm that most closely matches the syllable of the instrument.  This is mostly rhythm work, but this is an opportunity for students to see a picture of the instrument and the instrument name.  You can get this Instrument Clip It here.

I think that I may love dabbers more than my students!  I am always looking for ways to incorporate them into center time.  At this station students had four worksheets to complete (one for each instrument family).  Students dabbed instruments belonging in each family.  So fun!  You can get this dabber set HERE.

Some of the dabber pages needed a little bit of time to dry.  We laid them on our seats and by the time most students had rotated through all of the stations, their papers were dry and ready to go home to hang on the fridge.

This fun workstation was created by Chrissy at Hutzel's House of Music.  You need to purchase the regular Guess Who game and then purchase her insert, trim it and slide it into the case.  Students compete against each other to figure out a selected instruments.  They can only ask yes and no questions.  Here's a few of the GREAT thinking and learning questions I heard from this workstation;

This station is SO much fun!  I have a collection of hole punches.  Some have stars, hearts, music notes or the original circle.  At this center, students complete four punch cards (one for each family).  On each card they are asked to punch the instruments for a specific family.  You can download the cards HERE.

In my classroom, this station worked out best to be a standing station.  I used an empty cart and placed supplies on it.  Students stood around the cart to complete their center work.  Most students really enjoyed this opportunity to stretch their legs.  I will definitely add more standing stations in the future.