Blue Jello and Improvisation (activity for recorders, melodic instruments or voice)

Using Blue Jello cards with instruments can be lots of fun and also a great way to fit improvisation into your lessonsl!

I ask students to sit in pairs or trios and have one designated as the turner.  This student will be in charge of turning the cards and will not play.  

I give two clicks in tempo to prep each card.  First all the "turners" say the blue jello card out loud and then each card is repeated by recorders in the same tempo.  The card is turned and the two clicks signal the start of the next card in the same sequence.  

At first all recorders play the same pitch.  After a few turns I will give them a choice "you may play rhythms on A or C (can use G and B or any third really)"  After that I'll slowly add choices so that they have a choice of all the notes in C or G pentatonic. So I will say any note but F's and B's or no C's and F's.  Soon they are improving pentatonic melodies.

Students will switch places so everyone gets a turn to improv.

After this activity is easy I will use the rhythm bingo cards - 3 or 4 students to a card and all 3 or 4 students pick one of the three lines to read.  Same sequence as above - start with words - then all on one pitch-then a choice of 2, and add until you have a pentatonic scale.  It should sound nice all together, but then you can have each group of students at each card play alone so the rhythm will be the same but melodic variations, OR one student from each card play so you have melodic and rhythmic variation. 
The students love hearing the end result and think they are all musically brilliant, which they are :)

YOu could do this with any melodic instrument or with the voice using solfege (which I have done) and meet the same objectives.