Music Education Articles » Classroom games

Substitute Lesson ideas – Musical Bingo

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:37:51 +0000

For an emergency substitute lesson I have 2 bingo games. Both are purchased games with game cards and a CD. One game is made up of musical instrument sounds and the other is sound we hear around us. I use the instruments bingo for grades 2 -4 and the sounds bingo for grades K-2. I use math chips for extra bingo chips and I photo copied the bingo cards in the one set to make enough for the whole class. This means there may be multiple winners but I deem the first one to yell “bingo” as the winner. It is a good ideao to make sure that there are no duplicates within a group if the students are sitting in groups. They love to play these games and want to keep going until they fill up most of their card. I sometimes leave little things for prizes such as coloured pencils or stickers.

Submitted by Leslie Cheyne

Classroom Music Games – Scribble Music

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:23:41 +0000

This is an activity that I use during extra time or to leave for a substitute to do with elementary students. It’s an activity called “Scribble Music”. The activity teaches students to listen for the differences in fast and slow music. After reviewing the differences between fast and slow, each student lays on the floor with a large piece of white paper and a couple crayons. The students close their eyes, and as music is played, they scribble to the music on their piece of paper (if the music is fast, their scribbling should be fast, if the music is slow, they should have large slow scribbling). Play a few different songs for the students at a variety of tempos. If you want, you can call “switch”, and at that point they lay down the crayon they are using and pick up another one. All of this is done with their eyes closed! After about five minutes, stop the music and let them open their eyes and look at their picture. This is an activity that they will ask to do again and again!

Submitted by Jessie Magoffin

Substitute Music Lesson ideas – Note Pizza

admin — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 07:21:24 +0000

When I was asked to teach a half hour class of 35 kids (aged 8 to 16) before their regular teacher could be there, a friend and I came up with this idea:

Build “note pizzas” by giving 6 groups each a set of a Pizza pan and 1 whole note (whole pizza) 2 half notes (half pizzas) 4 quarter notes (quarter pizzas) and 8 eighth notes (eighth pizzas). They had to cooperatively build pizzas with any arrangement of the notes, and 1 member of the group was a recorder. There are 10 possible pizzas to come up with, and to make it more complicated you could add the same size pizzas slices as rests. We rewarded the first 2 teams who came up with 10 correctly recorded results packs of pringle pizza sticks but you don’t really need a reward. It took about 25 minutes for all the results to be handed in.

Submitted by Marta Mcguire

Classroom Music Games – Round Mania

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:19:22 +0000

Take a well known round: I use ‘London’s Burning’ for younger children (KS1 in the UK) and either ‘Frere Jacques’ or one of the quick to learn African rounds for older children (KS2 in the UK)

Make sure that the children are secure with both the words and melody, singing in unison before embarking on the, sometimes, daunting task of singing it in 2, 3 or 4 parts. Obviously gear this towards the age / ability of the class! Once they can manage this with ease split the group into smaller groups and ask them each to write new words to the tune.. I find that taking the curent curriculum area works well as a starting point. So, if the group have, for instance, been studying something on the sea and the coast I ask each group to create a new round on this topic. Because they are already familiar with (a) the tune and (b) the vocabulary around the topic this comes quite naturally. Talk about the picture that they want to paint to the rest of the class, ask them to perform the round to the larger group (not always easy but with encouragement perfectly possible) and then ask whether they feel that they have achieved their aim.

They love the idea of creating a ‘new’ song, increases confidence and skills in composition and improvisation and encourages working together

Submitted by Jane Brown

Classroom Music Games – Music Treasure Hunt

admin — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:35:13 +0000

Select 4 contrasting instruments (any that you like…for example a scraping sound, a hitting sound, a shaking sound and a pitched percussion or barred instrument) Each instrument will represent a sound (left, right, forward, backward). Practice moving around the room to the sounds. Choose 4 students to play instruments, 1 to be the “treasure hunter” and 1 to be the “conductor.” The hunter should go near the door and close his or her eyes (you can use a blindfold too if you like). Then place something (stuffed animal, etc.) somewhere in the room to be the “treasure”. Everyone else has a seat on the ground like a “rock” in the ocean. The conductor tells what instrument to play in order for the hunter to move around the room and find the “treasure” (while their eyes are closed!!!) If they bump into a rock, the game is over and new players are chosen. If they “find the treasure” they are giving an “Authentic Music Treasure Hunter Certificate.”

This can be used especially when working on timbre…in older grades the students have brought in their band instruments….and we use a brass, woodwind, string and percussion instrument for the 4 sounds!

Classroom Music Games – Music Memory

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:32:16 +0000

Draw a collection of music symbols on the whiteboard and have the students name them as you do so. After that have them turn their backs (or turn the white board around) and erase one. They must name the missing one. Keep going until they are all gone.

Submitted by Lonna Possehl

Classroom Music Games – The Note Bucket Game

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:30:49 +0000

 Make up a series of large cards with a music notes or symbols that the class are currently learning, and tape them to a series of buckets.

Then set the buckets up in front of the class and make a line with tape on the floor about five (5) feet from the buckets or less depending on the class. The idea of the game is to see how many bean bags the students can throw into the buckets. To receive points the students must be able to identify the notes they throw their bean bags into. I usually set up two teams or three teams and they see who can score the most points, but this game is an excellent way to reinforce the knowledge

 Submitted by Karen Collier

Classroom Games – Playing Musical Words

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:48:52 +0000

Using manuscript on a whiteboard draw up notes that spell out a word: (eg. “edge”, “dad”, “face”, “cabbage” etc..) one point is first allocated to a student or team who correctly identifies the word.

Then you can get the students to ‘play’ the word on an instrument. The first to accurately play the notes in correct octave position wins a point.

Submitted by Stacey Smart

Classroom Games – Note Races

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:12:48 +0000

One of the most fun activities my students love is playing “Note Races.” What you do is go outside to the parking lot (one with no or very little traffic) or any area that is paved or cement.

Then, I have a few students draw five manuscript lines about 6-8 feet long with about 2-3 feet of space in between the lines.

Next, divide the class into two teams and have them line up behind the bottom line. Once they are ready, I call out a note name and the first student in each line races to the line or space of that note. I declare the fastest student to the correct note the winner, give them a point, and then they go to the back of their team’s line. I usually play to ten a few times. This is a great game to play with a substitute, because they don’t have to know anything about music. In fact, I leave my note flashcards for the sub to use as a reference. The students love playing the game and the best part is they are getting better at reading and notating music notes!

Submitted by Ashley Davis

Classroom Music Games – Note Blocks

admin — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:42:11 +0000

I use Mortinson Math blocks to illustrate rhythm when teaching beginners. “One” blocks are quarter notes in their normal position, but turned over (they are hollow inside) they become quarter rests. “Two” bars are half notes. And so on, any bar being a rest up-side-down. I use toothpicks (sharp ends cut off) for bar lines. When I talk about measures, I take the “Four” bar to use to measure 4 beats at first, but the children can usually just see it.

Later when we study 3/4 time and other time signatures we use the appropriate bar to “measure” the beats per measure. First we look at small portions of music and translate them using blocks, then we use instruments to rhythm them. The next step is to make a rhythm with blocks and then write it out on paper.

If you search “Mortinson Math” you will see what these blocks are.

Submitted by Kathy Hester