I love baseball. Wait, I love the atmosphere of baseball. The game itself is pretty slow. . . although I love the strategy behind it. But for me, when I think about baseball, I think of all the stories that I was told about my Gramps who played for the Louisville Miners. I think of going to the opening home-day game of the Colorado Rockies with my dad and brother (just over 20 years ago in the OLD Mile High Stadium). I think of taking my son, when he was 10 months old, to his first baseball game at Wrigley field. But mainly, I think of an entire crowd of strangers getting up and singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" together at the 7th inning stretch. Really, any sport that stands up and sings in the middle of the game is A-OK for me!
There's a few way's that I've played music baseball over the years but I've never been truly happy with it until now. I feel like this past year I've really been able to focus on differentiation and challenging my students individually and this game provides a lot of opportunities for that.
•Students can work as one team and have
individual “at-bats” or they can be divided into teams and go to bat together
as a team (You can buy real bases in the Dollar tree or borrow your pe teachers bases, they can select team players to be the
“runners” and stand on the bases) You can also keep tally of
points.
•Teams or individuals can choose which
type of “hit” they want to go for: a single (first base), double (second base),
triple (third base) or home run.
•Simply click on the desired “hit”.
•From there you can go sequentially through
the order of bases on that slide. If you
get through all 14 selections, simply start over. It’s good practice either way.
•Once the pitch is shown, the player gets
three chances to get it right. If after
three chances the player or team does not perform the pattern correctly they
have “struck out.”
•You can keep track of outs or you can
take turns with both teams being up to bat at the same time (this way will help
the engagement level of both teams be higher than if they take turns for the
whole team to bat and get three outs.)
1.The
easiest way is for the teacher to “pitch”.
That is, the teacher reads a pitch card and the team must find the
corresponding or matching batting card from the cards.
2.The
next level of difficulty is for one team to pitch (that is, they all read the
pitching card together) and the other team find the batting card that matches.
3.The
next level of difficulty is to have one team pitch ( as in #2) and the team use staff or rhythm cards to derive the pattern on the staff or on beat strips. The use of these strips really aides those kiddos that are visual and kinesthetic learners.
4.The
next level, the same as #3, but the pitcher and batter work as individuals
instead of as a team.
5.Next,
one team pitch (as in #2) but only clapping the rhythm or singing the melody on
a neutral syllable. The
other team aurally derives and performs the pattern back on rhythm syllables or
solfége.
6.Finally, an
individual performs the pitching card (as in #5) and an individual derives and
performs the pattern back on rhythm syllables or solfége.
Here's an example of a triple pitching cards (two cards are printed on a page):
And here's a home run pitching cards:
I labeled this as "Game 1" so when I go to use it with my 2nd graders in the fall they won't think it's a first grade game, although it will be reviewing my first grade concepts.
I can also use the cards as flashcards!
*** Coming soon:
Music Baseball, level 2 (contains concepts above plus halfnote, tika-tika, do & re)
Music Baseball, level 3 (contains concepts above plus ti-tika/ti-tiri, tika-ti/tiri-ti, low la & low so)
Music Baseball, level 4 (contains concepts above plus syncopa (ti-ta-ti), tom-ti (dotted quarter-eighth), high do & fa)
Music Baseball, level 5 (contains above plus tom-ti, tim-ka & ti)
Music Baseball, level 2 (contains concepts above plus halfnote, tika-tika, do & re)
Music Baseball, level 3 (contains concepts above plus ti-tika/ti-tiri, tika-ti/tiri-ti, low la & low so)
Music Baseball, level 4 (contains concepts above plus syncopa (ti-ta-ti), tom-ti (dotted quarter-eighth), high do & fa)
Music Baseball, level 5 (contains above plus tom-ti, tim-ka & ti)
I'm hoping to start posting more songs and ideas to use that aren't posted or linked to my Teachers Pay Teachers store!!! But speaking of that, next week on May 7 & 8 there will be a BIG sale on TpT!!! I'll give you more details about that this weekend!
If you're in CO, aren't you tired of the snow?!! If you're not in CO, PLEASE send us wishes for spring weather!!! I'm tired of the snow, lol!!!
Happy Wednesday!
This game looks great!I've not done baseball much because it is slow and the class can loose interest. But I really like this and the idea of printing out cards. Our Third grade just did Casey at the bat in their classes and Take me out to the Ballgame with me (One of the composers is from IN our state) and they were really interested in the history of the song, listening to an early recording, and singing the two verses with the refrain they already knew. Thanks to your game I know what I'll be doing with them in our last two or three classes this year and a great start for next year as review!
ReplyDeleteAnd a game with staff pitches instead of solfege or with both? I always seem to have trouble getting some classes to make that switch from movable do to absolute pitch when we play recorder.
ReplyDelete