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Three Things {Rhythm game, making instruments, and a book}
4:39 PM

Today, I’m reviving my "Three Things" linky party, in which I blog about three things that worked for my and my students this week. If you are a music blogger, and would like to link up with your three things, see the directions at the end of this post. Thanks to Whimsy Workshop Teaching, Kimberly Geswein fonts, and Jax and Jake for the cute clip art and fonts!

Mrs. Miracle's Music Room: Three things that worked in my music class this week

#1: Memorizing Rhythm
My fifth graders are practicing syncopa right now (or eighth/ quarter/ eighth), and one of the songs they are using is "Oboshinotentoten." You can find the music notation here, and here is a video of the game:


After we played the game, I had the rhythm written on the board, and had students sing the song on rhythm syllables. Then we memorized 4 beats at a time (I erased the rhythm as we went) until the whole song was memorized! This was a quick and fun way to practice syncopa AND improve musical memory!

#2: Making instruments with household items
My third graders are learning about the Science of Sound right now, using this unit that I created with my friend Matt:


After we talked about vibration, volume, size and pitch, and how sound travels, I gave students a lot of different household items, like toilet paper rolls, plastic looms, rubber bands, and beads, and had them create an instrument and then decide what was vibrating to create the sound! The kids loved this and so did I...it was messy and loud but they learned so much, and created some really awesome instruments! Here are a few pictures:

Making instruments with household items, and more ideas for your music class!

Making instruments with household items, and more ideas for your music class!

Making instruments with household items, and more ideas for your music class!


#3: All the pretty little horses
With my first graders, I sang this book:

"All the Pretty Little Horses" picture book for the lullaby, and other ideas for your music class!

It's such a beautiful song (and one I've sung to my own daughters for years!) After I sung it, I asked them what kind of song it was, and we had a great discussion about why we sing lullabies, who can sing a lullaby, and other lullabies that we've heard. It's a really calming song, so it's a great way to end the lesson!

Those are my three activities for this week! Make sure to click below to read ideas from other music bloggers! If you aren't a music blogger and would like to tell us about activities that worked for you, please comment below!