Submitted by Tami Mangusso, Patty O., and Becky Olson, Aurora, CO; Arkansas; and Union Grove, WI

Idea posted July 9, 2004

Dice Game #1

Here are a few ideas:

1. If your students are assigned numbers, use the dice to determine who will get to play on the instruments. (i.e., the dice equal an odd number, all the odd number students get to go first.)
2. Use the dice to determine which measure to start in a song.
3. If you're working on a phrase from a song, use the dice to determine how many times to repeat the phrase.
4. When doing assessments, use the dice to determine how many students will sing or play on an instrument. (I use only one die for this.)
5. Use the dice to determine how many instruments you will use for an activity.
6. I like to play "The Dice Game" against my students. I roll one die and the concertmaster rolls the other. We will either add or multiply the numbers together, and this will determine how many points the class can earn. Then, I give them a job or expectation; i.e., sing the first verse from memory. If they can do it, they get the points, but if they don't, then I get the points. There is no prize for winning, just the satisfaction that they won. This is a great motivational tool that I use to get everyone engaged in the lesson. I do have paydays at the end of the month. Classes who have earned the required amount of points earn a privilege, such as free choice seating or playing a game. - Tami Mangusso; Aurora, Colorado

Dice Game #2

I put note/rest values on the dice and play games of recognition. (My dice are LARGE - about six inches in all directions, made out of upholsterer's foam.)

One person on one team rolls the dice and then names the note value and how many beats it gets. If s/he is right, that many beats is added onto their team score. Example: Roll a whole note (they love that one). Name it: Whole Note. How many beats: Four. If correct, that person's team now has four points.

It's simple but the students love it. - Patty O. in Arkansas


Dice Game #3

I bought several packages of dice at the dollar store last year and used them in a game I called "Roll A Rhythm." I challenged my sixth graders to come up with a list of as many ways to notate four beats as possible, using whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes and rests. As students raised their hands and shared a rhythm pattern using ta, ti-ti, etc., I notated it on a transparency on the overhead projector. Each rhythm we notated was checked by another student to make sure it had four beats. (I don't remember how many we finally came up with, but it was a lot!) We randomly divided the rhythms into 12 groups, and then I made a sheet with the groups on them to be handed out in the next class period.

In the next class period, I divided the students into groups of two or three and gave each group a pair of dice and our sheet of rhythms. They rolled both dice to find out which of the 12 groups of rhythm to use, and then rolled one die to choose a specific rhythm from the list in that group. Whatever the rhythm was, they wrote it down along with the number of their rolls. They continued finding their rhythm patterns by the roll of the dice until they had a 16-measure rhythm composition. This took almost all of the class period. I checked all of the rhythms to be sure they were notated correctly from the master sheet.

For the next class period, I handed back their "compositions," and they got to chose unpitched percussion instruments to practice and then play their random compositions for the class. It was good rhythm reading practice, and the kids also got to see how many different combinations of sound could come out of the same set of original rhythms. It was lots of fun, and the kids enjoyed it. - Becky Olson; Union Grove, Wisconsin