The 5 Minute Challenge a Music Classroom Activity
The 5 Minute Challenge is something I do with my students K-12, though mostly with K-8. We use MusicTheory.com’s Note Identification Exercises.
You can customize them however you would like in the top right corner.
I give the students 5 minutes to get as many correct answers as possible. We make a loop around the classroom and students go up to the screen, select the answer, then move along the loop. This can also be a great break when students need to move a little bit. BUT it is still reinforcing concepts!
If management becomes an issue, I simply bring a halt to the loop movement but the timer continues!
I have each grade do an exercise that is appropriate for their level. For these scores, my Kindergartners, 1st graders, and 2nd graders did ONLY the treble clef notes. 3rd and up did the entire grand staff! As you can see, third grade is a little slow – but they are accurate! 7th grade is currently leading the challenge. You can really use any sort of quick paced review activity for this challenge!
This is just a great activity to promote a little healthy competition among my classes. I will say, that my high school choir does not do this very often, so please don’t judge me for their lower score! As you can see, they don’t even have a regular spot on the board! We’ve been swamped with contests this time of year, so they rarely get to do the 5 Minute Challenge. Also – Kindergarten is on the bottom because they originally weren’t in the competition, later when they started learning the notes of the treble clef (yes, they CAN do it!) they joined.
I keep track of my scores on the white board.
Creating the tracker for The 5 Minute Challenge Music Classroom Activity
Your tracker can be as simple as you want – you don’t even need to track if you don’t want to! I personally think a little healthy competition can be a good thing! All of the materials I used to create my tracker can be found easily at your local dollar store or craft store. I have provided some links to Amazon resources if that works easier for you! These are affiliate links so I will receive a small bonus if you buy through them!
I created the chart on the main whiteboard in my classroom using painters tape. I used a foam sheet to create the arrow marking the current leaders, and hot glued a small craft magnet on it so it’s easily movable.
This is a great activity to give students a break from whatever you’re doing. It gets the moving but they are still LEARNING and/or reviewing in the process! Here’s some other fun activities for music classrooms! Including my FREE dynamics posters shown in the picture above!
