Submitted by Diane Hamilton, Churchville, New York
Idea posted November 10, 2003
Objective: Students will compose quarter, eighth, half, whole, and sixteenth-note rhythms.
Materials: Set of Legos® for each child (or Lego® candy) with various lengths of whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth values stacked together. Each child can have various pieces so that no rhythm will be the same.
Procedure: Show the longest Lego® and indicate that it represents a whole note because you can put four quarter Legos® on top of it (demonstrate).
Show the half-note Legos®, and ask how many can be put on top of the longest Lego® (two) so that they see it is "half" of the longest one, a half note.
Put the eighth-note Legos® on top of the longest (whole-note) Lego®, and ask students to count how many can be placed on it (eight), so that each piece represents an eighth note. Indicate that you can fit two eighth notes on one quarter.
(Older students only) Put one sixteenth-note Lego® on one quarter-note Lego®. Ask how many can fit on one beat (four). Ask how many would fit across the longest Lego® (16). Ask students to count them.
Separate all Legos® and lay some across an overhead projector. Read the rhythm then ask students to copy it.
Ask students to use their Legos® to write their own rhythm.