Mood:
brightTopic: Music Moves for Piano
Tonight was my 'older boy' class. Three boys, ages 9, 10 and 10. They were visibly getting bored by the pieces in units 1-3, so we skipped all the unit 3 pieces (but did do the audiation activities and the improvisation stuff). Moved on to Hide and Seek.
I came across some FUN activities to work on rhythm: Boomwhackers! We chanted our RPs using Boomwackers tonight, and the boys LOVED it!! The nice thing about the Boomwackers is that it uses large motor movements.
I've been really having a hard to get these boys to do a lot of the movement activities... they think they're too 'cool' to do them. I'm guessing that with the addition of Boomwhackers, these boys will more readily do movement activites.
One of the resources I purchased recently is a book/CD of activities to do with the Boomwhackers. Tonight, the boys and I did this one activity where there was a 4-part movement pattern that they did with the tubes.
Basically, we sat in a circle, each with a tube at our right knee. The pattern went like this:
- Right (pick up the tube with your right hand)
- Left (whack the tube into your LH)
- Rest
- Down (whack the tube on the ground on your left side)
The pattern continued like that, always starting with a new tube (the one that the person next to you just put down on his left side)
Then, we turned on the CD, which had a catchy little tune in triple meter. It was great! The kids were having to remember a pattern, keep the rhythm going (continuity), they were moving to a rhythm (a 4-macro beat pattern in triple meter), and they were experiencing triple meter.
Plus...they had FUN! Which, really, is way more important then them actually learning anything LOL
