Fabulous lesson for tim-ka (dotted-eighth-sixteenth)

This lesson just sort of happened. I didn't quite have it planned this way but I followed the flow and ran with it and it was a success!

Fifth graders have identified the new rhythm concept: tim-ka, or dotted-eighth-sixteenth notes. Now we are playing with it, seeing if we understanding it by echoing it, decoding it in 4 beat phrases, and improvising with it on instruments.

We started by just echoing a few. Then, as a class, I clapped a 4 beat phrase and they decoded it together. Next, I had them do it one at a time as part of taking attendance. I told them, "Welcome to the music room, mistakes are made here and that's okay. I just want to know how we are doing in understanding this new rhythm." (there is a banner on my wall that says the first part of this sentence and I quote it often. Big thanks to Roger Sams for teaching it to me.) Some got it, some didn't. No big deal. It was just a dipstick to show me how they are doing in comprehension.

Next we looked at the Japanese song, Yuki, which we learned last time (the excercise was to clap the rhythm which used all eighth notes then find which eighth notes needed to be turned into dotted-eighth-sixteenth notes). After singing the song, I improvised 4 beat rhythms using tim-ka on a glockenspiel and they echoed back the rhythm, improvising the pitches in F Pentatonic. We went back and forth for a while then I had a few soloists answer me in a "musical conversation". Next I asked for a volunteer to take my job and lead us. Finally, I had pairs of students do four 4 beat question/answer conversation phrases, making sure to end on F=do. Once that was established, we brought back Yuki and sang the song then students improvised their "conversations" back and forth until we returned to Yuki. At the end of class, one student said, "that was so fun!"

Yes!