Pop-Its For Music Literacy 

• Kaselyn Gibbs
• Posted 4/11/22
• 0 comments

Pop-Its are taking over my elementary school! Students have Pop-Its of all sizes and love popping the small circles repeatedly. During one of my third-grade classes, I was having a conversation with my students about the appeal of these toys. One student piped up and said, “My sister and I like to make up our games with them!” Many students chimed in about how they enjoy inventing games using fidgets. 

After that conversation, I decided to figure out a way to incorporate Pops-Its into the music room. I began looking online and found many options for math, letter or color identification, and more. I was inspired by a music teacher’s post about game board Pop-Its she found on Amazon. I immediately purchased a few for my classroom and began making my game. 

Materials

• Pop-it Dice Game 
• Customizable Dice 

Preparing Your Rhythm Dice

Hint: The dice are dry erase, and the marker fades when students roll the dice on the carpet.  
Quick-Fix: attach a piece of masking tape on each side and write on the tape instead of directly on the dice.  
Bonus: The marker remains on the dice, and I can reuse the dice for other games. 

Before You Begin

1. Choose which note values you would like to use and write them on a die. 

2. Prepare die examples: ex., quarter note, quarter rest, barred eighth notes
   •  Write note values on the sides of the die, varying the number of beats per side. 
   • Students add up the beats for sides with multiple notes.
     • Two-quarter notes = two pops 
     • A beamed eighth note = one pop 
     • A beamed eighth note and a quarter note = 2 pops, etc. 

3. Replace the die that is included with the game with the prepared rhythm die. 

4. Place the rhythm dice with a game board in an open space so students can sit around the board.  

Directions

1. Place students in groups of 6 or less around the board. 

2. Assign each player a color. If there are less than six players, leave colors out! 

3. Roll the die. 

4. Read the note(s) on the top of the dice. 

5. Figure out how many beats the note(s) gets. 

6. Pop the number of spaces in your color corresponding to the number of beats you rolled.
   • Half note = 2 spots 
   • Quarter note = 1 spot 
   • Whole rest = 4 spots, etc. 

7. Hand the die to the next player. 

8. Keep playing until someone has popped all of their spaces! 

Customize! 

Customize the game to fit your needs! Instead of just a couple of notes, write rhythm patterns instead. Incorporate rests, use more than one die; the only limit is your creativity. 

That’s it! Students love this simple game, and it provides much-needed practice and review on note values. Change the directions and challenge your students to incorporate other rhythm concepts.  

Most importantly, have fun and get popping! 

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