This was a composing manipulative used with the second graders to practice composing with half notes, or “2 beat ta” as we called it.
In order to give the manipulatives a little more bulk, I glued them to square (1 beat) and rectangular (2 beats) pieces of construction paper that matched the color of the leaves. They also had a large 12×18 piece of construction paper with mapped out beats for them to place their composing cards on.
After they composed in groups, they practiced their composition and then performed it for their peers. The biggest difficulty was getting the classes to come back together because they were having so much fun composing and performing within their own group, they forgot they were going to perform for the rest of the class!
