Music / Gym Lesson

About 14 years ago, I approached one of our P.E. teachers with the idea of combining P.E./Music for the purpose of combining both subject areas' fundamental concepts. (It was a spin-off of Dalcroze with a touch of P.E.) It became so popular that we started teaching this at two universities for the P.E. and Music departments. Here's a quick, very, very simple example:

The P.E. teacher would give instructions on the correct way to bounce a ball (i.e., knees slightly bent, fingertips on the ball, ball at waist level to begin, etc.). We would then give the students time to practice this concept. We would walk around the gym and help those who needed help.

After they had time to work on the concept, I entered into the teaching mode. I had prepared big charts for the gym wall. The chart for this lesson had quarter-notes and rests. (They alternated, quarter note, quarter rest, etc. for four measures.) The students would say "ta, rest, ta, rest," etc.

Then, I would demonstrate how to combine the two subject area concepts: When the ball hits the floor, that represents the "ta." When the ball comes back to you, that represents the "rest." So now the students would practice saying, "bounce, catch, ta, rest." Once they could say it together, then they practiced as individuals verbalizing and bouncing. We would let them practice individually for a while, and then the big production would happen. The music would be added! Could they all bounce and catch the balls to the steady beat? NO! But after several class sessions working on this, we were so excited to actually hear all the balls (80 students per class period) were bouncing and being caught at the same time. It was WONDERFUL! But it was not easy for them to do.

This was the very first "Music/Gym" lesson we did. From then we created enough ideas to teach one full week from 8:30-3:30 in the summer at the two universities.

You will love it, and your students will love it. The best part is that they will improve in their skill ability tremendously in both subject areas. Just the other day, two 11th graders came by to see me, and the first thing they mentioned was "music/gym." It was their favorite thing to do in elementary school! Wow!

We did this every other Friday. (I alternated with two schools.) We did it with K-5th grade.