Have confident students demonstrate to the rest of the class that four beats of the red rods equal one beat of the brown and that changes can be made in the patterns. Now the students develop their own rhythms, write them in the new notation system, and test to see if they can move rhythms out of their own minds to the understanding of others. The working groups draw their rhythmic pattern on graph paper and then clap it for themselves. If you have Macromedia Flash installed, you can create your own rhythms with the interactive rhythm builder . Red Cuisenaire rods are quarter notes White rods are eighth notes and are clapped twice in the same frame as one red quarter note Purple rods are half notes.
Brown rods are whole notes.
When the members of the small groups have agreed that they understand their own pattern, they ask others in the class to clap it also. In this way, each group tests to see if the notation they have used is understandable to others. Now the students rearrange their rhythms - without increasing or decreasing the numbers of counters. After they have rearranged their patterns they clap the new rhythm. The teacher can begin to compare the relationship between whole, eighth, and quarter notes and fractions.