Rhythm!

After the first day of camp we were able to do more activities rather than so much instruction.

The second day began with a short review of note values for our beginners and then added more emphasis on eighth notes.   After some counting practice, we played a game called Telephone which was one of the TCW games (I can't find a link to that game or I would put that in).   I had purchased a set of children's handbells and thought they would work well for this game.   Each child was given a rhythm card and when the operator called his or her rhythm on his bell, the student with that rhythm would have to ring it back right away or get disconnected.  It was fun!  We had several players get disconnected, but when they heard that ring again, they could beg to be reconnected.  We stressed that they really had to sound very sincere so it got pretty animated.  The students had a great time with that.

Another rhythm activity combined a drum circle and the rhythm cards from the Rhythm Riot game (Whirligig game).  We divided the campers into groups of three and gave them a rhythm to practice.   We had a "beat keeper" on the bass drum and the rest each had different drums and rhythm instruments.  The beat keeper kept going but we signaled when each group was added or taken out.  Without exception, the students enjoyed the activity.  It helped to get them more independent with rhythm.


During the week, the students played an echo game where each team (they were divided into three teams) was given a few Rhythm Riot cards and they had to perform the rhythms on the cards.  The other teams had to echo that rhythm without seeing it.  It was a great listening game. 

We also did a bell circle...................giving each student a different rhythm and they had to keep the bells going by taking turns playing the rhythm on their cards.  Any player who couldn't keep the circle going was out.  After a short time, everyone would move to the bell on their right and get a different rhythm.

I wrote a "Jammin' Rap" and had some fun with rhythm in a different type of format.  The more advanced group actually choreographed their parts for the rap and we did a performance for the fathers when they came to pick them up on the last day.  It was really cute!

Of course the big hit for the camp was the trash can game.  It was done similar to a drum circle but each student had a pair of drum sticks and they were playing their rhythms on trash cans.  The cans were different sizes and even included some plastic garbage cans for a different sound.  It was exciting for them (and extremely loud).  They wanted to sound good though and so tried very hard.   By the end of camp it was sounding great!   We were amazed at how well they did!

More to come on activities for other concepts that were covered!

Sally Ritchie