Doggie Doggie Beat/Rhythm/Melodic Direction Bones

I've been focused on making good quality manipulatives lately, which is a more tactful way of saying I'm a bit obsessed with manipulatives lately. (Can one be a "bit" obsessed? Maybe...)

I'm going to blame my friend Amy Abbott for this obsession/inspiration; she churns out more quality ideas and manipulatives in the span of a week then any teacher I know. (You probably already visit her wonderful blog, Music a la Abbott. If not, you should be checking in with her blog weekly. She posts often.)

I stopped by the teacher resource store Beyond the Blackboard this week looking for post-it notes in the shape of leaves. I did not find those, but I did find some stickers and paper bones.

Beyond the Blackboard and Teacher Created Resources are NOT paying me for advertising.
(hmm... maybe I should contact them...)

I do not enjoy making everything from scratch. While I greatly admire crafty people, I would rather spend less time putting things together. This means I sometimes spend more money. You could easily make your own bones and paw prints. 

I thought these could easily be made into a great beat/rhythm/melodic tracking manipulative for Doggie Doggie.  This is not a new idea, just a good one that I thought I could make into a classroom set of bones. The pack of bones contained 30, exactly what I use for a classroom set. (My largest 1st grade class is 29, which is ridiculous. PLEASE support your local schools by voting yes for any bond or mill levy in your area. That's a different post for another day but many districts are making huge cuts. I'll just say now that smaller class sizes make a huge difference in quality of instruction. ALL instruction.)

One side is for beat tracking while singing the song:

(Notice the strong beats are the same color as the bone outline. I also want to prepare 2/4 meter with these bones.)

The other side shows the rhythm and melodic direction of the song:

Here's a short video of my son singing and tracking:

I am looking forward to using these with a whole class. (All 29 of them!)