Get Your Students to Compose Ostinato Ensembles

As I've been back into the lesson planning game, I was thinking about ways to actively engage students, and give them choice and ownership of the music they create.  I realized that composition and performance has always been a great learning and assessment opportunity in my classroom.

In this set, students have the ability to compose, either alone or in groups, and then in small groups (or large ones for that matter), to perform the layers of the simple ostinato they write. 

This set has several combinations of worksheets to meet the needs of your students. Several instrumental options are included for each set of rhythms directed in both 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures. Worksheets are created to include quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests; the next level of advancement adds sixteenth notes; and the final level of advancement adds eighth-sixteenth combinations. 

Over 40 choices of instrumentation and rhythm requirements are provided. These worksheets require use of 1 beat rhythms only. Instruments listed on the worksheets include world drums, egg shakers, sticks, cymbals, wood blocks, hand drums, sand blocks, triangles, tambourines, and maracas. Blank worksheets are also provided for you or your students to choose instruments not listed on any set. 

I'm hoping to create a more complex set that will allow for multiple beat rhythms.  I hope this experience gets your students MAKING music, not simply sitting and listening.  Our students need the chance to CREATE on a daily basis!

Happy composition work!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff in the Music Classroom

I recently finished a new product, after not creating many music products for awhile.  Between being a principal and a mom, life has been busy, but I've really enjoyed thinking creatively about ways to engage students in the music making process so on my last snow day, I explored this lesson I have had in my mind for awhile.

This new set is great for introducing children's literature and characterization in the music classroom.  Students will learn ostinato patterns for each character in the story, from the little goat, to the big goat.  The story is written and can be projected, so that when it is read, students see a graphic representation of the "character" the ostinato represents, signaling the performance of the rhythm pattern.

Ostinato parts can be assigned to individual students, groups of students, or a whole class.  The ostinato patterns can be performed with body percussion or speech, or instruments may be added to represent each character.

Though I have created several other rhythm stories in my TPT store, this story includes half notes, quarter notes, quarter rests, sixteenth notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth/eighth combinations, providing some more advanced rhythm opportunities for students who are prepared to do so.

To conclude the story performance, the rhythm ostinato patterns can be layered and performed together as an ostinato piece.

Enjoy this new activity for cross curricular connections in your music room.  Find it here.