Darla Hanley's Music Room
Creative Teaching for Students of Today (& Tomorrow) PK-8
Hi! I’m Darla, an experienced PK-12 music educator, college professor, and former Berklee College of Music Dean looking to connect with teachers, parents/caregivers, and others seeking to advance creative music making for today’s students—and their teachers. In Darla Hanley’s Music Room you will find teaching strategies, advice and teaching tips, playlists, and more.
Today’s Teaching Strategy: Chet’s Cups
Upper Elementary (3-5)
This teaching strategy is a cup game that goes along with one of my late dad Chet’s favorite songs, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” I’m using the Count Basie version of the tune to introduce jazz sounds to young learners—and because the tempo of this track is great for a cup game.
The track is available on multiple streaming audio platforms. (Like many of my teaching strategies, you should feel free to find other audio tracks to anchor the learning experience using music that works in your setting or new tracks to simply “mix it up.”) Here we go!
Ask students to sit in a circle on the floor.
We are going to play a musical cup game today that goes with this pattern “grab, pass, grab, pass, tap, tap, place, [rest].” Listen as I speak it and join in when you can.
Practice chanting “grab, pass, grab, pass, tap, tap, place, [rest]” without cups.
Distribute one plastic cup to each student and have them place it on the floor in front of them with the cup opening touching the floor.
Direct students to perform the “grab, pass…” pattern with the cups, but without music.
ProTIP: Students will only use their Right Hand for this game. Have them put their left hand on their left knee to isolate it and keep it out of the way.
Cupography*
Grab, Pass, Grab Pass:
Student’s cross their Right Hand over to “grab” the cup in front of the person on their Left and put it down on the floor in front of themself as the “pass”. This happens twice.
Tap Tap, Place:
Student’s cross their Right Hand over to use the cup in front of the person on their Left to “tap tap” it on the floor —tapping in place in front of their neighbor— before “placing” it on the floor in front of themself.
There is one beat of rest at the end of the pattern before it restarts from the top.
Play the recording and cue students to begin the game.
ProTIP: There is a brief introduction on the track. Have students begin at 0.09. Even though this is an instrumental track, if you know the song, this is on the lyric “heart” of the opening phrase: “I Left My Heart in San Francisco…”
*Cupography is my word for how cups move in sequence.
EXTEND the Learning:
Reverse direction to use Left Hands and play the game in the opposite direction.
Reflection Q: Which direction did you prefer, passing the cups to the Right or Left? Why?
Select a student to create a new way to “tap tap” the cups during that part of the game for everyone to perform.
Perform the game speaking the cupography —without the track— and add an accelerando to foster musical excitement and see how fast the tempo can be with student’s still staying together. (And this is the BEST when students erupt with laughter and joy as things get a bit out of control ;-) What fun!)
🎵 Count Basie “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” Link to Track on Spotify
Learning Targets
Listen, Move
Learning Outcomes
Respond to demonstrate beat and tempo.
Create original ways to “tap tap” the cup.
Perform to individually contribute to a group rhythmic cup game.
Assessment
Informal Observation/Formative Assessment
Thanks for checking this out. If you use this teaching strategy, be sure to leave a comment to let me know how it resonates with your students!