A beautiful Montessori-inspired music activity for elementary students.
We've done our fair share of music theory games around here. For instance, I've introduced my boys to different music notation with our music note matching games here and here and we've used our music rocks as a stepping stone (ha!) to learning about rests in music. We've explored the grand staff using mirrors and a DIY grand staff board. Now we've moved on to learning about rhythms in music. This simple Montessori music theory tray is a great way to explore rhythms, time signatures, bar lines, and more.
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Music Activity for Kids to Reinforce Rhythms in Music
Since J isn't quite 5 and K isn't quite 3, I kept this exploration of rhythms fairly simply. We used simple rhythms in 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures with no rests. For this activity, we used:
- Simple rhythm patterns from this Hal Leonard Music Flashcards Set A
- Toothpicks for bar lines
- DIY music stones - I also made some with the numbers 3 and 4 on them so that the boys could also make the time signatures.
This music activity was a perfect fit for J. He carefully examined, searched for, and matched the notes to his rhythm flashcard.
He even made sure to add "sticks," as he liked to call them, for the bar lines. I told J that they were called bar lines, as it was his first introduction to them.
Once he completed the rhythm, I clapped and counted the rhythm out loud for him. J then clapped along with me when I repeated the rhythm.
K is still a bit young for this activity, although he did manage to match the numbers of the time signature correctly.
His rhythm building, on the other hand, could use some more practice.
Looking for more rhythm activities? Try out these ideas:
Oh my goodness! I am falling in love with your site tonight! I LOVE this music theory activity and can't wait to feature it with one photo in my round up of music theory activities for kids at http://everystarisdifferent.blogspot.com. Thank you so much for taking the time to blog about such a fabulous activity!
ReplyDeleteThank you for featuring it!
DeleteI love the creativity here! But can I get printables of the rhythm cards? (not musically inclined myself...need a bit of help there)
ReplyDeleteHi, Tammie! I don't have a printable for these rhythm cards as I used a set of rhythm flashcards instead. They're only like $5-6 for the set. You can check them out here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793577756/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0793577756&linkCode=as2&tag=annecol-20&linkId=25A7PUVA7WLZDJBR
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