Hello All! This week and next my students' metronome activity will be throwing velcro balls at a target to different rhythm patterns like the one from the picture above. I laminated the rhythm sheets, adhered two pieces of scotch tape on the inside of my front door before adding a velcro dot to it for easy removal, added a velcro dot to the backs of the rhythm sheets to stick on the door, and mounted the target onto a damage free hook.
Step 1: I had my students clap and count their rhythm pattern out loud. Step 2: They repeated step one with a metronome beat. Step 3: They grabbed the number of balls needed to throw at the target while counting out loud keeping in time with the metronome.
I told them to stay focused on the rhythm while throwing the velcro balls and not to get distracted if some of the balls didn't stick. As long as they completed to pattern the balls that actually stuck to the target would count towards their overall score. The top five scores are displayed on one of the magnetic wipe off boards I have in my studio.
Rules:
#1: They had 1 minute to complete the activity #2: Their goal was to repeat the pattern over and over until time was up #3: The points their balls landed on only counted if they successfully completed the entire pattern while keeping in time with the metronome; partial patterns were not accepted and they had to stay in sync with the metronome #4: Only the balls that stuck to the target counted (I kept score for them and removed the balls from the target and placed them back in the bin throughout the activity) #5: They had to count their rhythm pattern out loud while throwing the balls on the target.
The distance the students stood from the target depended on how strong a thrower they were. Most students stood about 3 feet away from it.
Here are a few more rhythm sheets I came up with:
Until next time, piano blogger signing off...........
