Submitted by Patricia Albritton , Florida

Idea posted July 21, 2004

This is a ten-minute rhythm movement lesson. A hand drum and a yarn mallet will be used to keep the beat.
Grade Level: third grade with previous knowledge of quarters, halves, and eighth notes.
1. All make a circle facing inward.
2. Teacher sets tempo with hand drum and instructs students to:

  a. Clap quarter notes until drum stops.

  b. Clap and swish for half notes along with the drum. Remind students that half notes get two drum beats.

  c. Clap and circle for whole notes. Ask students, "How many drum beats will a whole note receive?"

3. Review quarter notes. Repeat steps 2 and 2a.
4. Again, teacher sets tempo with hand drum. Ask students, "How many eighth notes to a quarter note?" Teacher tells students, "Please pat the eighth notes on your legs."

Reinforcement (You feel the rhythm with the whole body.): Walk in place, alternating feet and patting corresponding legs to show quarter notes. Walk in a circle all facing left. Walk facing right in a circle.

To show eighth notes, walk in a circle on your tiptoes, twice as fast as you did for quarter notes. If you begin on your right foot, your numbers will come on every right step and if you begin on the left foot, you will be saying the numbers when the left foot comes down again. You should try to make sure you go to the right and then again to the left, accommodating the left-handed students. Teacher says, "Can we try walking the quarter notes while clap/swishing our half notes? Now can we try clap/circling whole notes while walking?"

Advanced level:
1. Now can we try skating half notes while clap/circling whole notes?
2. Can we skate half notes and clap quarter notes?
3. Is there someone who wants to give us another two patterns to show in our movements?

Repeat the clapping activity. Choose a student to do four measures of only one note. All echo the patterns. Take turns choosing leaders and echoing the patterns.

Choose a leader to do four measures, each measure a different note value. If the students are in the older grades, you can mix up the values in the measures.

Springboard into:

Transfer to using patting for all the note patterns. Choose leaders and echo their patterns. Notate if necessary on the board; however, try not to do this until after students are successfully echoing the patterns. (Memorization skills are being used here.)

Students could then form groups and make up their own compositions. They could notate their work in rhythmic values and use the finished rhythmic composition and their Orff instruments to improvise with their compositions.