Leslie Roberts

PNCC president

Chapter Sharing September 24th, 2016

Lessons to Share:

  1. Growth Mindset with “Good Better Best”

For the full lesson resource (

  • Teach the speech by rote
  • Transfer to drums or xylophones set in C pentatonic
  • Add ontinati to mix things up: “Don’t give up (shake, shake)”
  • After going over the definition of the words above, have the students create an 8 beat word chain by choosing 4 words from the box. This can be transferred to body percussion and then later turned into a dance or unpitched percussion.
  • You can decide with the class how you want the piece to be performed. You can do the poem as the A section of a rondo and have small groups perform their word chains as the B,C,D, etc. of a Rondo form or you can layer in ostiniati to accompany the speech. The possibilities are endless!
  1. Follow the Director’s Cues Chart
  • Create a chart with 20 boxes. Each box represents a 4 beat measure.
  • In the boxes create a symbol that represents a type of sound the students will perform.
  • Introduce the students to the sound key so that and have them practice each of the symbols. Rehearse the 4 beats and the cut-off for each box.
  • Count them in and perform the whole chart in order.
  • Challenge them to watch the director by pointing to the boxes out of order.
  • Allow the students to take turns being the director.
  • Extension: practice an echo body percussion exercise that will later become a cannon. Let the students take turns making patterns with body percussion while the class repeats 4 beats behind. Use an upbeat tune to add to the fun. (I like to use “Watermelon Man” by Herbie Hancock in the Making Music Series)
  1. “Gold Ring”

(English Folk Song/Kingston, Jamaica)

Three rotating groups with ostinato patterns

(Drums, Body Percussion, Unpitched Percussion)

Xylophone or Recorder accompaniment

“Biddy biddy hold on, lost my gold ring

One goes to Kingston come back again

Biddy biddy hold on, lost my gold ring

One goes to Kingston come back again”

  1. “Run Boy Run”

(Song by Woodkid which can be found here:

This is an activity I came up with to be used for fun or as a performance piece.

The students are to stand in two lines facing a partner from the other line. They will pat on their legs and pat hands with the partner on the practices but for performance you can add buckets and/or rhythm sticks. *Or you can keep it ‘hands only’ for safety reasons. You do what works for your classes.

The lines will eventually move. I say ‘peel the banana’ to help them have a visual for when that section of the music occurs. The head couple will peel off and run to the end of their line while everyone else moves down one spot.

A section:

  • Run in place and turn after every 8 beats (all four walls)
  • When the music changes the students will then play with either sticks or using hands the following rhythmic pattern:
  • (tika-tikatika-tikatika-tika ta, tika-tikatika-tika “criss-cross”,tika-tikatika-tikatika-tika ta, tika-tikatika-tika “criss-cross”/ you can add a turn here/ this is also where the peel happens).

Then go back to running in place to repeat the pattern for the A section.

B section:

  • Slower less rhythmic part so I let the students do a free style dance in place.
  • They are to do this facing a partner

The song just goes back and forth from the A to the B sections of the music. Near the end of the song there is an extension where I have the students peel off after each hand patting section.

We definitely get our exercise in with this activity.

Let the kids help you with making changes to the performance so that they have ownership over it. Have fun!

  1. Rhythm Cards/body percussion activityfor layers and texture
  • Go over the different body percussion sounds before passing out cards (snap, clap, whap, lap, tap)
  • Use the color coded beat cards and mix them up before passing them out (make sure people are sitting next to someone with a different color on their card)
  • Start with the steady beat cards
  • Layer in sounds and explore different color combinations
  1. The Addams Family Cup Passing Game

Pinterest find (

  1. Musical Grid Compositions

(Adapted the idea from a Rhythm/Beat Chart lesson shared by Karen Petty)

Create a chart with symbols that represent a classroom instrument.

For example, use a circle for a hand drum, triangle for a triangle, and ‘x’ for rhythm sticks, etc…

***An empty square on the chart represents a beat of silence.

  • Find a fun, upbeat song that you can play while keeping the beat with the chart.
  • Let the students rearrange the patterns of the instruments in the chart or take turns keeping the beat on the chart for other students to follow!
  • You can pass out blank chart paper to student to create group compositions to be performed for the class.

X / / X /
X / X
/ / X