Music composition activities in lower elementary music class can be…tricky. Sometimes, giving little ones time to compose on instruments becomes more like exploration time. Now, there’s nothing wrong with time to play and explore on the instruments. That’s super important, too. Just not quite what we had in mind, right?
Not that I would know any of this from experience.
This past year, I decided my kindergarten students were going to compose music. We were going to hum the song “We Are Dancing in the Forest” two times. In between humming the song, we would improvise on xylophones while I sang the song again so they knew when to stop. You know what happens next, right? They had a blast, but didn’t listen to me singing at all and totally forgot that we were supposed to sing the song again. We were going to take that idea of improvising, and create a new melody for the first part of the song…but we never got that far.
Music composition activities, in lower elementary especially, don’t have to be scary or overwhelming. Let’s dive into some easy, low-stress ways you can incorporate composition into your routine!
If you like the composition ideas you see in this post, you’ll love my free guide, Composing in Music Class. You can totally do these activities without the guide, but I’ve already made the worksheets, so it’s super easy to just print and go!
Rhythm Composition Activities for Lower Elementary
This is my FAVORITE music composition activity for lower elementary students. There are so many possibilities!
I’ll start out using a 1×4 matrix to create body percussion patterns. We think of 2 or 3 shapes and what movement that shape could represent. So, for example, let’s say my pattern is “circle square circle triangle.” I would think of three movements, maybe clap, pat, and stomp, and assign each one to a shape. So maybe I would have circle=clap, square=pat, and triangle=stomp. I would perform “clap pat clap stomp.” This paper is also super helpful when we’re talking about ostinati!
Once we get into long and short sounds, we could do a 2×4 matrix using dots (or hearts or stars.) If each box is a beat, students would create an 8-beat pattern by putting either one or two dots in a box. When they learn quarter and eighth notes, we start writing the standard notation in the boxes.
When they start learning notes that take up more than one beat, I have them draw an arrow that goes into the next box. For a half note, we would draw a half note and then draw an arrow into the next box. That means we also have to talk about if they can put a half note in the last box of a row. This is a great time to start talking about ties!
Other Possibilities for Rhythm Compositions
Other possibilities with this type of composition are:
- Writing words under your rhythms
- Using note names instead of rhythms (each note name would represent a sound, so you should still talk about how many sounds are in a beat)
- Writing note names under the rhythms to create a melody
There are so many different possibilities with this paper, and you can use it with so many different grade levels. I actually use this across the board with all of my students because it can be differentiated so easily!
This is also a great way to assess students, too. Usually, if one student wants to perform, all of the students will end up wanting to play for the class. The standards I assess on report cards include reading/notating and playing instruments. I can assess them reading or playing on instruments while they perform for the class. Then, I can collect the papers and give them a grade on writing as well. If there are any kids who don’t want to perform for the class, no biggie! I have that student play individually while the other kids have a minute or two of free time to draw on the back or play their rhythm sticks.
Staff Composition Activities
This is another worksheet that is easily adapted for different grade levels. As they learn more solfege, you can add lines to gradually work your way up to a 5-line staff. We start with dots and as we learn rhythms, we begin to draw those rhythms, even on a one or two-line staff.
To start, I’ll give my kindergartners a one line staff and some stickers (I usually do 6.) The end goal will be for students to create a high/low pattern.
First, I’ll draw a few patterns on the white board and we’ll talk about how we read the whole thing left to right just like a book. As a side note, it took me a while to realize that a lot of students will read all of the high notes first and then go to the low notes. So they might say “high high high low low” even if the pattern should read “high high low high low.” It takes a bit of practice to read the pattern as a whole.
Next, we’ll talk about dots that are close together vs. far apart. What does that mean? You may need to sing the pattern and see if they can figure out that dots that are close together are short-short or fast and dots that are far apart are slow.
After I feel like we understand how to read the patterns, it’s time for the students to create them! I give the students their one-line staff and stickers and let them create their own. Instead of stickers, you could also use crayons or even bingo pens. The kids have to use at least four stickers, but they don’t have to use all six.
This is another activity that they will probably want to share with the class, and makes an easy assessment for you! Again, any kids who don’t want to share can share with you privately. I rarely force students to share in front of the class if they don’t want to, but I find that, with enough time and encouragement, even my quiet kids want to share.
Create an Ostinato with Lower Elementary Students
Last is creating an ostinato. While I love the matrix and staff papers, I don’t use them all the time in my room (usually one of those makes its way into most units.) However, creating an ostinato is something that makes its way into most of my classes. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it can use as many or as few resources as you want!
First, we take a known song and asking them to keep the steady beat by doing two defined body movements. Maybe instead of just patting the beat, we’ll alternate between pat and clap. We’ll do a couple of examples as a class, using slides like in my Old Brass Wagon resource (which are great for body percussion or instruments!). Then it will be their turn. Depending on the grade level, I’ll let them choose 2-4 movements to make a pattern. They love to create their own patterns or with a partner! They get so creative and come up with really great patterns using their bodies, the floor, and chairs. We haven’t even added instruments yet!
Ostinati with Instruments
If you want to add instruments you can do that, too! You could have a pair of students each have a different instrument and create an ostinato using those two instruments. Or you could have them create a class ostinato with unpitched instruments.
Using xylophones gets a little trickier, and this is where I lost my kids when I did “We Are Dancing in the Forest.” Looking back, I should have started with a chant like “Bee Bee Bumblebee” and not a song. Then, we should have picked two notes they could create their own pattern on, similar to how we created patterns using body percussion. So maybe they start on the just the notes labeled C and G. They could stay on the same note the whole time, they could play both together, or they could alternate between the two. They could add more notes and rhythms as they grow as musicians.
Wrap Up
So there you have three easy music composition activities for lower elementary students! These are doable with a class of young kids and they get the kids in charge of their learning!
If you liked these ideas, don’t forget that I made a free guide with lots of composition worksheets for you. They all vary in difficulty and level of student choice and are a great addition to your classroom! Get the guide HERE. After you’ve downloaded the guide, make sure you let me know your favorite way to use them!
