ALEX Learning Activity

  

Rhythm Composition With Playdough

A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.

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  This learning activity provided by:  
Author: Tiffani Stricklin
System:Jefferson County
School:McAdory Elementary School
  General Activity Information  
Activity ID: 2061
Title:
Rhythm Composition With Playdough
Digital Tool/Resource:
Quaver's Cooking with Rhythms Video
Web Address – URL:
Overview:

Students will explore and compose various rhythm patterns using playdough. They will shape the playdough into music notes and arrange them into four-beat patterns.  Students will read their favorite pattern to the class.  

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit. 
  Associated Standards and Objectives  
Content Standard(s):
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 2
Music: General
4) Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to combine, sequence, and document personal musical ideas.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Creating
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Process Components: Plan and Make
Essential Questions:
EU: Musicians' creative choices are influenced by their expertise, context, and expressive intent.
EQ: How do musicians make creative decisions?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
Rhythm
  • Eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest
  • Strong/ weak beat — 2/4; 3/4 meter
  • Accelerando/ ritardando
Melody
  • Pitch Set: Do , Re, Mi, So, La
  • Five-line staff
  • Treble clef
  • Names of lines/ spaces (treble staff)
Harmony
  • Melodic ostinati
  • Partner songs
Form
  • AAB, AABA, Rondo
  • Verse/ Refrain
Expression
  • Orchestral instrument families
  • Piano (p), forte (f)
  • Crescendo/ decrescendo
  • Orchestral Music: programmatic
  • Indigenous music: Native American
  • American music: slave songs, colonial folk songs
Other
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (B3-D5)1
  • Mallet/ drumming technique: alternating hands
Skill Examples:
Performing
  • Perform original melodic patterns in do pentatonic as an introduction to a known song.
  • Perform original rhythmic patterns on body percussion or unpitched percussion, containing eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest, as an introduction to a known chant.
Creating
  • Create a melody on pitched instruments using speech rhythms from a selected poem.
  • Improvise with a partner in question/answer style, using pitched or unpitched percussion instruments.
Reading/ Writing
  • Notate speech rhythms from a selected poem, using iconic or standard notation.
  • Using music composition software, create an original composition based on a personally selected topic.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Refine compositions based on self-evaluation of a recorded performance.
  • Indicate dynamic markings for original compositions.
Learning Objectives:

The student will use notation to create a four-beat rhythm pattern. 
  Strategies, Preparations and Variations  
Phase:
Before/Engage
Activity:

1.  Watch the Quaver clip of Cooking with Rhythms.

2.  Distribute playdough to students. 

3.  Practice making music notes with playdough. Review how many beats each note receives. 

  • The teacher may limit the notes to quarter and paired eighth notes to make it easier.

  • The teacher may allow the students to use all the notes that have been previously learned in class - quarter, paired eighth, half notes and quarter rests. 

4.  Create various four-beat patterns using the playdough. 

5.  Students choose their favorite pattern to share with the class. 

6.  Collect playdough. 
Assessment Strategies:

The teacher will use informal observation to determine if the student made a four-beat pattern and read it correctly to the class. 
Advanced Preparation:

1.  Students will need prior knowledge of music notes and the number of beats each receives.  

2.  Collect enough playdough for each student to make at least four music notes.  

3.  This will get messy. Having a mat to keep the playdough on will help. I use laminated sheets of paper. The playdough will come off the mat easier than the floor and doesn't get as dirty.  
Variation Tips (optional):
 
Notes or Recommendations (optional):

This lesson can be used with the activities Rhythm Composition in Rondo Form and Creating Rondo Form. 

 
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