Miss Donna 4 Music

Or at least the last day of music.

This week is my last music class of the 2023-2024 school year. A lot of teachers talk about how their last day is full of mixed emotions because they are glad the year is done because they are tired but they are also sad because they will miss their kids. I don’t really have those mixed emotions.

I teach at a small Christian school that is a part of my church and we go to school year-round. Our kids don’t really go away anywhere so even though they are not in my class past 8th grade, I still see them around school and at church all the time. And we’ll all be back to school in 3 weeks! So that means I just get to enjoy the happy feelings of the end of school year!

Last week we had Game Day. I set up 5 centers, each with a different game, I broke up the classes into small groups, and the students rotated through the centers.

Game 1: Floor Staff Toss

I made a floor staff many years ago with a large piece of canvas, and used colored electrical tape to make a staff with a treble clef and a note on each line and space. I put a piece of tape on the floor to mark where the student should stand and I have a bag of square bean bags. The students take turns tossing a bean bag on the staff. If it lands in the green circles its worth 2 points, the blue circles are 3 points, and the one yellow circle in the center is worth 5 points. They can also earn extra points if they can name the letter of the circle they landed in.

Game 2: Zoo Symphony

This is one of my TPT games I recently added to my shop. I actually made this game up many years ago for a college class project and I used a giant poster board for the game board. So now the game board is 8.5×11 paper size and can be used in centers and small groups! If the student lands on a red space, they get a Gift Shop card, and they have to identify an instrument on the card. If a student lands on a blue space, they get a Research Center card and have to answer a question about an instrument. If they land on a green space, they get a Petting Zoo card and they get to play a rhythm on a specific instrument.

Game 3: Cinco de Mayo Rhythms

Another game I recently added to my shop. If you are familiar with the game Busted or Kaboom, its pretty much the same thing, except with simple rhythms set to Spanish vocabulary. The Spanish vocabulary includes words having to do with items of clothing, colors, food, and animals. The idea behind the game is to collect as many cards as you can by clapping rhythms. But watch out for trick cards that may tell you to put all your cards back!

Game 4: Rhythm Train

You can find this game in my TPT shop as well. This one focuses on matching rhythms to the correct time signature. Choose your time signature engine and try to add 8 train cars that match! But there are trick cards here as well so be careful!

Game 5: Rhythm Race/Go Fish

Rhythm Race is a quick little game from Pitch Publications. The student has to add up the number of beats on the card and they move that many spaces forward. If the card has rests they move that many spaces backward. And I knew some of the games would go quicker than others and I wanted to squeeze Go Fish in there somehow. So if they finished a game before it was time to rotate they could play Go Fish. These Go Fish cards had either musical symbols or classroom instruments.

Donkey Konga

The last day of music is the ultimate game day though. Years ago my husband and found this Nintendo Game Cube game with a set of bongos that was being discontinued so the price was way discounted. We searched high and low and found 3 more sets of bongos to fit the game and I knew I had to try it out in music class. The Donkey Konga tradition was born and was a huge hit!! A musical video game that involves hitting the correct bongo at the correct time in the music. I quickly realized I had hit a gold mine but we could only do it on the last day of music because it was SO loud! But the kids have fun so its worth it.

So here’s to another year in the books! See ya in a few weeks!