Help them to see how quarter notes and half notes, for example, make up whole notes. The class and the teacher need to work at a pace that is comfortable to them. If the teacher thinks it is possible, the class might work on this project over an entire semester. Eventually, the students will work out their understandings of the relations among the notes, of how to indicate these relations on paper, and of transferring the notations from paper to practice. This place in the music where there is no sound is called a rest.
Rests are useful for varying the beat.
As a group the class needs to work out a way to indicate rests. For example, they may want to use a nonsense sound to indicate a rest and to put it above the line rather than on the line with the other rods. To understand each other's notations, the whole class will have to agree on the same system. The students are now ready to put their learning into practice by preparing for a public performance. Performance will be both a celebration and an assessment of their learning.