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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Activities Like... Note Reading Stations

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' today for their We're Thankful For Linky Party. Each day they are writing about something they are thankful for as teachers. Wednesday's theme is Activities Like...

If you would like to join the fun click the link below to find their post and/or read other posts written by other teachers. I especially recommend reading Mrs. Miracle's blog posts. She has been linking with them all week!


The last couple weeks I have begun the preparation of my 4th graders for playing recorders. They already had some experience reading notes on the treble clef thanks to Freddie the Frog, Music K-8 Kids Videos, and a basic introduction in 3rd grade. However, I really wanted students to get a lot of experience with note reading before I actually put the recorders in their hands. To aid in this process, I created stations around the room for note reading (and a few for rhythm work, since that is also important for recorders).

Here are the stations with information on where to get these materials online:

1) Apples and Oranges - Word Matching Game

appleorange

This is a pretty simple matching game that I bought from Teachers Pay Teachers. How it works is a small group of students sort the apples and oranges by trying to match the words on the apples with the words on the oranges. For example the apple will have the word FACE written on it and they have to find the orange card that spells face on the staff.

I have been a little creative with this station and have also come up with some other ways to use these cards. I have the students play a game of memory with them. (This is a bit more challenging, but is great for my high achieving groups.) I also have them race against each other to see who can get the most matches. You can get this original game HERE as part of a bundle. The bundle includes Sandwich Match, which I'm going to talk about next, and it also includes some other activities I use with other concepts.


2) Sandwich Match - Letter Matching Game

peanutjelly

This game is just like the Apples and Oranges game, but instead of whole words you just match a letter. This one is a bit easier to play as memory and many of my students prefer to work at this station that way. Again you can get this HERE.


3) Classics for Kids - Treble Clef Note Reading Game

notenamegame

I allow students to play this on my Smartboard by taking turns identifying the note and creating the words. You can find this game HERE.


4) Ladybug Game

ladybuggame

You can find this fun game HERE. Susan has a lot of great games and you should check them out while you are there. All you need to do is print out the pdf she created and create playing pieces. For my playing pieces I used big buttons from Walmart with cute bug stickers on them. More specific directions are on the site, but the basic idea is students pick cards from the deck one at a time and move to the closest space of the letter they choose. Whoever makes it to the end first, wins. Students should take turns and if students draw a card that says bee sting or other things like that they should follow the directions on it.


5) Fly Swatter Game

flyswatter

This is another game made by Susan. I have seen games like this, but how this works is you print out the cards onto cardstock. Then, one student holds up a card while the others find the correct note as quickly as possible and swat the correct answer on the poster board. (You could also write your answers on the board.) Whoever gets the note correct first gets to take over the cards and the other two students become swatters. You can find this game HERE.


6) Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm Composition

fallworksheet

For some rhythm work I had students working on a Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm Composition. The top of the worksheet students figure out which note each word should get based on the amount of syllables each word has. For example they put a quarter note with corn and four sixteenth notes with cranberry sauce. After finishing the top part they can create their own Fall/Thanksgiving Rhythm and create their own rap. They fill in each blank with a word from above and add the corresponding rhythms with it. It is a fun way for students to practice their rhythms and use their own creativity. You can get this activity at my Teachers Pay Teachers store HERE.


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