Activity
Horses at the Farm
Author
Created September 15, 2023 | Added May 22, 2025
- Students pretend to be horses, sleeping in barns (represented by plastic hoops on the floor).
- 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.
- Bell Horses, Bell Horses, what’s the time of day,
- 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.
- The instructor sings “Time to come back home“
- Pitches: ^5 ^5 ^5 ^5, ^1.
- Piano plays {rn:V7} and {rn:I}
- Review the motions and draw the different note values on the board.
Adaptations / Extensions
Extension
- In a corner of the room, the instructor will place cards with note values
- Include a new signal after each locomotor event
- 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
- Students sit on the floor holding hands.
- One or two students are horses and sleep in the middle
- After the instructor’s chant, the students lift their arms making room for the horses to move around the barn with the music.
- 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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