Bucket Drumming

5th Graders are starting a bucket drumming unit.  This year, we will be using a program called Bucket Drumming Karate.  Students are using chopsticks as their drumsticks and earn colored masking tape belts for each test they take.  The tests start out easy, but they get much harder!  To be successful, we are reviewing rhythms we already know and learning some new ones too.

We learn our songs all together.  Students have to focus on rhythms and sticking (when to use their left or right sticks).  When we are comfortable with the rhythms as a class, we break into centers to take tests.

  

The students who are not taking tests are composing their own rhythms to create Bucket Drumming books.  They are careful to put only 4 beats in each measure and add new rhythms to make each composition more challenging.

Other students play a rhythm game called Busted! to practice the rhythms we are working on.

Good luck to 5th graders as we all work towards our black belts!