6th Grade Music Composition Assessment

In AMONG OPPOSITES, students will see a musical trait on the board represented by one crewmate. Students will then have to find the EXACT OPPOSITE trait by selecting one of the crewmates... who is actually the imposter!

Students will choose the exact opposite musical trait... advance the slide and see if they were right!

After the correct answer is shown, the following slide will give a brief description of the answer and why it was the opposite of the example shown
You can have students write it down, play it team A vs team B, boys vs girls, individually as an assessment, or even assign it as distance learning!

Included in this resource are

• a PDF and PowerPoint File (with animations)
• A printout where you can replicate and cut out cards (if you want the students to place on the floor or hold up to show which one was the imposter)
• Examples of Articulation Markings, Dynamics, Instruments, Vocal Ranges, Expressions, and more

Have a great time with this!

End of the year review or just starting up with aural theory? Try on "Inspector Interval"!

In this fast paced game, students will do a brief review of how a musical interval is defined and jump right into the contest -- have an interval on the treble clef staff appear and TEAM A or TEAM B will have to name the interval as fast as they can!

There are no qualities of intervals (major 2nd, minor 6th, etc), just interval names by itself. There will always be a grounded "F", so the intervals will be built on top of that

We usually play this game 'around the world' style. We start off on the left side or right side of the the room and the first two people stand up and you flash an interval on the screen. The student who gets the note correct gets to move onto the next child in the class while the other student sits. That student has to make their way through the entire class before being deemed champion... but they could be beat at ANY TIME! You can mix it up, left side, right side, boys/girls, etc. Kids get ultra competitive!

... or use it as an individual activity!

The follow-up to "Rhythm Wind Up and PITCH!"
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This one will get the kids on their edge of their seats!

You will need 1 thing for this particular game:

• A sticky suction cup ball (or maybe a soft squishy ball)

The students will see a melody at the bottom of their screen and memorize the melodic direction or say it back in their head (just make sure the melodic is not sung out loud). They will then hear a musical example of an endless loop of melodic figures separated by 4 beats each in between rhythms. (Teacher will click the speaker icon to play)

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the melodic figures will be the melody that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT MELODY, they throw their suction cup ball at the target. The first kid who gets it correct is the winner (and make sure you advance the slide to make the target turn green) :)

Obviously, we cannot play this as a class because of

1. The amount of suction cup balls tossed at the screen would be insane

2. Team A v Team B would be a bit more competitive and only two balls would be launched at once

If you don't have a whiteboard/projection screen, you can alternatively have the students raise their hand when they hear it and choose the kid who has their hand up the fastest.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!

Understanding notation duration and how they fit mathematically into bars of music is one of the fundamental learning goals of upper elementary students!

With Measure Up! Students will see a measure of music… but… it is incomplete! They will then Choose the correct notation from one of the boxes to complete the measure. Students can use the powerpoint in design mode to click and drag it, draw a path for their specific box to the open box, or write it in!

Can also be used for Distance Learning as well!

15 examples with quarter notes and rests, half notes and rests, whole notes and rests, eighth notes and rests, 4 sixteenth notes and 2/4, 3/4, 5/4, 4/4, and a bonus 6/8 example at the end!

Down, Set, HUT!

In Bar Line Blitz, student will see a meter with several beats of music – except the bar lines are missing to separate the measures from each other!

They will will see 2 or more line placeholders (small grey lines) in between notes. One of the placeholders is where the bar line should go… but which one is it?

Identify where the bar line should be placed and the correct area will illuminate
green if it is accurate!

Play team vs team, A vs B, or individually... and enhance it by playing some fun football music in the background (search NFL themes or college football fight songs on YouTube) ;)

There are 4 levels (4 quarters if you wish) of varying difficulties. The last quarter, they students will need to identify where it should be placed without any small grey lined hashmarks

Have a great time with this one!

Listening to Popular music isn’t just for enjoyment. It contains critical pieces of musical composition that makes it sound the way it does!

In "The Elements of Pop", students will be given 8 short examples of pop music (about 30-45 seconds long all mp3s included and embedded into the powerpoint) and will be see a multiple choice selection of elements that described the pop music being played

It's mostly broad terminology you teach in your music class: Rhythm, Tempo, Major/Minor, Instrumentation, Vocal ranges, etc!

This is great assessment to do as a class, individually, or even through distance learning! Have your cake and eat it too!

Pair this with the Identify Form in Popular Music series and you got yourself engaging lesson material!

Let us know how it is goes in the comments :)

Mastering the “Call and Response” technique just got a bit more automonous! Sit back and let the music be freely created with “Call it the Response” for Orff Instruments!

In this lesson, student swill hear a “Call” which is the first part of a musical phrase. They will then play a “response” which completes the short musical phrase. Their response may be a certain number of beats or maybe a certain rhythm (could be same or different than the call)

There are 8 different exercises for your kids to give their response on Orff Instruments (or even auxiliary percussion instruments or boomwhackers, the possibilities are endless!).

