"Double Time" Game

This game is a big hit! It is basically "Fruit Basket" if you know that game.  Every student is a note: Whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth.  I put the notes on cards and made the necklaces so that the students can wear them during the game to remember their note if they forget it. Plus this also gives them the visual some might need.  I added the necklace part so they don't have to hold them in their hand. On the back is the name of the note and the beats it gets.

Game: Students sit in chairs in a circle.  One person is in the middle without a chair. They call out a note(s) and all the students that are that specific note have to get up and switch chairs all the while the student in the middle tries to sit in a chair. For example: If the student in the middle says "Quarter notes" then any student with a quarter note necklace has to get up and move to another chair, trying not to be in the middle.  The object of the game is to NOT get stuck in the middle. The students have to move if their note is called.  The student in the middle can also call "Double Time". This means every student gets up and moves.  I allow the person in the middle to say two or three notes at a time if they choose to. 

It's a bit chaotic but loads of fun.  I do give them directions before we start the game that they can't get to rough or we stop playing. No pushing people out of the chairs etc.  I warn them that sometimes toes get stepped on so you have to be to tough. They rise to that challenge :) 

Variation: Instead of calling out the note names, the person in the middle calls out the number of beats, and the students have to know what note coincides with those beats.