Teaching the "KNACK" of Note Reading

I am always on the look out for manipulatives that keep students engaged.  If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I am also found of manipulatives that work well as part of workstation rotations.  In this blog post I am going to talk about the awesome blocks called Note Knacks.  (This is not a sponsored post, I just LOVE these!)

Note Knacks are wooden blocks that are strategically cut so that note value is represented by block length.  So a half note is half the size of a whole note and a quarter note is half the size of a half note and so on.  The set comes with 3 different frames to hold the Note Knacks.  They measure 4 beats, 3 beats and 2 beats.  One side of the block has a note and the back side has the corresponding rest.  

I am lucky enough to have a magnetic set of Note Knacks and I keep them on my dry erase board.  They are much larger so that they can be seen by an entire classroom.  I've used them to decipher rhythms in familiar songs and to create ostinatos for various activities.  I've also used them in workstations.

For the workstation, I had one student sit at a desk with the wooden blocks.  We put up an empty notebook to create a privacy screen.  The student at the desk composes a rhythm and then claps it for the rest of the group.  The other group members re-create the rhythm using the magnetic blocks on the board.  Students LOVED using the blocks.

I must admit that I like using them too!  There is something lovely about they way they feel and being a visual learning, I totally dig the visual representation of duration.

I've also had students trace the outline of the blocks on long strips of bulletin board paper.  I only have one set of the blocks, so I could only do this activity with small groups as they rotated through workstations.  I hope to get a few more sets because I have SO many ideas I want to try out!

I bet I know what you are thinking.  Couldn't you just make something similar?  Well, sure.  I've made Noodle Notes which are similar.  The tactile experience of Note Knacks is what I like.  I mean, who doesn't like playing with blocks?

You can get Note Knacks from Rhythm Band Instruments.  If you liked these ideas PIN this post for later!