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Activity

Horses at the Farm

Created September 15, 2023 | Added May 22, 2025


  1. Students pretend to be horses, sleeping in barns (represented by plastic hoops on the floor).
  2. The instructor is sitting at the piano and chants:
    • Bell Horses, Bell Horses, what’s the time of day,
      One o’clock, two o’clock ,
      Time to go away
    • The instructor plays a {rn:V7} arpeggio, students (“horses”) wake up.
    • At a high signal from the piano, the horses jump out of the hoop.
  3. Piano plays different durations and rhythms: (running, jogging, skipping, marching, long steps, jumping, galloping, etc.)
    • Students respond in movement
    • The exercises includes stops, maybe turn around, or stretch, all signals coming from the piano.
  4. The instructor sings “Time to come back home
    • Pitches: ^5 ^5 ^5 ^5, ^1.
    • Piano plays {rn:V7} and {rn:I}
  5. Review the motions and draw the different note values on the board.

Adaptations / Extensions

Extension

  1. In a corner of the room, the instructor will place cards with note values
  2. Include a new signal after each locomotor event
  3. At the signal, the kids pick from the floor the card with the note value they just moved and bring it to the barn

Variation

  1. Students sit on the floor holding hands.
  2. One or two students are horses and sleep in the middle
  3. After the instructor’s chant, the students lift their arms making room for the horses to move around the barn with the music.
  4. The students who were in the middle pick the next two horses.
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About the Author(s)

Author

Adriana Ausch-Simmel

Adriana Ausch Adriana Ausch enjoys a career as a singer and Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaching artist. As cross-style singer she has performed solo and chamber programs and presented Dalcroze workshops in Boston, New York, Toronto,Hangzhou(China) and Bucharest(Romania.  She currently teaches as Dalcroze Eurhythmics facult…

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