Each exercise has a percussive backing track with the "Call" built in (played by marimba and xylophone, so you as the teacher aren't responsible for making it up yourself!) and varies in tempo from 100bpm to 110bpm and covers V7, Pentatonic, IV chords, and bourdon notes.

Get creative with “Call it the Response!”

"4 beats in a measure with the quarter note getting the beat", the time old concept we ingrain in our students' mind! Assess your students by letting them identify inaccuracies in a measure of music with "Common Sense"

Students will view examples of a measure of Common Time (4/4) and find the measure that has too many or not enough beats to equal common time!

After the students select the correct measure, advance the slide to find out the answer. You can then trigger a discussion of what made it inaccurate (too many beats, not enough beats, etc)

The latter half of the lesson shows you one measure of music with a [ ? ] box. Students will have to select (from a multiple choice selection of answers) which answer would best fit in the box to complete a measure of 4/4

Getting into advanced rhythms with your kids, try to ace these rhythm examples of Off the Beat!

In this presentation, there are 30 3, 4, 5, and 6 beat rhythms to challenge your kids on the "and" counts. Have your students play this on percussion instruments (such as tubanos, StickStations, boomwhackers, rhythm sticks, or anythign that will produce music!)

The 21st example splits into an "A" section and a "B" sections where you can split your class (boys and girls, side 1 side 2, etc) to perform a 2-part rhythm. You can even experiment around with the last slides and play the on barred instruments on difference pitches (C and E for the "A" section and G and C for the "B" section) to create polyrhythmic harmony

Included are 5 percussive grooves to play as a background supplement (all at various tempi)

Chord quality galore! Help your kids understand to identify Major and Minor chords in "Major Problem, Minor Adjustment"!

Students will hear 3 to 4 chords back-to-back and have to select the chord (represented by a box from left to right) they think is "minor" or "major" as indicated by the slide

Advance the slide to discover the answer!

There are 8 questions and answers in this series

Working on terms with some of your older kids who have been in elementary music for a few years? With "Come to Terms", students will see a definition of a term on the powerpoint and will have to drag one multiple choice term of which they think matches the definition. Advance the slide to reveal the correct answer!

In the 30 slide presentation, the 15 terms identified are:

Forte

Presto

**Largo
Crescendo
Accelerando
Fermata
Legato
Tempo
Staccato
Sostenuto
Triplet
Melody
Flat
Sharp
Diminuendo
**

A great end of the year (or maybe even beginning of the year!) assessment for some of your kids in the older grades, "Identify Musical Parameters" takes you through 11 musical elements (tempo, meter, dynamics, articulation, and tonality) that you typically discuss in class with the kids!

Students will hear a musical example of a parameter and will have to decide which element of music they heard with a multiple choice answer for each example given. You can do this as a class activity, boys vs girls, in groups, or however you wish!

Advance the slide to show the answer highlighted in green. Have a great time with this and let me know how it goes in the comments! ;)

In Stick it to the Rhythm, we used popsicle sticks to identify quarter and eighth note notation in our classrooms. What happened if we didn't give the kids a blank slate and they had to use eyes, ears, and minds? In this follow-up, "Stick it to the Rhythm Part II", students are instructed to put a number of sticks on the floor (6 to 12 'quarter notes') and will listen to a musical example made up of quarter and eighth notes. They are then to interpret that example and use the last sticks and place them where they think they heard the eighth notes... In essence, they are taking the quarter notes at the end of the phrase and making them into eighth notes by beaming the quarter notes together -- this will really get your kids thinking! There are 10 examples (all with an 8 beat count off to establish tempo) and the examples range from easy to difficult with the mp3 embedding into the file. Have a great time and let me know what you think in the comments :) As always, any questions or concerns, you know where to find me!

Listening to Popular music isn’t just for enjoyment. It contains critical pieces of musical composition that makes it sound the way it does!

In "The Elements of Pop", students will be given 8 short examples of pop music (about 30-45 seconds long all mp3s included and embedded into the powerpoint) and will be see a multiple choice selection of elements that described the pop music being played

It's mostly broad terminology you teach in your music class: Rhythm, Tempo, Major/Minor, Instrumentation, Vocal ranges, etc!

This is great assessment to do as a class, individually, or even through distance learning! Have your cake and eat it too!

Pair this with the Identify Form in Popular Music series and you got yourself engaging lesson material!

Let us know how it is goes in the comments :)

After you've discussed Quarter and Eighth note pairs with your kids, you naturally move onto 16th notes and discuss how the the subdivision breaks down from there.

This lesson, Sweet 16 focuses on students identifying where sixteenth notes are a musical example. Students will listen to 10 examples and write out (either with a whiteboard, printed cards, or other method) what notation they hear. In the examples, there will be quarter notes, eighth notes, and groups of 4 sixteenths.

Each example gets a bit harder! You can play the audio as many times as necessary so the kids master the skill.

Have a great time with this!

Reviewing Orff with your kids? This may be the game format you're looking for!

