Instruments of the Orchestra Game

I am finishing a VERY long 5th grade unit on instruments of the orchestra. Instead of a spelling test this year I did a spelling relay which was a giant hit.

I told the students that they would be having a spelling test, so they studied their brains out, and then they came into my room to find the front of the room completely empty with a clear path to the chalkboard.

I divided the class into 2 teams. I gave each team only one piece of chalk. No matter what happened, they could only use that piece of chalk - which made it equally challenging. Each member of the team had to contribute one letter at a time. If there was a mistake, the next person could only erase the wrong letter, not correct it.

I showed individual pictures of the instruments and they had to spell it letter by letter (like a relay). Once they were done, they had to place a laminated magnetic letter S, W, B, or P to indicate the family the instruments belonged to. They received 3 points for correct spelling and 3 points for proper identification.

What a riot! When I showed the picture of the timpani, one team started spelling timpani and the other started spelling kettle drums. The team spelling kettle drums won that one - the other team wanted to add "drum" to their correctly spelled word. Oh my!

The principal joined us for a while but had to leave - she couldn't stand the smell! It was starting to smell like the gym in my room!! phew!

It sure was a fun way to end this long, long unit! We'll play instrument bingo next time and be done!