Less than $5 3rd Grade Music Composition Activities (by date, oldest first)

This is a great resource to get your kids to work collaboratively as a team (or by themselves if you wish) to identify rhythms as they hear them!

In BlockChain Rhythm, students are given a set of 4 cubes with quarter notes, eighth note pairs, and quarter rests written on them (this is optional, but if you have these, it makes it a challenge for them if you have time to write them out!).

After hearing the rhythm example, they must "rubix cube style" arrange the rhythm that they heard in the right order that it is played. However, the first one to do it the fastest WINS!

Alternatively, you could play this by having the students write it down, have notation cards, or any other method you prescribe. Students can work together in teams of 1, 2, 4, or however may you wish.

To do it as a race: if you have a large and elongated classroom, try setting the blocks 10-15 feet away from the students. Students then have to run one by one and build each beat, go back and tag the next student, and build the second beat, and on and so forth until all four beats are completed.

There are 12 4-beat rhythm examples included in this. All you need to do is play the example and advance the powerpoint slide to show the correct answer!

Have a great time with this!

The NFL season is BACK! Your older grade level kids will love RED ZONE

RHYTHMS!

Students will see an NFL team and their corresponding mascot and the students will have to spell out the team and mascot combo with that's right... RHYTHM!

The students will have to decipher the rhythmic syllables using triplets, eighth note pairs, and quarter notes. The rhythm will be shown on the animation on the next slide.

• You can either have the students notate it out on whiteboards...
• make rhythm cards or tiles
• have them write it on the board
• make it a race between A team vs B team to spell it out
• or however you can imagine!

There are 14 teams with 14 unique rhythms that the students will have to decipher. Here comes the kickoff!

Wanna get your Orff Ensemble moving and grooving but don't know where to start? Get percussive with an original composition named "Birds of a Feather" for Soprano, Alto, and Bass Xylophone/Metallophones!

This Orff Ensemble orchestration provides parts for Soprano, Alto, and Bass Xylophone/Metallophone All parts work together and you can perform the arrangement with all or just some of the parts.

You are free to dissect melodies and harmonies to what you wish, or play right from the beginning to the end. There are 3 four-measure sections to teach your kids (by rote), and you can arrange and label these sections ("A" at measure 1, "B" at measure 5, and "C" and measure 9) in any form you want. ABACA. ABABCAB. AABBCC, etc!

Included are:

• Part for Soprano

• Part for Alto

• Part for Bass

What's it sound like? Check out the preview and see if it's a good fit!

***75% OFF FOR ONE WEEK ONLY!***

9.9.22 to 9.18.22!

Inspired from the MyRhythm App, here's a fun game you can play with some of your older kids to help reinforce rhythms, independence, steady beat, and more!
In Rhythm Latitudes, students will see two rectangles stacked on top of each other. In each rectangle (now known as a beat), there are two circles inside (denoted as eighth notes).
Top Rectangle

· If the first circle is illuminated green on the top rectangle, the students will play using their LEFT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap
· If two circles are illuminated green on the top rectangle, the students will play using their LEFT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap like two eighth notes

Bottom Rectangle

· If the first circle is illuminated green on the bottom rectangle, the students will play using their RIGHT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap
· If two circles are illuminated green on the bottom rectangle, the students will play using their RIGHT HAND either an instrument (maybe a tambourine, drum, rhythm stick, whatever you wish) or their hand to pat their lap like two eighth notes

You will receive 4 levels of mastery with this (4 beats, 6 beats, offbeats, and rests) and accompanying mp3 groove background tracks (or you can play it with some of your favorite pop music).
Procedure:

· Teach the first pages of Left Hand rhythms on top, Right Hand rhythms on bottom
· Review included practice rhythms
· Then count off the kids and go!
· If they master it, move onto the next slide until completed (or until time runs out)

Down, Set, HUT!

In Bar Line Blitz, student will see a meter with several beats of music – except the bar lines are missing to separate the measures from each other!

They will will see 2 or more line placeholders (small grey lines) in between notes. One of the placeholders is where the bar line should go… but which one is it?

Identify where the bar line should be placed and the correct area will illuminate
green if it is accurate!

Play team vs team, A vs B, or individually... and enhance it by playing some fun football music in the background (search NFL themes or college football fight songs on YouTube) ;)

There are 4 levels (4 quarters if you wish) of varying difficulties. The last quarter, they students will need to identify where it should be placed without any small grey lined hashmarks

Have a great time with this one!

Think your kids know rhythms? Challenge them with matching familiar car/truck and auto verbiage in the form of Automotive Rhythms, a printable worksheet for your students!

There are four rhythms that line the sheet (variations of quarter and eighth note pairs) along with terminology on the side. Which automotive phrase (part, brand, accessory, etc) matches the rhythm? Simply identify and ask the students to write it down, easy as ordering flooring it down the autobon!

Not ready for instruments but want to involve your students in some body percussion (while still assessing their reading and performing skills?). Try out "Poison Percussion" the ever-popular Poison Pattern game for body percussion!

This takes students through 63 slides and 3 levels of body percussion (clap, snap, stomp, and pat) sight reading.

