Submitted by Linda Abbott, New York

Idea posted February 19, 2003

Connie Herbon wrote a great piece called "Rockin' Scale" which was published in Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 1. Here's how I'm using it with my 3rd grades for their upcoming program:

Background music: Rap Builder
Form: Sing 3 times. First & third as written. Second time, sing "doo" instead of written words until the syllables. Sing those as written.
Instruments: Boomwhackers® (I have enough for each child to use 2 of the same pitch to hit together.)
Formation: Divide students into 8 groups, 1 for each scale pitch. Children stand in 8 single-file rows on stage. Each group plays 2 half notes in the appropriate measures ascending & descending. For the final 2 measures, they try to play their booms on the melody. After each time through, the line leader quickly goes to the end of the line.

When the rap music starts, I count out 4 half notes before we begin and do not stop between the 3 times through.

Hope this makes sense.