Who Has the Candy in Their Pocket? | Free Music Lesson Plan

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Who Has the Candy in Their Pocket? is a fun activity based lesson that gets students working together to read simple rhythms, play music, and win candy.

Level

Grade 2-4

Objective

Students will understand and perform three basic rhythm symbols (quarter note, quarter rest, eighth note), and perform the rhythm of a rhyme with non-pitched percussion instruments. This lesson is designed to fulfill Standard #5 of the National Standards for Music: Reading and notating music.

Materials

"Who Has the Candy in Their Pocket?" Music Lesson Resource
White Board
Non-Pitched Percussion Instruments


'Who Has the Candy in Their Pocket?' Music Lesson Plan

Step 1
Tell students, "Today we're going to play a game called 'Who's Got the Candy in Their Pocket?' Everyone come to the white board. We have a few things to learn before we play the game."

Step 2
Tell students, "During the game we'll be performing rhythms on tambourines, wood blocks and drums. The first thing we'll learn is the rhythm to the rhyme that we'll be saying during the game. Next, we'll put the words to the rhythm."

Step 3
Discuss the values of each of the rhythms. Next, clap the rhythms phrase by phrase with the students echoing your performance.

Step 4
Tell students, "Now that we know the rhythm, let's learn the words." Practice the rhythm of the rhyme phrase by phrase until the students are performing it confidently. (Substitute "Samantha" for the name of a student in the class.)

Class: Who has the candy in their pocket?
Class: Who has the candy in their pocket?
Johnny (Player 1): Samantha has the candy in her pocket.
Class: Samantha has the candy in her pocket?

(The rhyme concludes with one of two possible endings.)

Samantha (Player 2): "Who me?
Class: "Yes you!"
Samantha (Player 2): You win!
Class: "Ya hoo!"

or

Samantha: "Who me?
Class: "Yes you!"
Samantha: Not me!
Class: "Then who?"

Step 5
Tell students, "Let's get the percussion instruments and try performing our rhyme all the way through."

Step 6
Speak the rhyme and perform the rhythm of the rhyme on non-pitched percussion instruments.

Step 7
Tell students, "Great! I'll explain the rules, and then it will be time to play our game."

Rules
Teacher selects a student to guess which student (Player 1) has candy in their pocket. That student names a student (Player 2) that he/she suspects has candy. If correct, Player 1 wins the candy. If incorrect, Player 1 does not win the candy. Repeat.

Example:
Johnny (Player 1) leaves the room. The teacher hands Samantha (Player 2) a piece of candy to place in her pocket. Johnny returns to the classroom to guess who has the candy. The class performs the rhyme. If Johnny selects the correct student the class will acknowledge this by saying:

Samantha: "Who me?
Class: "Yes you!"
Samantha: You win!
Class: "Ya hoo!"

Johnny receives the candy.

If Johnny selects the incorrect student the class will acknowledge this by saying:

Samantha: "Who me?
Class: "Yes you!"
Samantha: Not me!
Class: "Then who?"

Johnny does not receive the candy.

Step 8
Repeat.

It may be necessary to narrow the number of choices that Player 1 is confronted with. For example, boys always guess that girls have the candy, and girls always guess that boys have the candy.


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