Songs about clocks are a
familiar way to teach beat, division and multiple. Here are three for
various age groups. (You'll see each page of music full-sized by
clicking on their "thumbnails." To print originals, click on
"Download PDF.")
The three durations invite all kinds of possibilities. For example,
create three groups of children to enact them, each taking a different
role; provide a different instrument for each (such as cymbal, triangle,
jingle bell) or a different tone bar on an Orff instrument; create a
different movement for each, or let the children come up with their own;
and/or have students hold up notation cards, or step around posters,
representing note values for the three durations.
What about a story? Perhaps a family is trying to sleep, and is awoken in turn by the grandfather clock, the mantle clock, and the watch; they walk slowly to turn off the grandfather clock's chimes, march to stop the mantle clock, and run or tiptoe quickly to stop the watch's ticking!
