It's time for a new finger play. Five Little Pumpkins is a traditional fingerplay. I like to speak and then sing it (great intro to singing voice vs. speaking voice). Sue Schnitzer has a recording fo this on her "Boo, Cackle, Trick or Treat CD (you can find this on iTunes) It's the end of the first quarter already and it's time to check to see where my students are at. We warmed up by echoing our 8 rhythms. Then I called them down to the floor by group. Students stand in a line and I video tape each student decoding the rhythm. I say the rhythm in "BaBa" and the students must decode it into rhythms syllables. I use Music Mind game Blue Jello rhythm syllables. It takes about 3 minutes to do the whole class. We did a quick review of identify quarter note or two eighth notes on a beat. My students do get it, but I like to call on different students each time just to make sure everyone is getting it. Now it's time to look at the form of the music. Analyzing the form helps students to see the rhythm patterns and to see how they are the same or different. I tell the students that we always start with A. I ask them is the second line the same or different than A. It's different so it will B. Then we look at the third and discover it's the same as the second line so it's also B. We also discover that the fourth line is also B. The form of the rhythm is ABBB. Now it's time to introduce disappearing rhythm. I tell the students that the bees are very sneaky and they very naughty so watch out. Before we start I have them read the rhythm using rhythm syllables. I use a PowerPoint for this activity. When I click the mouse the bee flies around the screen and before it leaves it takes a note. Some slides have 2 or 3 bees. Students must read the rhythm using rhythm syllables. They even have to say the ones that are missing. By the end all the notes are gone and students must say the rhythm with all the notes gone. Students think this is so cool and they wonder how I am making the notes disappear. I just tell that the bees did it no me. We finish with student doing a solo. They go up to the board and tap the beehives as they say the rhythm using rhythm syllables.