Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Rhythm Football- a Game to engage your toughest critics!






Have you ever asked students, in person or on a worksheet, what they most want to do in music- and had that one kid who says or writes "Football" just to be funny??

This year, I thought, why not turn a camp/ physical education favorite- Steal the Bacon- into a way we can practice music and "play football" at the same time??   My toughest critics (boys who LOVE phys. ed and don't really like singing all that much) LOVED this game!  

Here are the game directions:
Before Game- Print and cut out score board, game pieces, and rhythm cards.  Make score board and game pieces into magnets! Laminate Rhythm Cards for durability.

Students are split into 2 even teams and each team sits along opposite walls (walls A and C) and are numbered.  (There should end up being 2 of every number, one on each team)
                                                                                       
 A 
D          B
C

End-zones are determined for each team (Walls B and D)

Teacher places 5- 10 rhythm cards in center of room between both teams.

Teacher reads a rhythm and then calls a number

The students with the number called race to find the rhythm card that was read and get it back to their end-zone without being tagged.  The teams ARE allowed to help find the rhythm pattern by pointing, cheering, etc.


I have scored this game in two ways:

If a student gets the rhythm card into their end-zone without being tagged they move their game piece 20 yards

If a student tags their opponent who has the rhythm card they advance their game piece 10 yards

First team to advance 100 yds Wins! (You could also start both teams on the 50 yard line and first to advance 50yds wins if you are short on time)

If you do not have an interactive white board, Print out Scoreboard one and make into a magnet.  Also Cut out 2 Footballs to make into magnets as well to move across the board.  Get a free interactive SMARTnotebook football field here!

OR

*If a student gets the rhythm card into their end-zone without being tagged they get a touch down and earn 6 pts.  If the team can read the card correctly, they get their extra point (total of 7).  If the player who scored for their team can read the card accurately by themselves they can get a 2 point conversion (total of 9 points).  

*If a student tags their opponent who has the rhythm card they get a Field Goal and earn 3 pts.

*The team with the most points after a pre-determined number of rounds wins!


To keep track of the score, either draw a scoreboard on your white/ chalkboard and have a student good at math keep score or use the scoreboard provided! 

If you have SMARTnotebook you can also look up “Scoreboard” in the gallery for an easy interactive board to use.  



Scoring Example:
A rhythm is read and #3 is called.
If team "A" #3 grabs the correct rhythm and gets back to his/her end-zone before getting tagged by Team "B" #3 then team A move 20 yards OR earns SEVEN POINTS. If Team B #3 tags him/her then team B moves 10 yards OR earns THREE POINTS.
Sometimes a player will run up fast and grab it, and sometimes both players will walk around it waiting for the other person to grab it.
The Teacher can call out more than one number at a time .This is good if one set of numbers is taking to long. The caller continues calling out numbers until a team gets the rhythm back to their end-zone or is tagged.

You canget Levels 1-10 on Teachers Pay Teachers- each set is only $2.00!
Level 1 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, and quarter rest)

Level 2 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest and half note)

Level 3 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest and beamed 16th notes)

Level 4 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest, beamed 16th notes, and eighth-2 sixteenths)

Level 5 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest, beamed 16th notes,
       eighth-2 sixteenths [aka ti-tika], and 2 sixteenths-eighth [aka tika-ti])

Level 6 (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest, beamed 16th notes,
       eighth-2 sixteenths [aka ti-tika], 2 sixteenths-eighth [aka tika-ti],
       and ti-ta-ti [aka syncopa])

Level 7- (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest, beamed 16th notes,
       eighth-2 sixteenths [aka ti-tika], 2 sixteenths-eighth [aka tika-ti],
       ti-ta-ti [aka syncopa], and dotted quarter- eighth [aka tam-ti])

Level 8- (quarter note, beamed eighth notes, quarter rest, beamed 16th notes,
       eighth-2 sixteenths [aka ti-tika], 2 sixteenths-eighth [aka tika-ti],
       ti-ta-ti [aka syncopa], dotted quarter- eighth [aka tam-ti] and eighth-dotted quarter [aka ti-tam])
Level 9- Adds dotted eighth-sixteenth (tim-ka)

Level 10- Adds sixteenth- dotted eighth (ka-tim)


I have also added a 6/8 version to practice common 6/8 patterns!

Feel free to mix and match cards- I teach half note first, but I know a lot of teachers who teach 16th notes first so I did not include half notes in the 16th set and visa versa.



Want to save by getting ONE BIG file of all the rhythm cards?  Click here!

Want to play the game with musical symbols/ Vocab?  Check it out here!












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