Less than $5 6th Grade Music Composition Assessment (by date, latest first)

Learning the values of quarter and eighth notes are a good solid foundation to start off, but when it gets to rests, understanding a beat of silence is a little different! In "Give it a Rest!" students are introduced to the quarter rest, which is a note, but a note of silence. They watch "Give it a Rest!" from Music K-8 and then are given an activity -- try to decipher where the rest occurs in a musical example. The students will be told how many beats are in the example and then a four beat percussive introduction is played. Students will be asked to dictate the quarter notes AND quarter rests in the musical example. The teacher can play this again for reinforcement (but for kids in upper grades, playing it only ONCE can be a challenge!). There are 12 examples, each one getting a little more difficult than the last! You can run this activity in many ways: - Student can write on whiteboards with dry erase markers - Pairs of students can team up in a race to spell it out - Use as a whiteboard/smartboard/IWB activity - Print out cards of quarter notes and rests and have them line it up on the floor - Any other way you find creative! Enjoy this with your class and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

In Stick it to the Rhythm, we used popsicle sticks to identify quarter and eighth note notation in our classrooms. What happened if we didn't give the kids a blank slate and they had to use eyes, ears, and minds? In this follow-up, "Stick it to the Rhythm Part II", students are instructed to put a number of sticks on the floor (6 to 12 'quarter notes') and will listen to a musical example made up of quarter and eighth notes. They are then to interpret that example and use the last sticks and place them where they think they heard the eighth notes... In essence, they are taking the quarter notes at the end of the phrase and making them into eighth notes by beaming the quarter notes together -- this will really get your kids thinking! There are 10 examples (all with an 8 beat count off to establish tempo) and the examples range from easy to difficult with the mp3 embedding into the file. Have a great time and let me know what you think in the comments :) As always, any questions or concerns, you know where to find me!

4/4, 3/4, 2/4, the whole clan! What splits those evenly between measures, bar lines of course! In this interactive game, I have boys vs girls (side one, side two, class A, class B, however you want to do it!) go against each other as they see a long measure of rhythms. Their job? Split it in half and affix a bar line to the interactive whiteboard! The first kid who gets it right gets a point! You can do this with flash cards, use this as printables, or any other creative way you wish! The answers are on the following slide highlighted in green. Included is an intro video in the folder from Quaver's Marvelous World of Music to start your kids off on the right... foot ;) (You'll see in the video!) Have a fun time with this!

Working on rhythms with your kids and need to hammer in those note lengths? Beat me to it may be the trick! Students will see a box on the board displaying rhythms made of quarter, half, and whole notes. They will see a set of number below that will match the amount of beats in that rhythm above. Which number is the correct answer? I usually do this boys vs girls or team vs teams in the class and have a circle magnet that the kids both possess. They run to the board and put the magnet on the answer they think, and all I do is advance the slide and the answer appears in green! Beats go from 1 to 16 and answers change all throughout the presentation! You can use this as an assessment any way you like (kids call it out, kids write it on their lapboards, multiple choice, however you wish). Have fun and let me know how it goes!

A great end of the year (or maybe even beginning of the year!) assessment for some of your kids in the older grades, "Identify Musical Parameters" takes you through 11 musical elements (tempo, meter, dynamics, articulation, and tonality) that you typically discuss in class with the kids!

Students will hear a musical example of a parameter and will have to decide which element of music they heard with a multiple choice answer for each example given. You can do this as a class activity, boys vs girls, in groups, or however you wish!

Advance the slide to show the answer highlighted in green. Have a great time with this and let me know how it goes in the comments! ;)

Listening to Popular music isn’t just for enjoyment. It contains critical pieces of musical composition that makes it sound the way it does!

In "The Elements of Pop", students will be given 8 short examples of pop music (about 30-45 seconds long all mp3s included and embedded into the powerpoint) and will be see a multiple choice selection of elements that described the pop music being played

It's mostly broad terminology you teach in your music class: Rhythm, Tempo, Major/Minor, Instrumentation, Vocal ranges, etc!

This is great assessment to do as a class, individually, or even through distance learning! Have your cake and eat it too!

Pair this with the Identify Form in Popular Music series and you got yourself engaging lesson material!

Let us know how it is goes in the comments :)

Listening to Popular music isn’t just for enjoyment. It contains critical pieces of musical composition that makes it sound the way it does!

In "The Elements of Pop", students will be given 8 short examples of pop music (about 30-45 seconds long all mp3s included and embedded into the powerpoint) and will be see a multiple choice selection of elements that described the pop music being played

It's mostly broad terminology you teach in your music class: Rhythm, Tempo, Major/Minor, Instrumentation, Vocal ranges, etc!

This is great assessment to do as a class, individually, or even through distance learning! Have your cake and eat it too!

