The first and second grade students at WDE are experiencing "Mallet Madness" this week in Music class. Students explore and experience many different percussion instruments from around the world such as the glockenspiel, xylophone, tubanos, bongos, claves, shekere, and the frog. The use of these instruments reinforces each student's ability to keep a steady beat and to count rhythms of quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests. As students listen to the song "Crazy Eights", they must internalize the steady beat in the song to stay together. They begin the song by playing a single quarter note, followed by seven quarter rest. Each time they repeat the phrase, students add a quarter note to the rhythm until they are playing eight quarter notes. To challenge them and improve their listening skills, Mr. Hight changes the Tempo after every rotation.