Students will play a variety of rhythms as the teacher scrolls through the slides. Each slide contains one rhythm they will play and after advancing to the next slide, you can elect to give them a 4 beat or 2 beat prep to read the next rhythm, whichever works for you. The less prep they have, the better because...

There will be one rhythm (the poison rhythm, poison pattern, or OOPS! rhythm as we'll call it) that students DO NOT play! If they do, they're out of the game.

Students learn the rhythm before the round is played. Be careful or you will be ELIMINATED!

You can play this in teams, As vs Bs, however you wish!

There are 5 background grooves that go from 80 bpm to 120 bpm to challenge your kids as they go through the levels. There are 4 beat rhythms with quarter, eighth note pairs, and quarter note rests

Have a great time with this!

In BoomBox, students will see a series of 8 to 12 boxes with corresponding boomwhacker colors filled in each box. When played, the teacher will count off the students to read down the Boomwhacker boxes from left to right, line by line.

Teachers can use a laser pointer, point with a cursor, or even have kids read by themselves from the beginning to the end.

In this resource, there are 3 levels

• Eight Beat Patterns
• Eight Beat Patterns with Quarter Notes
• Twelve Beat Patterns (with Quarter Notes)

There are twenty five (25) exercises meant to get your kids booming right along! Included in this resource are the powerpoint, PDF, and percussive background tracks from MM 90 - MM 120.

Enjoy!

Getting your students to improve on rhythm and melody can't be any easier with "Boom and Response"!

In this resource, there are 3 tracks totally 5 minutes that you can play for your students (and repeat if necessary). Each track is a specific amount of beats for the "Call" (4 beats, 6 beats, or 8 beats) with the same amount of empty beats that follow directly after -- and thats where you students submit their "Response"

You can utilize this in one of several ways:

1. Assign boomwhackers to your students and have them play the response (any mixture of rhythms and beats) back to you directly after they hear the call
2. Individually listen to each student as they compose their OWN response after they hear the call
3. Assign TWO boomwhackers per student and have them play a melodic response to the "Call" they heard
4. Separate kids into chordal groups for Boomwhackers (C Major, F Major, G Major, etc) and have each chord take turns during a response (C Major goes first... then F Major can go next, G Major next, and so forth)
5. Ask them to utilize dynamics (piano and forte, crescendo and diminuendo, throughout their response) on their Boomwhackers

Or any other crazy way you may think!

Have a great time with this!

A game that will keep your students entertained, engaged, and competitively charged with identifying chord quality, here's One "Minor" Imposter inspired by "Among Us"!

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IN ONE MINOR IMPOSTER, YOU WILL LISTEN TO 2, 3, 4 EVEN 5 CREWMATES PLAY MAJOR CHORDS ONE BY ONE. ONE OF THE MAJOR CHORDS IS ACTUALLY NOT THE MAJOR CHORD PERFORMED!

YOUR TASK IS TO DECIDE WHICH CREWMATE IS THE IMPOSTER BY SELECTING THE CREWMATE WHO PLAYED THE MINOR CHORD INSTEAD OF THE MAJOR CHORD

HERE WILL BE ONLY ONE CREWMATE WHO IS THE IMPOSTER

____________________________

In each example is a piano/guitar/harpsichord mix with different background percussion tempos to keep the kids engaged. Each crewmate, lined up on the powerpoint (1, 2, 3, etc) will be representative of the musical example played.

Included in this resource are

• Mp3 examples embedded in each question (15 questions)
• A printout where you can replicate and cut out cards (if you want the students to place on the floor or hold up to show which one was the imposter)
• 3 levels of rhythms with 3 crewmates (2 major crewmates, 1 minor imposter), 4 crewmates (3 major crewmates, 1 minor imposter), and 5 crewmates (4 major crewmates, 1 imposter)

Have a terrific time with this while your kids study chord quality!

The follow-up to "Rhythm Wind Up and PITCH!"
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This one will get the kids on their edge of their seats!

You will need 1 thing for this particular game:

• A sticky suction cup ball (or maybe a soft squishy ball)

The students will see a melody at the bottom of their screen and memorize the melodic direction or say it back in their head (just make sure the melodic is not sung out loud). They will then hear a musical example of an endless loop of melodic figures separated by 4 beats each in between rhythms. (Teacher will click the speaker icon to play)

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the melodic figures will be the melody that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT MELODY, they throw their suction cup ball at the target. The first kid who gets it correct is the winner (and make sure you advance the slide to make the target turn green) :)

Obviously, we cannot play this as a class because of

1. The amount of suction cup balls tossed at the screen would be insane

2. Team A v Team B would be a bit more competitive and only two balls would be launched at once

If you don't have a whiteboard/projection screen, you can alternatively have the students raise their hand when they hear it and choose the kid who has their hand up the fastest.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!

Mastering the “Call and Response” technique just got a bit more automonous! Sit back and let the music be freely created with “Call it the Response” for Orff Instruments!

