Boomwhackers! A Classroom MUST-HAVE

Have you ever heard of Boomwhackers? 
Before last week, I hadn't either! Boomwhackers are percussion tubes that are tuned to musical pitches by length. They're also colorful which makes them so much more fun.

Obsessed with ROYGBIV!

For my Integrated Arts class at UCF, we had to create a math lesson with arts integrated, but really, the students have to learn through the arts, not just with. 
What's the difference?
When I think of with the arts, I think of arts and crafts, like creating a colorful book describing the water cycle. Although this incorporates art, students are not learning through the arts. However, creating a song to describe the events of the life cycle of a butterfly is considered through the arts.  Also, consider the fine arts: music, theater, visual arts, sculpture, literary arts.

Ok, back to the Boomwhackers/Math lesson.  My fifth graders are learning place value and some of them are having a really difficult time when asked what place a specific digit is in. After reviewing their homework from the night before, I broke out the Boomwhackers. 
Make sure students "bang" or "strike" the Boomwhackers on their hands, legs, etc... Not on each other :) Or the table or corners of desks. Because they are plastic, they bend and crack easily and this totally messes with the tuned pitch of them.

I made this poster as a key and each color coordinates to the Boomwhacker.
This also taught students the different notes of each one.
For this specific place value lesson, as a class we assigned
each color a different place value position.

 We used the poster above to go over the different colors and sounds. We also talked about pitches and how our voices can make high pitches and low pitches. Our musical learners shared some great knowledge too. For the younger grades, I would definitely spend more time explaining pitch.

Then I wrote a number on the board. START SMALL! 

For example, 6.43

The ones group (teal) struck their Boomwhackers 6 times.

The tenths groups (yellow) struck their Boomwhackers 4 times.

The hundredths (red) groups struck their Boomwhackers 3 times. 

I had to count for them in the beginning to get them all on the same beat.

So for 6.43, I would count:
 "5,6,7,8:
1,2,3,4,5,6,
1,2,3,4,
1,2,3."

This helped A LOT.

Once they get the hang of it, start using larger numbers. We also played with the numbers too, because obviously a number like 757.757 sounds better because it is a pattern :) Eventually, I didn't have to count anymore.

The students LOVED this lesson, so did my supervising teacher. 

These Boomwhackers are VERY affordable and so useful in all grades!

 I taught a lesson in first grade using these for patterns. In groups, students made patterns out of colored paper (the paper coordinated with the Boomwhackers), then the groups came to the front and performed their pattern. 

Here they are mid-strike! 

Lovin' the Boomwhackers!

Again, mid-strike!

Click here for the Boomwhackers' educational uses, videos, and sample classroom ideas. Enjoy! Pinterest: Boomwhacker songs and ideas