Rhythm Composition With Playdough

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

2

Overview

Students will explore and compose various rhythm patterns using playdough. They will shape the playdough into music notes and arrange them into four-beat patterns.  Students will read their favorite pattern to the class.  

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

Phase

Before/Engage
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 2 - Music

AE17.MU.2.4

Use iconic or standard notation and/or recording technology to combine, sequence, and document personal musical ideas.

UP:AE17.MU.2.4

Vocabulary

Rhythm
  • Eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest
  • Strong/ weak beat — 2/4; 3/4 meter
  • Accelerando/ ritardando
Melody
  • Pitch Set: Do , Re, Mi, So, La
  • Five-line staff
  • Treble clef
  • Names of lines/ spaces (treble staff)
Harmony
  • Melodic ostinati
  • Partner songs
Form
  • AAB, AABA, Rondo
  • Verse/ Refrain
Expression
  • Orchestral instrument families
  • Piano (p), forte (f)
  • Crescendo/ decrescendo
  • Orchestral Music: programmatic
  • Indigenous music: Native American
  • American music: slave songs, colonial folk songs
Other
  • Age-appropriate pitch matching (B3-D5)1
  • Mallet/ drumming technique: alternating hands

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
  • Perform original melodic patterns in do pentatonic as an introduction to a known song.
  • Perform original rhythmic patterns on body percussion or unpitched percussion, containing eighth note, eighth rest, half note, half rest, whole note, whole rest, as an introduction to a known chant.
Creating
  • Create a melody on pitched instruments using speech rhythms from a selected poem.
  • Improvise with a partner in question/answer style, using pitched or unpitched percussion instruments.
Reading/ Writing
  • Notate speech rhythms from a selected poem, using iconic or standard notation.
  • Using music composition software, create an original composition based on a personally selected topic.
Responding/ Evaluating
  • Refine compositions based on self-evaluation of a recorded performance.
  • Indicate dynamic markings for original compositions.

Anchor Standards

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

Learning Objectives

The student will use notation to create a four-beat rhythm pattern. 

Activity Details

1.  Watch the Quaver clip of Cooking with Rhythms.

2.  Distribute playdough to students. 

3.  Practice making music notes with playdough. Review how many beats each note receives. 

  • The teacher may limit the notes to quarter and paired eighth notes to make it easier.
  • The teacher may allow the students to use all the notes that have been previously learned in class - quarter, paired eighth, half notes and quarter rests. 

4.  Create various four-beat patterns using the playdough. 

5.  Students choose their favorite pattern to share with the class. 

6.  Collect playdough. 

Assessment Strategies

The teacher will use informal observation to determine if the student made a four-beat pattern and read it correctly to the class. 

Background / Preparation

1.  Students will need prior knowledge of music notes and the number of beats each receives.  

2.  Collect enough playdough for each student to make at least four music notes.  

3.  This will get messy. Having a mat to keep the playdough on will help. I use laminated sheets of paper. The playdough will come off the mat easier than the floor and doesn't get as dirty.  

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