Kindergartners are Composers
I love kindergarten students. The world is full of endless excitement and possibilities. As I told my class they would be composers in class, they got so excited! One beaming student raised his hand excitedly and asked, “But what is a composer!?” I loved how excited he was for a word he didn’t even know (yet)!
I have been using Iconic Notation as a pre-reading rhythm warm up in my kindergarten music classes. I find merit in this skill as it also reinforces counting/hearing syllables in words.
At the end of September, I did a unit on apples. (The music room staple circle game “Apple Tree, Apple Tree” was a huge hit!) I used “tree” as my quarter note and “apple” as my eight note. After several class periods of whole-group rhythm clapping, we began with composing rhythms as a class using a drag-and-drop PowerPoint. (Other fun themes also available!)
Then, we broke into small groups (no more than 3 per group) and practiced composing! One student was responsible for creating the rhythm, then every member of the group “read” the rhythm and clapped. Then it was the next group member’s turn.
At the end of the class, I had students point to themselves and repeat after me: “I am a musician! I am a composer!” … and as the year continues, we will add other afrimations like “singer” and “dancer.”