Are you looking for Musical Games and Activities for your classroom? You’ve come to the right place! NAfME members shared some fantastic exercises they use in their classrooms – and now you can too! Check out some of their great recommendations below, and be sure to share yours on Amplify! Join NAfME today.
Bucket Band is an easy and inexpensive way to help teach rhythm – great activity for middle school kids!
Spin and notate activity!
Musical chairs writing! When the music stops pick up writing where the last person left off – writing can include note values, rhythm exercises, song lyrics to help the memorize a piece – you choose!
Scavenger hunt for an ice breaker!
Building chords with legos!
Get to know your students ice breaker – and helps students get to know one another!
What note am I? An Ice Breaker Music Game!
Incentive Program
All the students in Grades 6-8 are split up into one of three houses (sort of like in Harry Potter – which the kids love to reference). It builds community as students from other grades and classes work together to earn points and rewards.
Split students up into Music Teams.
Create six Music Teams named for the periods of music history: Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and Post Modern.
Each team has a Team Leader. The leader gets to sit in a special chair and is the person I can call on to pass out their team’s notebooks, rhythm instruments, or to get their materials basket. The Team Leader chair rotates every two weeks. Make it random so that the students won’t be able to predict who the Team Leader will be.
Boomwhacker Station
At this station students work together to read simple melodies on the treble clef staff and play them together using Boomwhackers.
Coloring Station
Even the big kids like to color! At this station they are using a color by note worksheet. You can find free printable versions of the worksheets here
iPad Station-Flashnote Derby
At this station, students used the Flashnote Derby app to test their knowledge of the treble clef lines and spaces. This fast paced review really helps see who knows their notes!
Gone Fishin’
At this station students sit on a large tablecloth and match fish to fishbowls. Each fishbowl has a treble clef staff with 3-8 notes on it. By identifying th e letter names of each, students discover that it spells a word. Then they find the matching fish which had a word on it.
Spell a Story
At this station, students work on a pitch identification worksheet. As they identify the pitch names of the notes they complete a story.
Treble Twist Up
Everyone likes Twister, right? This game is a great deal like Twister. You can create a staff with a plain shower curtain and electrical tape, or with masking tape on carpet too. Students use a spinner and follow the directions “Right Hand E!” “Left foot B!” for a fun and physical way to review pitch names.
Teachers: You can download the template to make your own Treble Twist Up spinner here.
Many of our NAfME Members also shared their Back to School Classroom photos with us! From decorating their doors and bulletin boards, to organizing their risers and boom whackers, we received some great ideas! Check out all of the wonderful music classroom ideas, and share your own, on our ‘Classroom Ideas’ board on our NAfME Pinterest Page: http://www.pinterest.com/nafme/
Kristen Rencher, Social Media and Online Community Engagement Coordinator. © National Association for Music Education (NAfME.org)
