Dinosaurs Level: Early Grades - Introductory

What's That Noise? (timbre)

What sound could this be? The children guess. It's a dinosaur (well not really, but it might have sounded like this!)

Timbre

Timbre is the distinctive sound that enables us to tell one voice, instrument or sound apart from another eg mum's voice sounds different from teacher's voice. Animals do this too, of course - lambs and ewes recognise each other's sound from all the other sheep in the flock.

Dinosaur Rhythms (rhythm, pulse)

With everyone sitting in a circle, first model (demonstrate) for the children how to clap some dinosaur names. I've chosen three that sound different because they have a different number of syllables. Then everyone tap a steady pulse on knees as you say the names in random order and the children clap the name-rhythms in response, like this:

• Rex
• Rap-tor
• Din-o-saur

I find that the children enjoy saying how many claps each word has. The youngest children take a while to learn to count sounds and may randomly say the first number that comes into their heads. They soon learn from other children by hearing the right answers, and saying and clapping each name twice also helps.