Kick the new school year off right...with Music Football!

I like to start the school year off with a review game for my older students (4th, 5th, and 6th grades)...and what better game for the fall season than (American) Football...although I've tweaked the rules to review musical vocabulary or instruments that the students can identify.

Making the football field by hand was a big time investment when I made the first one (about 10 years ago!), but today I think that I'd take a simpler route and use Google Image to find a simple view of a football field such as the one pictured here. I'd then blow it up using a color copier and laminate it for durability.  The game board that I use for my classroom is roughly 2 1/2 feet by 6 feet.



Music Football Game

Objective: Explore different choices the students will have to play instruments this year. Play a Musical Football game to practice identifying the instruments, first by sight, and then by sound.



Procedure:

· Students will divide into teams.

· Students will begin by individually identifying pictures of the instruments. If they answer correctly, they move their team's marker 10 yards on the football game board.

· When a team reaches the touchdown zone, they score 6 points for their team. If the student for the winning score can throw a football into the garbage can, they score an extra point.

· After identifying all of the pictures, the students will identify the sounds of the instruments, using the CD.

· The game continues for the remainder of the class period. The team with the most points wins, although in the case of a tie, we have had a "field goal shoot out" for a tie-breaker!

Here is my handmade music football game,
complete with field goal (garbage can!) on lower right!