Water for Schools
Menu

Lesson plan Grade 3 Art & Music

Thistledown Water Cycle Rhythm: Counting Beats in Groups

A grade 3 music and math lesson where students compose a four-part water cycle rhythm and count total beats as equal groups using multiplication.

Objectives

  1. Students will compose a four-part rhythm where each part stands for a water cycle stage.
  2. Students will find the total number of beats by multiplying equal groups.

Vocabulary

Water cycle
The water cycle is the continuous movement of water between the oceans, the air, and the land. The same water evaporates, forms clouds, falls as rain or snow, and flows back to the ocean before the process repeats.

Also: beat, measure, rhythm, chant

Teacher overview

The water cycle is often taught as a loop of stages, which makes it a natural fit for a rhythm that repeats, although real water can take many different paths through the cycle. In this lesson at the made-up Thistledown Elementary, students build a four-part rhythm where each part stands for one stage: the sun warming water into vapor, the cloud forming, the rain falling, and the river carrying water back. They tap a steady beat, group those beats into measures, and then count the total by multiplying, because a rhythm is made of equal groups of beats. A common misconception this lesson addresses is that students add the number of measures to the number of beats instead of multiplying the two; counting the equal groups by hand shows why multiplication gives the total.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Tap a steady four-beat pattern on the desk and have the class echo it. Ask how many taps they would make if they played that four-beat pattern two times. Let them count it out, then say two groups of four.

Direct instruction (10 min): On chart paper, draw four boxes in a row and label them Sun, Cloud, Rain, River. Explain that each box is one measure and will hold the same number of beats. Fill each box with four dots and count the total by fours, connecting "4 measures of 4 beats" to the product 4 times 4.

Compose in groups (15 min): In groups of four, students choose a simple sound for each stage (a soft tap for rain, a slap for the river) and write one short chant line for each stage that tells what water is doing. Each group decides how many beats each measure holds and keeps that number the same across all four measures.

Handout and count (10 min): Students complete the rhythm handout, which asks them to find total beats by multiplying equal groups for several patterns. Circulate and check that students multiply the number of measures by the beats in each measure.

Perform and exit check (5 min): Two groups perform their four-part rhythm while the class counts the beats of one stage aloud. As an exit check, each student states how many beats are in a pattern of 3 measures with 4 beats each; listen for 12 and for multiplying rather than adding.

Thistledown Water Cycle Rhythm: Counting Beats in Groups — Grade 3 Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

  1. A rain pattern has 4 measures. Each measure has 4 beats. How many beats are there in all?
  2. A cloud pattern has 3 measures. Each measure has 2 claps. How many claps are there in all?
  3. A river pattern has 5 measures. Each measure has 3 taps. How many taps are there in all?
  4. Draw dots to show 2 equal groups of 4 beats. How many beats does your picture show in all?
  5. Your group plays one 4-beat measure 6 times. How many beats do you play in all?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 16 beats. There are 4 equal groups of 4, and 4 times 4 equals 16.
  2. Answer: 6 claps. There are 3 equal groups of 2, and 3 times 2 equals 6.
  3. Answer: 15 taps. There are 5 equal groups of 3, and 5 times 3 equals 15.
  4. Answer: 8 beats. The picture shows 2 groups of 4, and 2 times 4 equals 8. Accept any drawing with two clear groups of four dots.
  5. Answer: 24 beats. Playing a 4-beat measure 6 times is 6 groups of 4, and 6 times 4 equals 24.

Differentiation

Support

Give students boxes already drawn with the dots printed inside, so they can count and skip-count the groups before writing the multiplication. Let them use rhythm sticks to tap each group as they count.

Extension

Ask students to write a five-measure version and find the new total, then explain in one sentence how the total changed when they added one more equal measure.

ELL supports

Pair each water cycle word with a gesture (arms rising for the sun stage, fingers falling for rain) so the vocabulary is carried by movement as well as words. Provide a sentence frame for the chant lines: "The ___ makes water ___."

Extensions

Record the class performing all four rhythms in order and play it back, then have students count the beats of one full cycle from the recording and compare their count to the multiplication answer.