I use Mortinson Math blocks to illustrate rhythm when teaching beginners. “One” blocks are quarter notes in their normal position, but turned over (they are hollow inside) they become quarter rests. “Two” bars are half notes. And so on, any bar being a rest up-side-down. I use toothpicks (sharp ends cut off) for bar lines.
You can quickly come up with a series of words to do with a topic eg Dog breeds. Start the students off with some rhythm combination. Students match up the rhythms with he correct dog breed name. Students can then come up with other dog breeds and write down or match up the rhythms. They can
When you are called for a substitute lesson you may not have all the equipment (instruments, percussion etc.) you have in your regular lessons and you can’t really know the actual level of the students and their abilities. One idea is to focus on rhythm. You only need a C.D. player but you can manage
I tried something different with my beginners a while ago – ages 7 – 8yrs and they enjoyed it. I drew semibreves, minims, dotted minims, crothchets and crotchet rests on the board in random order. They had to walk forward a step and count 4 for the semibreve, 3 for dotted minim etc and no
Draw a simple analogue clock on the board, leaving space around it for 4 beat rhythm patterns. If you have magnetic 4 beat rhythm patterns prepared, stick one at each hour. If you don’t have any, simply draw a 4 beat pattern in stick notation using whatever notation the class knows. As soon as you
Organize the students in 2 lines facing the board. The first two players in line are given a mathematical equation that the final answer equals either 4 (whole note/rest), 2 (half note/rest), 3 (dotted half note) or 1 (quarter note/rest). Start the equations with only addition and subtraction and then you can move onto using