This game was a huge hit with the 5th graders. They kept asking to play it again and again. It's fast paced and fun and really works their note recognition skills.
Materials:
Several sets of Boomwhackers, Desk Bells, barred instruments, or any Chromanote instrument
8 - 16 Markers of the color Chromanotes variety
8 - 16 Traffic Cones
Music stands (1 for each group)
Blank Color Music Sheets
Setup:
Set up your room with a central area where the cones are scattered
Place one or 2 markers under each cone
On the outer edge of the playing area, have a music stand with a Blank Color Music Sheet on it. And a set of Chromanote instruments at each station.
Divide students into groups of 4 or 5
Have students line up behind their music stand
Game Play:
Each person in line has a job according to their place which changes with each turn
1) Finder - Runs to the cones and finds a marker
2) Coach - Gives helpful suggestions from the sidelines and collaborates with Colorist
3) Colorist - Collaborates with Coach and colors in the note or notes
4) Cheerleader - Provides positive encouragement from the sidelines
Students wait in their line until Teacher says "Go"
Finder races to a cone and grabs ONE marker underneath (make sure to put the cone back if it gets tipped over). Then Finder brings it back to the Colorist.
Coach pays attention to which colors are needed and provides positive and helpful feedback from behind the music stand and helps Colorist decide where the color belongs on the music sheet. If there is more than one note of the same color, teams are allowed to fill in all the notes they can.
Colorist takes the marker from the Finder and collaborates with Coach to decide where the color belongs and then colors in the correct note or notes.
Cheerleader is in charge of being positive and encouraging, only offering advice if the Coach and Colorist ask.
Once note or notes are colored, the Finder puts the marker back under a cone (if you’re putting one marker under each cone, Finder has to find an empty cone to place the marker back under. If you are putting two markers under each cone, they can put the marker back under an empty cone or a cone with one other marker under it. Finder then hurries to the back of their group and everyone moves up and changes jobs according to their number. (i.e. Finder becomes Cheerleader, Coach becomes Finder, Colorist becomes Coach, Cheerleader becomes Colorist.)
Once the music sheet is full and all the colors have been found, the group decides which notes each person will play on the instrument at their station and start practicing the song.
When a group is ready to play their song for the class, they sit down and wait for everyone else to finish
The order in which each group sits down is noted and every group gets to play their songs for the class in order of completion
The first group to play through their song correctly is the winner.
Tips:
If you don’t have cones to place around your room, you might be able to borrow some from the P.E. teacher. I have also used hand drums instead of cones. If you don’t have music stands, you could try chairs.
The assignment of each person in line is most definitely a Kagan strategy, so if you can find a structure that will match, feel free to use it on your next Kagan evaluation. Otherwise, I just like the idea of everyone having a purpose.
If you want to put lines of tape down behind the stand and write the job titles on them to help them remember, that might help. It also might be me overthinking things.
It's really up to you whether you want everyone to be playing the same song or different songs. I personally think the kids would hear from another group what the song should be and then have an advantage, but again, I might be overthinking it.
If you need to have a group of 3, the Cheerleading job can be removed since the Coach will also be cheering from the sidelines. If you need to add a 5th person to the group, add another Cheerleader to support and cheer on your group.
If the Finder looks under a cone and finds a marker their team does not need, they can put the cone back down and move on to the next cone. If two Finders reach a cone at the same time and need the same marker, a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors is in order.
You can create your own Blank Color Music Sheets easily enough. I made mine on Google Slides using very simple shapes. You can also purchase 10 Blank Color Sheets on my TpT page for pretty cheap. Have fun!
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