Submitted by Kim Okland, Front Royal, Virginia

Idea posted May 4, 2009

When I review the families of the orchestra with my upper elementary students, I use a version of the game, "Train Wreck." I tape pictures of orchestra instruments (you could also use just the names) to chairs in a circle with one less chair than number of students. The person who is "it" stands in the center and calls out the names of families (i.e., brass and woodwinds) and the students in those chairs have to stand up and find a new chair. The person who is "it" finds a chair and then someone else becomes "it." If "it" wants everyone to move, he or she yells "orchestra."

Another game I'll do is a beanbag toss that goes with the fugue section of Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Each student is assigned an instrument (usually with a picture in front of them) and the beanbag is the "melody." The person who is the piccolo begins and the students have to toss the "melody" to the correct instrument. This only works with smaller class sizes.