Take your music classes outside! No, not just for an extra recess. Take them outside for an extra special music class! When the days are sunny and warm, you can go outside to sing, dance, play and even assess. Here are 9 practical ideas for beautiful days.
There are plenty of ways to play musical hopscotch. With a little sidewalk chalk, create a hopscotch board. What you put inside each square depends on what skills you want students to practice.
Note Values: Draw note with values from smallest to largest on the blocks if you wanted to work on note values. Students would pause on each block as they counted the notes or said the syllables. Add multiple notes to get all the way to ten or create a hopscotch board in a different shape to accommodate your needs.
Solfege: I created a hopscotch board (pictured above) with the syllables of a major scale. I added sol and do in the spaces of 9 and 10 on the board. To warm up, we hopped and sang the syllables ascending and descending. Then the game started. Students would roll their rock and skip whatever syllable it landed on. They hopped through the board singing each syllable except the ones that were covered. This game was challenging and so much fun. What I discovered was that when I wasn't actively engaged with a group, their singing skills weren't very strong.
Pitch: I haven't tried this with students but I would love to try a version where some students jumped and other students played corresponding Boomwhakers. That would be lots of fun too!
2. Treble Clef Twister
When I play Treble Twist Up in class, I use a shower curtain that I have created a treble clef staff on and students take off their shoes and play the game like regular Twister. Outside the shower curtain could work, but it wasn't a different enough experience in my mind. If you have a playground that has the large foam squares as the "floor" of the playground you could create a treble clef staff with chalk on it to play. Another idea is to spray paint the staff onto a grassy area. The next time the grass is mowed, the staff is erased. (You might want to get permission before you do this!) Add THIS spinner and you have a great outside game that reinforces pitch names.
3. Yard Dice - Roll and Cover
I needed an excuse to buy a set of LARGE wooden dice. *giggle* Outside music class seems like a great reason! I must confess that I already have a collection of large foam dice that I use inside and they would work perfect outside as well. So, what do I do with them? I use them with Roll and Cover worksheets. In a milk crate, I pack a few clipboards, pencils and a stack of Roll and Cover worksheets. This makes the entire station easy to transport and gives me a place to collect finished pages. Check out the Roll and Cover sets here: Music Roll and Cover
4. Parachute Games
Parachute games are perfect for outside music class. My current music room doesn't have a high enough ceiling for very many parachute games so taking the activity outside is the only way I can use them.
When planning parachute activities think about using songs your students already know that utilize direction words like up, down, around, etc... I like to use "The Noble Duke of York" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".
Add a football to the middle of the parachute and change the lyrics to "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and you have a fun singing parachute game. Just change the word "Bonnie" to "football". Add more actions to make it even more challenging.
"Charlie Over the Ocean" is a fun song to sing with a parachute. Before each round choose a weather forecast like: warm and sunny, windy, stormy, hurricane, blizzard, calm and cool. Students sing and move the parachute to match the weather forecast. It is even more fun to toss a ball in the middle and focus on keeping it on the parachute during any weather condition.
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5. Ukuleles
I am relatively new to teaching ukuleles, but they have proven to be a versatile instrument and are perfect for taking outside. Take a few song books for students to work on in small groups or move your whole group instruction out to the lawn.
6. Four Corners - Instrument Families
Four Corners is a game that has been around for a long time. I use it to reinforce instrument families. Draw the four corner boxes and in each one add the name of an instrument family. One student calls out the name of an instrument and the players move to stand in the family box that it belongs in. Anyone who is not in the correct box is out.
This game was great with second and third graders, but my 4th, 5th and 6th graders were too good! To make it a little more complicated I created instrument cards for the caller to use. I included many instruments from around the world, pictures of those instruments and then their name and family to make the game more interesting. If the game gets to the point where no one gets out for 3 turns, then the caller turns around giving the players a chance to stand in ANY box and then chooses a family. Anyone not in that family is out. Play continues until there is one winner and that person becomes the new caller.
7. Singing Rocks
Singing rocks are great inside or outside. There's just something fun about taking them outside. I explain how to make these rocks in this blog post: Singing Rocks
Basically the rocks are used for singing improvisation. Put the rocks in a bag or box that isn't easy to see into. Pull out a rock and start singing about what is on the rock. The song doesn't have to rhyme. The next person pulls out another rock and continues the ballad by singing about what is on their rock. This is a great way to introduce the idea of opera too. I've used this activity as a workstation and as a whole group activity.
8. Singing Games/Folk Dancing
Ah! Finally enough room to do all of those dances as an entire class instead of a couple of different groups taking turn! A sunny, grassy area is the perfect place for folk dancing and singing games.
9. Music Symbols Chalk Drawings
My daughter and I love going outside to create chalk art and so do my students. I give them a sheet with music symbols on it and challenge them to create art using ONLY music symbols.
A tree composed of a whole note trunk.
I think this was really just a beautiful picture. Although it wasn't a picture of something made with music symbols, it was a beautiful picture made only of music symbols. The next picture is an example of one of "those" kiddos that technically followed the rules, but was obviously pushing the boundaries. It made me laugh so while he was going to get more chalk to clothe the musical man below I snapped a picture. I must admit that it was pretty good AND used only music symbols, but you know.
I hope that these ideas have inspired you to take your music class outside to enjoy a beautiful day. Do you already take your classes outside? I'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below.
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