An authentic jeopardy game board with categories that students can elect to pick!
The amounts, as imagined, are $200, $400, $600, $800, or $1000 answers.

After clicking on the amount, the answer will appear on the next slide.
Hand Me a Note - Discussing the pitches on the Orff instruments

Technique - Techniques on Orff instruments (middle of the bar, "handlebars", etc)
Mallet Madness - Descriptions and anatomy of mallets (rubber, yarn, wood)

Family Time! - The instruments within the family from the Bass all the way to the Glockenspiel

Students (keeping in true Jeopardy! fashion) can answer in the form of a question

"What is a Soprano"

"What is Yarn"

"What is C"

After the money is awarded (You can split sides of your class, boys vs girls, class vs class, however you want it!), there is a link in the bottom right hand corner to go back to the title screen and game board.

After extracting the ZIP file, make sure to install the Jeopardy! font included, or else you'll see random characters all over -- not good eats!

Email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com or leave a comment if you have any questions. Happy Jeopardy...ing!

We're BACK and for 2022 in the follow-up to the #1 selling "Identify Form in Pop Music" series, we now bring you....

Part EIGHT!

Kids love their pop music, right? Want to integrate it into your classroom? This is great lesson to do with 4th and 5th graders that lets them listen to their favorite pop music (as always, kid friendly 100% CLEAN!) while learning about musical form!

The lesson begins with an introduction to popular music and how the music is formulated by the artists songwriters. We talk about the intro, verse, chorus, bridge, and outro, and include the collision and the channel and then go onto our activity.

I cut out cards... a whole bunch of intros, verses, chorus, bridges, outros, channels, and collisions (or you can do it with a whiteboard/marker, or even as a unison class response) and give them to each student, then have have the kids sit on the floor. I then play an mp3 of a song which has 10 second clips of each of the sections (there is about a 2-4 second gap in between each clip and all clips are safe for little ears -- no profanity!) and have the students identify them by spelling them out on the floor in front of them. This works great if you're putting kids into groups of 2 or 3 as they try to figure out the form of the song.

It's a great compromise to having your kids listen to their music and still satisfy a 4th and 5th grade standard in identifying the structure of music!

The 2022 hit list:

• Enemy, Imagine Dragons
• Something in the Way, Nirvana (from The Batman)
• Good 4 U, Olivia Rodrigo
• We Don't Talk About Bruno, Encanto
• Easy on Me, Adele
• Butter, BTS
• Cold Heart, Dua Lipa/Elton John
• Ghost, Justin Bieber
• Heat Waves, Glass Animals
• Bad Habits, Ed Sheeran

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment email me at jasonlitt@gmail.com

Have fun, kids LOVE this!

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All the previous versions can be found here:

Identify Form in Pop Music

Identify Form in Pop Music PART TWO

Identify Form in Pop Music PART THREE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FOUR

Identify Form in Pop Music PART FIVE

Identify Form in Pop Music PART SIX

Identify Form in Pop Music PART SEVEN

Gone are the days of identifying and listening to soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and all of the instruments in unison! With "In Harmony", students will listen to a short piece of music and have to identify if the piece is in unison, a two-part harmony, or a three-part harmony

Each piece of music is about 12-15 seconds and covers different instrument groups (woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion) and venues through different timbres so students are challenged to identify the harmonies (or unisons!) in each one.

Simply advance the slide after the example to see which answer was correct!

There are 15 examples in this lesson with multiple instruments featured.

Working on ostinatos (repeated phrases) with your instrumentals (Orff, Recorder, Percussion, Body Percussion etc?).

Check out Ostinato Party where students can be assigned an A ostinato or B ostinato while working on different rhythms. You can have students switch halfway through or assign half a class one ostinato and the other half the different one.

3 Levels of Quarters and Eighths, Eighth Rests, and Sixteenth Notes!

This one will get the kids on their edge of their seats!

You will need 1 thing for this particular game:

• A sticky suction cup ball (or maybe a soft squishy ball)

The students will see a rhythm at the bottom of their screen and memorize the rhythm or say it back in their head (just make sure the rhythm is not spoken out loud). They will then hear a musical example of an endless loop of rhythms separated by 4 beats each in between rhythms. (Teacher will click the speaker icon to play)

Take a listen...

....

....

One of the rhythms will be the rhythm that is on the screen. AS SOON AS THEY HEAR THAT RHYTHM, they throw their suction cup ball at the target. The first kid who gets it correct is the winner (and make sure you advance the slide to make the target turn green) :)

Obviously, we cannot play this as a class because of

1. The amount of suction cup balls tossed at the screen would be insane

2. Boys vs Girls would be a bit more competitive and only two balls would be launched at once

If you don't have a whiteboard/projection screen, you can alternatively have the students raise their hand when they hear it and choose the kid who has their hand up the fastest.

Quarter Notes, Eighth Note pairs, and Quarter Rests are covered in this lesson.

Have a great time with this fast paced game!