Pair this with the Identify Form in Popular Music series and you got yourself engaging lesson material!

Let us know how it is goes in the comments :)

A great end of the year (or maybe even beginning of the year!) assessment for some of your kids in the older grades, "Identify Musical Parameters" takes you through 11 musical elements (tempo, meter, dynamics, articulation, and tonality) that you typically discuss in class with the kids!

Students will hear a musical example of a parameter and will have to decide which element of music they heard with a multiple choice answer for each example given. You can do this as a class activity, boys vs girls, in groups, or however you wish!

Advance the slide to show the answer highlighted in green. Have a great time with this and let me know how it goes in the comments! ;)

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 terms with some of your older kids who have been in elementary music for a few years? With "Come to Terms", students will see a definition of a term on the powerpoint and will have to drag one multiple choice term of which they think matches the definition. Advance the slide to reveal the correct answer!

In the 30 slide presentation, the 15 terms identified are:

Forte

Presto

**Largo
Crescendo
Accelerando
Fermata
Legato
Tempo
Staccato
Sostenuto
Triplet
Melody
Flat
Sharp
Diminuendo
**

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

"4 beats in a measure with the quarter note getting the beat", the time old concept we ingrain in our students' mind! Assess your students by letting them identify inaccuracies in a measure of music with "Common Sense"

Students will view examples of a measure of Common Time (4/4) and find the measure that has too many or not enough beats to equal common time!

After the students select the correct measure, advance the slide to find out the answer. You can then trigger a discussion of what made it inaccurate (too many beats, not enough beats, etc)

The latter half of the lesson shows you one measure of music with a [ ? ] box. Students will have to select (from a multiple choice selection of answers) which answer would best fit in the box to complete a measure of 4/4

Getting into advanced rhythms with your kids, try to ace these rhythm examples of Off the Beat!

In this presentation, there are 30 3, 4, 5, and 6 beat rhythms to challenge your kids on the "and" counts. Have your students play this on percussion instruments (such as tubanos, StickStations, boomwhackers, rhythm sticks, or anythign that will produce music!)

The 21st example splits into an "A" section and a "B" sections where you can split your class (boys and girls, side 1 side 2, etc) to perform a 2-part rhythm. You can even experiment around with the last slides and play the on barred instruments on difference pitches (C and E for the "A" section and G and C for the "B" section) to create polyrhythmic harmony

Included are 5 percussive grooves to play as a background supplement (all at various tempi)

After you've discussed Quarter and Eighth note pairs with your kids, you naturally move onto 16th notes and discuss how the the subdivision breaks down from there.

This lesson, Sweet 16 focuses on students identifying where sixteenth notes are a musical example. Students will listen to 10 examples and write out (either with a whiteboard, printed cards, or other method) what notation they hear. In the examples, there will be quarter notes, eighth notes, and groups of 4 sixteenths.

Each example gets a bit harder! You can play the audio as many times as necessary so the kids master the skill.

Have a great time with this!

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

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the rhythms will be the rhythm that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT RHYTHM, 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. Boys vs Girls 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.

Quarter Notes, Eighth Note pairs, and Quarter Rests are covered in this lesson.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!

In this listening game, students will listen to 11 short musical and hear different articulations that are covered briefly on the second slide of the presentation.

After a brief explanation and illustration of 4 examples (staccato, legato, accent, and slur), students will listen to the audio and have a multiple choice select of rhythms with assigned articulations.

Students will then choose the answer that best fits the audio example and advance the slide to reveal the answer, illuminated in green!

You can play this a number of ways: Individually, as a class team vs team (whoever choose the correct answer first), or assign it as a distance learning challenge and have the students select their answer and keep track of their score.

The teacher can always play the audio example multiple times just in case the kids need to listen again :)

Have a great time with this!

The follow-up to "Rhythm Wind Up and PITCH!"
______________________________________

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!”

Working on ostinatos (repeated phrases) with your instrumentals (Orff, Recorder, Percussion, Body Percussion etc?).

Check out Ostinato Party where students can be assigned an A ostinato or B ostinato while working on different rhythms. You can have students switch halfway through or assign half a class one ostinato and the other half the different one.

3 Levels of Quarters and Eighths, Eighth Rests, and Sixteenth Notes!

Gone are the days of identifying and listening to soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and all of the instruments in unison! With "In Harmony", students will listen to a short piece of music and have to identify if the piece is in unison, a two-part harmony, or a three-part harmony

Each piece of music is about 12-15 seconds and covers different instrument groups (woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion) and venues through different timbres so students are challenged to identify the harmonies (or unisons!) in each one.

Simply advance the slide after the example to see which answer was correct!

There are 15 examples in this lesson with multiple instruments featured.