Reply To: Notes and Rhythm Games

[nafmeadmin]

My favorite game ever – Rhythm (whatever skill you’re working on) Baseball!!

Separate the kids into two teams. Consider letting them chose / vote on a name for their team.

Draw a baseball diamond on the board / poster paper and a scoreboard with each team’s name. Sometimes I just call the teams note names – eighth notes and quarter notes for ex. One student at a time is “at bat.” For at least the first couple innings, you are the pitcher. The student at bat gets three times to clap the pattern correctly. After each incorrect performance, the “ref” can call “strike 1/2/3-you’re out!” If the student strikes out, the pattern goes to the other team (outfield). IF they play it correctly, they get on base – one base at a time for the first inning.
Then you can make it more interesting. I do two measures for a double and three measures for a triple, four for a home run. It’s totally up to you how you want to change it to practice the skills you want to focus on!

Kids get into it very quickly. You can make one kid a ref, one a score keeper. Make sure that the person “at bat” changes so that everyone gets a chance, obviously.
To practice note names, I’d give each note a different value – say eighth notes are a double, quarter notes a single, sixteenth notes a home run, triplets a triple, dotted half note a triple – you get the idea.. Once the kid identifies the note and it’s length s/he could get on base.

Another game (I forget the name): Print two paper dice off Google Images and draw a different note on each side of one, rests on the other one. Draw a bee on one square of each dice. Separate kids into two teams. One person rolls the dice two times and (another student?) has to write down the notes and rests which came up. Then the student has to clap the pattern [and identify the notes]. Once the person claps the rhythm correctly their team gets a point. For an extra point the entire team has to clap it correctly. If they get two bees they are “stung” and loose their turn. I did this with my 4th and 5th graders last year for the same purpose and it was effective.