Cupid's Arrow Game


Love and rhythm are in the air in first grade!  My first graders are reading and practicing ta, ti-ti and rest so I created a "Cupid's Arrow Game" for  them that we use as a whole class, but they work in groups of three.

Here's how we play:
First there are the cards and "arrows":
I use the Nerf Darts from the Nerf Dart guns (you can get these are Walmart, Target, etc. but make sure you get the suction cup ends.  They've come out with "gel" darts, those I just see getting dirty and not lasting long).

I laminate my cards and the darts have enough suction to actually lift the card, like so:

Each group gets a set of 12 cards, each of which contain the same rhythm patterns.
They set them out so that all the members of their group can see them.  The cards are also numbered so that after I've clapped the patter a couple times I give them answer so they can check their work.  Each student is "armed" with a dart that they will use to hopefully "shoot" the card with the rhythm that matches the pattern they hear.  I clasp the pattern and they look for it:



With my first graders I never said anything about this being a "competition."  It led to some interesting results: some groups were very competitive with each other while other groups were very collaborative and celebrated when someone in their group identified the correct pattern.  It was an interesting assessment too.  Three of my four first grade classes nailed this activity; it was almost too easy.  The fourth class (which is also the hardest with classroom management) struggled with identifying the correct rhythms.  This lets me know that this class needs more remediation and won't be going on to so-mi as soon as the other classes.

I've made many leveled sets of these, that you can find at my TpT store.  Sets were made for the following concepts:

  1. ta ti-ti
  2. rest
  3. half note 
  4. tika-tika
  5. ti-tika
  6. tika-ti
  7. syncopa
  8. tom-ti
  9. ti-tom
  10. tim-ka
  11. 6/8
  12. bundle
I hope you all are staying warm, it's FREEZING here in Colorado!!!



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1 comment

  1. AnonymousFebruary 11, 2014 at 1:17 PM

    I like this so much I picked up a set of Nerf darts at Target yesterday. I tried them with my 1st graders for the first time today. They loved being able to stick the suction cup to the laminated cards!

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