Mystery Mansion Activity for Elementary Music Instrument and Terminology Instruction

“Mystery Mansion” is a live, 3-dimensional “I Spy” game used for elementary music instrument and terminology instruction.  Last year I incorporated it into the ongoing story of the Dragon Games, but it could easily stand alone.

 

The Concept…

I told my students that they, in their explorations, had stumbled into a mysterious mansion on a hill.  Having been greeted by the butler (whose theme music was playing as they entered the classroom – I used one of the modern renditions of “Por Una Cabeza”), they have now been given the challenge of finding a list-full of musical items, terms, and so forth, all within this Mystery Mansion.

One full wall of classroom shelves became a life-sized game of “I Spy,” into which I packed a quantity of classroom instruments, orchestral instruments, pictures or drawings of music symbols and terminology, and other musical objects.  By mixing in a number of antique books and other knick-knacks, a wall of shelves became a visual game appealing to the eye.  I found that students were instantly and consistently engaged by the activity, learning and retaining knowledge of musical instruments, symbols and terminology through active, visual means.

The List…

Students received a list of about 30 items…

·        musical instruments...

·        music-related objects (conductor’s baton, iPod, etc.)...

·        music symbols...

·        musical terms...

…and had a time limit to find everything on the list in the game area.  In younger classes, we found many objects as a whole class; older classes went to work independently or in small groups.  The activity sparked many questions stemming from holes in the students’ knowledge, holes that were quickly filled as students connected the instrument names and musical terms to the visuals in the game.

The Transition…

The only non-musical item on the list was a scroll; after the “I Spy” game, I displayed a line of music notation on our screen and explained that these notes were the contents of the scroll.  For each grade level, the music was slightly different…

·        Kindergarten – a two line staff with icons representing notes…

·        1^st Grade – a three-line staff…

·        2^nd – 5^th Grade – five-line staves with increasingly involved components…

 
Students then had a variety of tasks and challenges to explore, all relating to the music on the "scroll."  As I plan future versions of this lesson, I have found that the “I Spy” game transitions well into any number of notation- or music-reading-centered activities.