Recorder Karate Idea Bank

I wanted to let you all know that my homemade recorder bingo game was great success with my 6ths and 7ths. I prepared a blank tic-tac-toe grid with a "Melody Space" in the middle. I made copies of the grid. Then I copied the Recorder Karate chart of all the notes/fingerings found in the book. I let the kids prepare their own grids by having them cut out 8 of the 10 possible notes and glue them on the grid in any arrangement they wanted. Then I had them glue the grids onto black construction paper. I laminated them all. I made two laminated copies of the note/fingering chart, one which I cut up by notes for calling, and the other for the master chart.

To play, I invited a student to be the caller. I drew each note card, s/he would play the note for the class. No note names were given - they had to go strictly by the fingering and sound. All would mark their cards until a Bingo was called. Then the caller would check the winner's card. The winner would call out each note name and then play it. I would check the master chart. Now, if their bingo checked out okay, they would then have to come up front and play a few measures from a simple song out of the method book. This is for the Melody Space. If there was more than one bingo, all winners would come up and play.

To make the game a little more interesting, I would determine various patterns for each round (like an X, +, T, L, upside down T, postage stamp, H, etc.). Each pattern included the Melody Space.

The kids really seemed to enjoy the game. The different callers got some extra practice playing all the notes and being a leader, AND I got to hear the kids play (a way to get some extra assessments).

It took my 7th graders most of one class period to make the cards. We spent a whole period (45 min.) playing the game.

Know though, that both of my classes playing the Bingo game have been introduced to all the notes.