January Class Favorites
January is such a rich month in my music room. With concerts out of the way, I really feel like I get to dive into meaty activities. After Anthems, the content varies between the grades, but here are some activities that my students adore in the month of January.
Quarter-Half-Eighth-Whole-Rest
This game is new to my room, but is without a doubt the new class favorite (move over, Kaboom!). If you have ever played the card game Taco-Cat-Goat-Cheese-Pizza, then you know how this goes. It’s the same idea, but musical. I did it as a centers rotation with third grade and, let’s just say that after that class I printed out, laminated, and cut an extra deck because the students that didn’t make it to the rotation were devastated (we ran outta time!). Here’s the jist:
How to Play:
Deal the cards evenly among players
Players take turns placing a card face-up in the main pile, announcing the terms in order ie: “Quarter”, “Half”, “Eighth”, “Whole”, “Rest”, “Quarter”, “Half”, “Eighth”, “Whole”, “Rest”... etc) UNTIL the following happens:
When a card that has just been put down matches the word spoken by the player (e.g., they put down a ‘Quarter note’ while saying “Quarter”) all the players must SLAP their hands on top of the main pile of cards in the center.
The LAST player to put their hand on the pile takes the entire main pile, and puts the cards on the bottom of their personal, draw pile.
The goal of the game is to be the first person to get rid of your cards.
There are three sets of “SPECIAL CARDS”: Violin, Drum, and Trumpet
When a special card is turned over, everyone must do specific actions before slapping the pile.
Want to see it in action? Take a look at the video.
Quarter-Half-Eighth-Whole-Rest is not just a game; it's an experience filled with laughter, excitement, and a sprinkle of musical silliness. AND, my students can recognize and name rhythms like total pros.
While we’re on the topic of card games I had to make more than one copy of…Meet: Royal War. When I was growing up, this game was called Egyptian Rat Screw (not sure that was wholly appropriate). If you recall that game, it follows similar rules, but instead of a traditional deck of cards, it uses musical symbols. The royals are the notes:
Quarter Note = Jack
Half Note = Queen
Dotted Half Note = King
Whole Note = Ace
Here’s how it goes:
Deal the cards evenly among players. The goal of the game is to collect all the cards.
Players take turns placing a card face-up in the main pile.
When a card that has just been put down matches the previous card (e.g., fermata–fermata) all the players must SLAP their hands on top of the main pile of cards in the center.
The FIRST player to put their hand on the pile takes the entire main pile, and puts the cards on the bottom of their personal, draw pile.
If three cards create a sandwich (e.g., bass clef–repeat sign–bass clef) all the players must SLAP their hands on top of the main pile of cards in the center. Same slap rules above apply.
There are four ROYAL cards (Quarter, Half, Dotted Half, and Whole Notes). When a royal card is turned over, the next player has that number of opportunities to turn over a royal card (e.g., Dotted Half Note = 3 attempts to turn over a royal card).
As you would imagine, this game is loads of fun. The repetition of turning over royal cards (ex: half note—two chances) drills in the rhythmic values of the notes and helps my students internalize and think faster on their feet (kind of like “Mad Minutes” in math).
There are also little images on each card to help students remember how many beats a note gets (ex: a three pointed crown on the dotted half note, four fleur de lis on the whole note, etc.).
Another January highlight (particularly appropriate for this week) is this classic children’s story. I love using books as launch points for activities in my classroom and this one is so rich. I tend to do this with my Kindies and 1st graders. There are tons of extensions and I find that they delight in the repetition of the story with rotating activities.
I always start with a read through where the kids just sit and listen.
Next, we read it again, and they get to act out (pantomime!) all of Peter’s adventures (“Crunch, crunch crunch. His feet sank into the snow” is a favorite moment).
After that, we play non-pitched instruments (usually triangle, guiro, and shakers) to the phrase:
Snow, snow, snowy day
Peter loves a snowy day
The students get opportunities to play each instrument. We insert the phrase in at different page turns, focusing on one instrument at a time, then all of them together. This is a great opportunity to play around with dynamics!
After a day with non-pitched, we take this phrase to the Orff instruments. I use a mix of them all, and shift what they play as we go. For example, I have everyone playing CG at the same time. Then I ask the glockenspiels to play CE. Next I’ll have the alto xylophones break up their rhythms and practice alternating their hands. Lastly, I’ll have the basses work on some jumps (low CG to high CG).
Once everyone has played on the Orff instruments for a while, I’ll ask for a few volunteers to add in the texture of the non-pitched instruments from the other day and we’ll read the story again, adding in playing at page turns (not every page, you can play around with where you want to insert it).
To wrap the whole piece up, I’ll ask them to improvise accompaniment to certain parts of the story: what would it sound like when his feet go “crunch, crunch, crunch” or “can you do a glissando as he slides down the mountain?”
Still not tired of the story, and, having introduced rhythms earlier in the year, we play this game: The Snowy Day: A Rhythm Matching Game for Google Slides
In this Google Slides game, students click on the number (1, 2, or 3) with the rhythm that matches the phrase from the book. It immediately tells them if they are correct or not.
To make it more exciting, we use instruments to play all the rhythms. I like to play by projecting on the board and playing it as a whole group. Students can call out the numbers or hold up and show me on their fingers (answer choices are 1, 2, or 3) and I can notate who is correct (this is a great way to assess without their awareness).
I can’t begin to tell you how much fun they have with this game–and there is ZERO PREP on your part!
Is that everything for January? No. I had to stop and remind myself, just some favorites. There’s recorder, ukulele, Secret Pizza Party (ooh, 2nd graders are loving that one) and more. For another day!
Thanks for sticking with me to the end. And, if you got one like me, enjoy your Snowy Day!
Joanna