Sunday, September 30, 2012

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!)







8 comments:

  1. AHHH!!!! This is SO awesome!!!!! I was trying to picture it when we were talking and this is even better then the way I saw it!!!! GREAT idea!!!

    So, when are you going with me to Beyond the Blackboard?!!!!

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  2. I would love to go back but I also purchased stickers of bees, stars, and pumpkins. I spent too much $. I need to stay out of there for a few weeks!

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  3. Love this idea!!! Thank you sooo much for sharing it!! I'm actually teaching this lesson in a few weeks! (I just might be trying something new!) :-)

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  4. Another great idea. I love having multiple purposes for the same visual aids. Thanks!

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  5. LOVE this idea! I'm definitely copying it! :) Oh, and by the way... I would LOVE 30 kids in a class - I have over 50 sometimes!

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  6. 50! Wow- that's crazy! They must be combining classes for music. (?)

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  7. I found your blog via Pinterest and browsed a bit...found this and LOVE it! I just reproduced it in Word for my kids to use and am so doing some others! LOVE!

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  8. Thank you! I'm glad you've found a way to re-create it!

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