Thursday, August 1, 2013

Pentatonic Dice - Composition Game


As I was looking around Pinterest for some new ideas like the ones in my last post, I came across this blog http://ofortunaorff.blogspot.com/  She has some great game ideas! I was reading her post about Composing with Boomwhackers.  I absolutely loved her idea!  I just changed it bit to fit my needs. 


So, the first thing that I did was to go to Hobby Lobby.  Make sure when you go to take your 40% off coupon from your local Sunday paper or do what I did and download their free app which has the coupon code.  Just show your device with the coupon to the cashier and you are good to go. :) I picked up a pair of wood cubes so that I could make my own dice.  They were $1.99 and I received 40% off.

I then headed home and colored each of the dice to match the C Pentatonic boomwhacker and bell colors.  Just remember to leave out the Burgers and Fries.  Basically you have a red, orange, yellow, green and purple.  I then wrote note values on dice.  Quarters, Eighths, Halfs, Quarter Rest, Half rests.


What I'm planning on doing is having one side of the dice being a free choice. Allowing them a little artistic creativity.  ;)  So, the students will each get a piece of manuscript paper with a key on it.  The key will have notes Middle C - G above the treble staff. These are all notes that my students in grades 1st-4th  are familiar and very comfortable with.  I will also have a rhythm key reminding them of note values.  I will add that key to this post as soon as I get it done. I am planning on using this as a great review at the beginning of school.  We will then get our instruments and perform our amazing compositions.  As we get comfortable, I will begin changing the time signature.  I would like to have a 2nd Level with sixteenths and dotted notes.  Well, I hope that you can get use out of this wonderful game. Don't forget to check out   http://ofortunaorff.blogspot.com/ which is where I adapted my idea from.  She has some amazing ideas!