Give each child a piece of paper and a crayon. Play a piece of music. Start by asking the children to close their eyes and rock their arm to the rhythm of the beat, leaving a trail on their paper like a lie detector or EEG machine. Slower tempos will have long arcs, almost covering the paper. A faster tempo gives a shorter arc, keeping close to the mid-line of the sheet. Listen to the entire piece of music, and then look at the sheet of paper. Ask if the beat rises and falls evenly. Look for patterns in the beat of the song. Try the experiment again with a longer piece that has several movements. Look to see how the patterns change.
Give each child a crayon and a sheet of paper that has been divided into 32 squares. Show the children examples of a happy face, a dreamy face, a frightened face and an angry face. Ask each child to close his eyes and listen to a piece of music with several movements. When the child feels that the music reminds him of one of these emotions, he draws the face in the square. When the emotion changes, the child draws a face for the new emotion in the next square. After the music is finished, look at the chart. Find patterns of emotional changes.
Cut the sharp ends off of a number of wooden skewers. Coat all but 4 inches of the skewer in white glue. Give the children barrel beads to thread onto two skewers of their own. Some children get four different-colored beads. Some get equal numbers of two colors of beads. The last group gets three of one color bead for every single bead of a second color. Ask the four-bead children to thread their beads in a four-bead pattern such as red, green, blue and yellow. Ask the children with equal numbered beads to alternate between colored beads. The last group threads three of one color bead before placing the single alternate bead. Use each of these sticks to explore 4/4 time.
Use the beaded beat sticks to explore rhythm. The children with four different-colored beads beat out a quarter note. The children with alternately colored beads strike only half as often, beating out the half note. The last group of children beats the whole note. Show the children how these notes are arranged on the musical staff.