STEADY BEAT - RHYTHM CARROTS

With Easter around the corner, I thought that an assessment of rhythm skills and time signature with a fun Easter theme might be engaging.  Purchase affordable Easter baskets, plastic or wooden carrots, and a wooded box at your local craft store.  If you can't find wooden carrots, use empty seed packets after you have planted carrots in your garden.  :)  I found felt baskets at Michael's for $1 each in a variety of colors.  You will also need sentence strip pieces (mine are 6") so that children can write the rhythm patterns they create to turn in at the end of the activity.

The wooden box will become your "garden" area.  Paint the wooden carrots and write a different rhythmic pattern on each carrot -- each carrot should equal 1 beat.  Example - 1 quarter note, 2 eighth notes.  Place the carrots in the "garden" box.  Affix time signatures on each basket.  Have children place carrots in each basket.  The rhythms of the carrots must add up to equal the number of beats indicated in the time signature.  For example, the basket with a time signature of 3/4 would have 3 carrots with a quarter note on each or 2 carrots with quarter notes on each and one carrot with 2 eighth notes.

After carrots have been put into the baskets, have children write the rhythm patterns in each basket on an assessment "menu" for their carrot dinner special.  This will have them writing rhythms and give you an opportunity to collect and assess their understanding of time signature.

Extension:  Add more complex rhythms for upper grades.  Change time signatures on baskets for more rhythm experiences.

CHILDREN'S LITERATURE - BOOKS TO SING

If You're Hoppy
Written by April Pulley Sayre
Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic

This is a wonderful Easter adaptation of "If You're Happy and You Know It."  But watch out, you may find yourself happy as a bird, a frog, a cricket, or dog - or even a bunny!

Enjoy the story and keep singing!

MELODY

TO BE POSTED SHORTLY.

STEADY BEAT

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MELODY

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CHILDREN'S LITERATURE - BOOKS TO SING

It's St. Patrick's Day!
Written by Rebecca Gomez
Illustrated by Mary Morgan
ISBN: 978-0-439-44160-5

Read the story (each verse told in rhyme) to the children inviting them to repeat the 1st phrase twice at the end of each 4-phrase passage.  Example:  "It's St. Patrick's Day!" (clap clap - 2 eighth notes) - "It's St. Patrick's Day!" (clap - quarter note)

The second time the story is retold, it can be sung to the melody of "The Grand Old Duke of York."  Add a simple rhythmic ostinato pattern after 2 4-phrase passages.

Enjoy the story and keep singing. :)

STEADY BEAT

TO BE POSTED SHORTLY.