Ice cream machine (pulse, rhythm, texture) Performance - Video

Ice Cream Machine (pulse, rhythm, texture)

Let's be an ice cream machine! I'm doing this with a small group so everyone has their own sounds to make but it works even better with a whole class, in which case you'll first divide the children into 5 groups. Each group has their own sound to which they make up an agreed action, and the teacher keeps a steady pulse by beating a drum. These are the words, to be said over and over again, without pausing at all in between words. It should go steadily like 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 ... with no gaps:

• Group 1 - BOOM boom boom
• Group 2 - RUMBLE ping ping
• Group 3 - SHHH Shhh Shhh
• Group 4 - PLOP plop plop
• Group 5 - YUM yummy yum

Suggested actions:

• Group 1 - drumming arm movements
• Group 2 - roly-poly arms on rumble and starfish hands for ping
• Group 3 - pouring the milk in
• Group 4 - plopping the ice cream into a dish
• Group 5 - rub tummy round and round

Once everyone has practised, you can have great fun doing the sounds and actions. If the children become proficient at this you can try doing more than one sound, with actions, at the same time creating a thicker texture.

Our first attempts!

Notice that the children have, broadly speaking, got the idea but they are not yet keeping a steady 3 time pulse.

Our 'Performance'

This was our final attempt of the day, our 'performance'. The pulse is much more stable here as the children begin to understand the concept better.