March marks the one year anniversary of Covid hitting our area. In fact, March 14 was the last day I taught lessons at my local studio. All the local schools had closed down along with many businesses. A week and a half later, I transferred a bunch of my students to an online platform and have been there ever since. It was a scary and confusing time for everyone. So much uncertainty and change. But we’ve survived the one year anniversary and I believe we are stronger for it.
So, with that anniversary, I want to celebrate making it this far in 2021 with a couple rhythm activities to share with you. Wednesday is St.Patrick’s Day, and spring and Easter are around the corner with the hope of new beginnings and warmer weather.
I found this first activity on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), a great resource for teachers of all subjects and grade levels. I have found countless fun and educational activities on this site that are now a part of my regular curriculum for my private students, music class students, and my church kids.
This one is called Shamrock Scurry! A fun name too! This is a rhythm game with all different levels and I use this for K-8 grades! I break the class into teams and they are assigned a color. Each team has a set of the same rhythm cards placed on one side of the room, while the team sits on the other side of the room while I clap or play a rhythm from the list. When I say go, one person from each team races to the other side of the room to locate the card with the correct rhythm and races back to their team to then show me the card. The first person back to their team with the correct card wins a point for their team! This could easily be adapted to an online class in various ways and the kids have lots of fun practicing their rhythms!
The second game is one that I came up with on my own from my love of rabbits! Its called Clovers and Bunnies. I made a series of rhythm cards with each card either having a 3-beat rhythm or a 4-beat rhythm and a picture of a rabbit. Then, there are a few cards with clovers and a 3/4 time signature or a 4/4 time signature. There are several sets so I can break up the class into small groups. The object of the game is to match all the bunny rhythms to the correct clover time signature. The first group who does it correctly, wins! Although, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a race. This could also be used virtually like flash cards.
The third activity I call Shamrock Composition. I made up this worksheet with blank shamrocks. The students are supposed to fill each shamrock with one beat, note, or rest. I usually put some restrictions on it to make sure the kids have some variety in their rhythms, like only allowing 2 rests on the whole page, or only allowing one whole note, etc. Then, the students can perform their rhythm composition on a rhythm instrument of their choice or we can take it a step further and assign a letter to each note and play it on recorders, glockenspiels, boomwhackers, or even piano. To use it in a virtual setting, send the sheet to your students to print out or have them make their own. They can use whatever instruments they have at home, even ones they have created. Feel free to print the sheet for your own version!
The last activity I want to share with you is another from TPT called Funny Bunny Clip It Rhythms. This activity has a series of cards with pictures of rabbits with funny, punny names like Bunilla Ice and Luke Skyhopper. Each funny bunny card has a choice of 3 rhythms and the student has to choose the one that best matches the bunny name. If you are in person, I would usually use clothespins to attach to the correct rhythm (hence the “clip it” in the title). If you are virtual or hybrid, you may choose to use another way to do it. If the cards are laminated (which all of mine are because I’m obsessed with laminating!), you can mark the rhythms with dry erase markers and wipe them off when you’re done. If you want to use this in a virtual setting, you can either let the kids print out their own set or just hold it up to the screen for the students to see like flashcards and come up with a system for students to take turns choosing the rhythm. These rhythms are simple enough, you can even do it with younger kids. However you choose to do it, I’m certain you will have lots of fun reading the funny bunny names!
Miss Donna 4 Music 