Statue Game

Do you have movers and shakers in your music room?  Those that wander around, roll in their seat, and are always moving?  To help lessen the movement during "concentration" parts of the lesson, I love to play the statue game.  We use it when listening, singing, and more.

When listening to someone talking- students just choose a fun statue and hold it while the speaker says what they need to say. If the speaker changes, the statue changes.

During singing, I choose a time during each song to switch.  Working on time signature? Switch on the strong beats.  Working on quarter rest? Change statues during each quarter rest. Working on Low La? Switch every time a low la appears in the song.  When doing a solfege syllable, I tell students they do not have to change if the syllable appears multiple times in a row, but if you leave the note and come back, the statue should change. Students know that in my classroom, we are SINGING statues, but not TALKING statues.

For listening lessons, we can focus in on form and change statues when a new section of music starts. I love to have students then work with partners and create statues TOGETHER.  Kids are thinking about things like: Should they mirror each other? should they be different- but related? Should they be connected in some way?  I LOVE the creativity that comes out when working in pairs (or even small groups)!

Statues are an easy activity to add into any lesson and students LOVE it!