Musical Sidewalk: Get Active with Musical Notation Practice

We actually got to spend some time outside on a recent "nice" day (40+ degrees with no wind). I went out ahead of the girls and set up a musical activity on our sidewalk.

They had recently learned about time signature and how many beats different notes were worth, so I drew some in sidewalks chalk using each concrete block as a measure.  I denoted the time signature as 4 beat per measure at the beginning and then filled each block with various notes to equal 4 beats. I started with whole, half, and quarter notes, but decided towards the end to throw in some eighth notes as well.

Then the girls came out. I showed them the time signature (4/4) and asked them how many beats would be in each measure.  Then I had them jump on each note while counting the beats it was worth.

They did really well until they came to the eighth notes and had to start counting "one and" instead of just "one".  After a few times through they got it figured out pretty well.

My oldest even decided to extend the music up to our neighbors driveway. She, however, left out eighth notes.

They counted out the notes over and over until even the little guy wanted to do it. Of course he just ran through them all as fast as he could occasionally shouting a number!  It will be great when it warms up, and we can practice more music outside!