Sound Travels: Feel the Beat!

In preparation for the summative activity at the end of this unit 

the children have been working on several concepts: 

music has a form, music can express and evoke feelings, music has a beat

 Many of the children have already decided what feeling they want to express in their music.
"But how will we do it?" asked Esme
I introduced the children to Garage Band and we listened to a few instruments.
We will use this program to compose their music.

Today's activities provided an opportunity to understand that music has a beat. 

Next week I will connect this to what they've learned by exploring 

that beat tempo can also express feelings and ideas. 

There's a beat in our body . . . can you guess? Our hearts! 

We listened to a sound clip of a hear beat and 
notice how the tempo stays the same.

We explored this further using a drum. 

One at a time the children took turns trying to match my beat as I varied the tempo. 

I observed that the children tended to bang the drum harder as they increased their tempo which could end up with a damaged drum! They practiced a fast tempo with softer taps on the drum.