Submitted by Connie Herbon, Iowa
Idea posted June 13, 2006
Here is an idea for passing out Boomwhackers® that works well with third grade. In this example, every student (about 60) is playing at least one Boomwhacker® on "Popcorn!" (from Music K-8, Vol. 4, No. 4), equaling a total of 68 tubes to pass out. The students have a special four-row seating arrangement on the floor to make our "bridge" choreography possible. I have all the tubes standing in three containers, with three or four pitches per container. Selected students go to the bins and take out four Boomwhackers® while the rest of the students in their pitch group go to their places. This brings us down to only 17 students getting Boomwhackers®.
This was our first time together (three classes) and our first time to pass the tubes out this way. It took about five minutes! Next time, it will take about three minutes. By concert day, I'm predicting it will easily be less than one minute.
First graders are also all playing, but they are tapping the capped Boomwhackers® on their hands and remain standing on the risers. (Third graders tried this and didn't like it.) I've selected students in each class to get tubes - from the same bins - for their little group. The same students who get Boomwhackers® will also collect and return them to the bins after their song.
Second graders have only 16 students, each playing two Boomwhackers®, on their song. This will require eight people to get and return the tubes. Others will be getting unpitched percussion at the same time, and we'll do this in a similar way.
The key for me is to always think it out ahead of time, working backwards from how I want the final "picture" to look. Multiple practices are a must for getting everything to flow smoothly. We also aim in each practice for "no talking/no Boomwhacker® sound" as the instruments are passed out.