Submitted by Missy Wainman

Idea posted October 21, 2003

Here are a few games that I've created out of thin air over the last nine years!!

Rhythm Race
Objective: The student will visually and aurally recognize rhythms with quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, and quarter rests. (You can expand this to more difficult rhythms, if you want.)
Materials: Two sets of rhythm cards; masking tape (to make starting line); board (to keep points on)

Make two sets of rhythm cards (any number). Divide the class into two teams and have them sit with an aisle between them. Stand away from the students at the end of the aisle so there is some running room. Place the two sets of rhythm cards upside down and scattered, one on each side of you with space in between. Have teams choose the order of players (each child will get to play). They stand at a pre-determined line at the front of the aisle. You clap and say the rhythm twice. Say, "Go!" and the players race to the end of the aisle to look for the rhythm you said. The player only gets one chance to show you a card, so they must be certain that they have the right one. The player who shows you the card with the correct rhythm on it first gets a point for their team. Play until the end of class. The team that wins gets to line up first. You can also play this game using notes on the staff or other music symbols.

Four Corners
Objective: The student will demonstrate soft.
Materials: Cards with the numbers one through four printed on them; CD/tape player; CDs or tapes of teacher's choice of music (I use Sugar Beats, a CD with '50s and '60s music sung by children.)

Determine the four corners in your classroom. Place numbered cards in corners. Choose one child to be "It." He/she will sit in the middle of the corners blindfolded. His/her job is to listen for the noisiest corner.

The other students will move to a corner as the music is playing. They must move silently or they will be heard. When the teacher (T) turns the music off, students must be standing in a corner. "It" will choose the corner that they think is being the noisiest (Example - Corner Two). If the students have been silent the whole time, "It" will just have to pick a corner. The students in the chosen corner must sit out. "T" turns the music back on and the remaining students move to another corner. "T" turns the music off and "It" chooses another corner that they think is the noisiest. Those children sit down. Play until there is one child left, that child becomes the new "It," and everyone is in the game again.

When I play this with my kids, I start the first game with the music kind of loud, so it's easy for them to move from corner to corner. But with each new game that starts, I turn the music down so they have to really think about being quiet. Here are another few rules that I've had to add in the past:

1. You may not stomp around and then sneak off to a corner. You must move quietly all the time. (If they stomp around, they are automatically out for the rest of that game.)
2. You may not bother "It," he/she is blindfolded and cannot see; it's like he/she is blind and cannot defend himself. Leave him/her alone if you want to play this game. (If I see that students are bothering "It," they have to sit out for one game.)
3. When you are out, sit quickly and quietly. The longer it takes for you to sit down, the longer it is before you get to play again.
4. When students are out, they must sit silently. If they make noise, "It" might think that the noise is coming from a corner and call out a corner, when in fact the people in the corner were quiet. That's not fair.
5. "It" can choose the same corner to call as many times as he/she wants to. There is a way to not ever get out in this game - always go to the last corner that "It" called. I remind "It" that they can say corner two (or whichever) as many times as they want. I don't EVER tell the kids that there is a way to beat the game. If they figure it out on their own, and I notice that they've figured it out, that's when I tell "It" to choose the same corner if they want. Students can tell if I know they are beating the game.
6. Students MUST move from their corner and find a new one each time the music starts. They may not stay in the same corner the whole time.
7. If a student isn't in a corner when the music stops, they are out. If a student moves before the music starts, they are out. If a student changes his/her mind about where they are standing and starts to move, but immediately stops when the music stops and you judge if they are still close enough to where they were, they are not out.
8. If "It" calls a corner and there isn't anyone in it, tell the students not to say anything. This is just a trick against "It." "It" will think he/she got students out when they really didn't.

I know that this seems like a lot of rules, but they are mainly more for you than for the kids. You don't have to be so specific with them. They'll just need to know the basics. If you get down to exactly four students left in the game, tell the students you will hold up one finger. This means that there should be one person in each corner. "It" chooses three corners, which will leave you with one person. The student left becomes the new "It."

Music Basket Turnover
(much like Fruit Basket Turnover, if you're familiar with that game)
Objective: Students will aurally recognize the names of musical notes and rests.
Materials: Enough chairs for your class.

Place chairs in a circle and have students sit in chairs. Walk around the circle, and give each student the name of a note or rest. (Have a set list of five or six and go down the list. When you get to the bottom of the list, start over.) Have all the quarter notes stand up and walk to the chair of another quarter note person. After all the students have changed chairs with the other people that have the same note/rest as them, ask one child to be "It." Take away his/her chair (now you have one less chair than you have children). "It" calls out a note or rest other than what he/she is/was. When "It" says the note/rest name, those children get up and find a new chair; "It," however, is also looking for a new chair. The called students will be trying to get into one of the vacant chairs. Whichever child doesn't find a new chair is the new "It."

If at any time you feel the kids can handle it, have "It" say "Music Basket Turnover," this is when EVERYONE gets up and finds a new chair. I would advise against this with large classes. I've had some kids get hurt from kids not being careful. You may occasionally have "It" call out two notes or rests. This is a little safer than all of them getting up at once.

Music Instrument Recognition
Objective: The student will recognize, either visually or aurally, instruments of the orchestra.
Materials: pictures or posters of musical instruments; listening examples of musical instruments; two bells with the button on top that you push

Divide the class into two teams. Have each team decide the order that they will play in. Place your bells on a desk, one on each side so the players can face each other. Show a poster of an instrument or play an example of what the instrument sounds like. Whichever player "rings" in first and answers correctly (with no help from the "peanut gallery" or the team) gets a point. If the first player doesn't get the answer right, the other player may try for the point. If neither one gets it right, anyone can answer but no points are given. Play until time is out!

You could do this with identifying intervals, chords (if you've gotten that far), or pieces of music. Here in Texas we have a competition called U.I.L. After I've taught all the pieces the students are to know, we play this game and use listening examples of the pieces of music. This is a great way to review before the competition.

Heads-Up, 7 Up
Objective: The student will recognize different elements of music.
Materials: Sets of cards with music symbols, intervals, or staves with notes on them.

Choose any number of students below seven (hence the name "Heads-Up, 7-Up"). These students will all be given a card with some musical "thing" on them. (Whatever you have decided to use.) The other students will lay their heads down or cover their eyes. The students who are "It" will walk around and lay a card next to someone. When all the students who are "It" have placed their cards, they will walk back to where they started from. When all the "It's" have come back, teacher says, "Heads-up, 7-up!" The students who have cards next to them stand up. Those students get a chance to guess who gave them the card, but they must first identify whatever is on their card. If they don't identify what is on their card, they don't get to guess who gave it to them. If they do guess correctly, they may take one guess as to who gave it to them. If they guess that correctly, they take the place of the person who gave them the card. (Is this making sense?) After all the students have guessed who gave them the cards, if any of the original people are left, they may say who they gave their cards to. The teacher collects all the cards and shuffles them, students put their heads down again and those who are "It" for this game get a new card and lay it down next to a new person.

This is a good review for any music symbols (or whatever) that you may have been studying.

Music Around the World
Objective: The student will visually identify musical concepts.
Materials: Cards from "Heads-Up, 7-Up."

Start at one side of the room. Have two students stand side-by-side and show them a card from your pile. Whichever student correctly identifies the card gets to move on to the next person. The person who didn't identify the card must sit down wherever they are. You will have some students sitting in other persons' seats. If you have a child that goes all around the room and beats everyone, you may let them show the cards for the next round as a prize.