In this lesson, student swill hear a “Call” which is the first part of a musical phrase. They will then play a “response” which completes the short musical phrase. Their response may be a certain number of beats or maybe a certain rhythm (could be same or different than the call)

There are 8 different exercises for your kids to give their response on Orff Instruments (or even auxiliary percussion instruments or boomwhackers, the possibilities are endless!).

Each exercise has a percussive backing track with the "Call" built in (played by marimba and xylophone, so you as the teacher aren't responsible for making it up yourself!) and varies in tempo from 100bpm to 110bpm and covers V7, Pentatonic, IV chords, and bourdon notes.

Get creative with “Call it the Response!”

Chord quality galore! Help your kids understand to identify Major and Minor chords in "Major Problem, Minor Adjustment"!

Students will hear 3 to 4 chords back-to-back and have to select the chord (represented by a box from left to right) they think is "minor" or "major" as indicated by the slide

Advance the slide to discover the answer!

There are 8 questions and answers in this series

Understanding notation duration and how they fit mathematically into bars of music is one of the fundamental learning goals of upper elementary students!

With Measure Up! Students will see a measure of music… but… it is incomplete! They will then Choose the correct notation from one of the boxes to complete the measure. Students can use the powerpoint in design mode to click and drag it, draw a path for their specific box to the open box, or write it in!

Can also be used for Distance Learning as well!

15 examples with quarter notes and rests, half notes and rests, whole notes and rests, eighth notes and rests, 4 sixteenth notes and 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 4/4, and a bonus 6/8 example at the end!

Working on melodic direction with some of your upper level students in elementary? Lock your eyes and ears onto Melodious Masterpiece, an activity which engages the kids to think, listen, and use their knowledge to determine the direction of melody!

A melody, the main tune of the piece will be played on each example (10 examples included, ranging from 3 note melodies to 8 note melodies) along with 4 corresponding trapezoids. Students will have to select which trap best represents the melody being played and the answer will illuminate green on the following slide

Students do not need to know lines or spaces of the staff or even note names -- their previous understanding just rests with melodic direction (up and down!)

Can be great as a class activity, boys vs girls, or even assigned as distance learning!

This is a terrific tool to work on meter either face to face or as a lesson in Distance Learning! Students will learn and review about Time Signatures before listening to short examples of a piece of music in either 3/4, 4/4 or 6/8 time.

Students will then have to select the appropriate meter for the example being heard. You can play this student vs student, side vs side, individually, or even as a distance learning assignment!

12 musical examples (from Mozart to Aerosmith) are included with this lesson -- some examples may even surprise you :)

Have a great time with this!

Quarter and Eighth Note pairs are the foundational elements of elementary music -- let's work on our aural skills with **Rhythm Lineup 2.0!

**Students will have a baggie of cards (or alternatively they can write them down on a whiteboard or make their own cards) and hear a rhythm played. They will have to use their cards and place the cards down on the floor in the order that they are heard.

After the example is played, I usually give them another listen to 'check their work' or go back and fill in the missing gaps. Then on the next powerpoint slide, the answer appears one beat by one beat. Check your answer and celebrate if you got it correct!

Can be applied for distance learning as well! Kids can just use sticky notes and write down three eighth note pairs and 4 quarter note pairs and play along!

Included are 10 examples with brass and woodwind instruments. Have a great time!

Can your kids tell the difference between what rhythm is shown and what rhythm is played? Test it out with To Tell the Truth!

Students will see a rhythm on the screen and then a rhythm will be played. Does the rhythm played match the rhythm on the powerpoint? Students will use popsicle sticks (or whiteboard or can do it individually at the screen) to show their answers and the answer will then appear on the screen as you advance in the powerpoint - True or **False!**8 musical examples are included with 4 beat all the way to 7 beat patterns of Quarter and 2 paired Eighth Note rhythms.

The ultimate Boys vs Girls competition! If you're working on notes of the treble clef staff, this is a fun way for kids to competitively spell them out. First, we made a boys side (on the left of the screen) and girls side on the (on the right). A word will appear and the students have 10 seconds to spell the word out (there is a timer attached to the powerpoint and it will count down as soon as the slide appears). This games works best on a whiteboard that has magnetic backing as I print out notes and have the kids race as fast as they can to put them on. After the kids lock in their answer, the next slide reveals the notes. For notes that have F's and E's, the answer key has both top line, top space notes -- those F's and E's both count! :) Some are easy (CAB, DAB, DAD), some get a little tricky (BECCA, CABBAGE, DECADE) and so on. Towards the end they repeat, and feel free to edit and make your own! Have fun with this and if you have any questions, let me know!

Are you as hungry as I am? Let's eat! Identify rhythms in proper nouns with this fun activity. Students will see a food (or foods!) and their corresponding word (or words!) and given two plates on each slide. Have the students identify the syllables in the food and match it to either rhythm on plate number 1 or plate number 2. After kids lock in their answer, advance the slide and reveal the answer! Most are eighth and quarter note rhythms, but some have eighth note triplets and 4 sixteenths group in the examples You can also play it as an assessment and have kids work individual or in teams. There's a powerpoint and PDF included in this package and there are 13 sets of foods go through and can last up to 30-45 minutes depending on what pace you go in the activity. Have a great time and of course, BON APPETITE!