Note Values with Tennis Balls

This week, I stole borrowed an idea from Kristin Lukow (Musical Musings with Mrs. Lukow) that uses tennis balls to practice note values.  Basically, there is a different action for each note: whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes.  Choose a song with a comfortable tempo, and call out the note for kids to demonstrate.  Change every 16 beats or so.  It's much easier to understand when you see it, so I'll let Kristin's kids show you how it's done:

 Isn't that fun? My 3rd and 4th graders are loving it--you should have seen their faces when I said we would all be using tennis balls in class.  Immediate, 100% student engagement! Awesome!