Learning Activity

Create a Rhythm, Select a Tempo

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

3

Overview

Students will create, read, and listen to four-beat rhythm ostinato patterns using quarter notes, quarter rests, pairs of eighth notes, and four sixteenth notes at various tempos. As the students interact with the game, they will practice reading and composing four-beat rhythm patterns and experience the tempos largo, andante, allegro, and presto.

This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Music

AE17.MU.3.2

Generate musical ideas (such as rhythms and melodies) within a given tonality and/or meter.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.MU.3.2

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Bar lines
  • Measures
Melody
  • Pitch set: Low So, Low La, High Do
  • Treble clef reading (Mi, Re, Do)
  • Middle C to high G
  • Ledger lines
Harmony
  • Partner songs
  • Rounds
  • Ostinati
Form
  • Theme and variations
  • Coda
  • D.S. al coda
  • Repeat sign
  • Fermata
Expression
  • Phrase/ phrasing
  • Pianissimo (pp), fortissimo (ff)
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Orchestral instruments: 4 families
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Bb3 - Eb5)

Essential Questions

EU: The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence musicians' work emerge from a variety of sources.
EQ: How do musicians generate creative ideas?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Play a variety of classroom instruments with proper technique.
  • Use the head voice to produce a light, clear sound employing breath support and maintaining appropriate posture.
Creating
  • Use pitch and rhythm to improvise vocal, instrumental, and/or movement ideas within a context (such as question and answer phrases or simple accompaniment/ostinato).
Reading/ Writing
  • Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to sequence and document personal musical ideas.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Demonstrate a final version of personal musical ideas using created vocal, instrumental, or movement pieces through performance.
  • Develop criteria to critique and refine selected musical examples.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Music

AE17.MU.3.4

Use standard and/or iconic notation and/or recording technology to document personal rhythmic and melodic musical ideas.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.MU.3.4

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Bar lines
  • Measures
Melody
  • Pitch set: Low So, Low La, High Do
  • Treble clef reading (Mi, Re, Do)
  • Middle C to high G
  • Ledger lines
Harmony
  • Partner songs
  • Rounds
  • Ostinati
Form
  • Theme and variations
  • Coda
  • D.S. al coda
  • Repeat sign
  • Fermata
Expression
  • Phrase/ phrasing
  • Pianissimo (pp), fortissimo (ff)
Other
  • Age-appropriate audience and performer etiquette
  • Orchestral instruments: 4 families
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (Bb3 - Eb5)

Essential Questions

EU: Musicians' creative choices are influenced by their expertise, context, and expressive intent.
EQ: How do musicians make creative decisions?

Skills Examples

Performing
  • Play a variety of classroom instruments with proper technique.
  • Use the head voice to produce a light, clear sound employing breath support and maintaining appropriate posture.
Creating
  • Use pitch and rhythm to improvise vocal, instrumental, and/or movement ideas within a context (such as question and answer phrases or simple accompaniment/ostinato).
Reading/ Writing
  • Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to sequence and document personal musical ideas.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Demonstrate a final version of personal musical ideas using created vocal, instrumental, or movement pieces through performance.
  • Develop criteria to critique and refine selected musical examples.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

Students will create and read four-beat rhythm ostinato patterns and choose a tempo based on the mood they want to create.

Activity Details

  1. Have students sit in front of the whiteboard in groups of three to four students.

  2. Go to the Freddy the Frog website and create a rhythm by selecting and dragging the rhythm sticks into the boxes.

  3. Have a group play the rhythm four times using body percussion.

  4. After the group plays the rhythm, click on the word “play” and have the class listen to see if the group performed the rhythm correctly.

  5. Compare the speed of the beat that the group used versus the tempo selected.

  6. Listen to the rhythm again selecting a different tempo.  

  7. Select a student from another group to come to the board and create a new rhythm and tempo.  

  8. Have the student’s group read the rhythm, then have the class listen to the rhythm.

  9. Ask the student that created the rhythm why they selected that tempo.

  10. Discuss with the whole class reasons why composers choose one tempo over another.

  11. Send each group to a computer and have each student in the group create a rhythm and choose a tempo. The group will read and listen to the rhythm and discuss the tempos chosen.

Assessment Strategies

Assessment Strategies

Students will play musical recordings that use different tempos and verbally identify the tempo used.

Variation Tips

Have the students do this activity as part of a center.

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

Review the note values and tempos used: largo (very slow), andante (moderately slow), allegro (quickly), and presto (very fast).

Digital Tools / Resources

Freddie the Frog Game, Mystic Publishing, Inc.
http://www.freddiethefrog.com/games/Freddie_the_Frog_and_the_Mysterious_Wahoooo…

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

ccruz
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