Lego Rhythm Construction Game

I started using legos in my studio a few years ago help solidify rhythmic concepts with my students after reading this Lego Rhythms post by Jen at pianimation.com.  Some of the boys really thrived with this manipulative.  So after a quick activity at private lessons to review how to build rhythms using legos, we played a fun game at group lessons.  With all of the excitement I forgot to snap some photos... but here is a snapshot of 2 measures in 4/4 time "constructed" with legos so you can visualize what a lego measure looks like.

Lego Rhythm Construction Game

What you need:
Legos of varying sizes to represent note values (I used eighth notes up to whole notes.  The long legos used on the base represent 1 measure in 4/4 time.)
Rhythm Cards. I used these large rhythm card sets from Layton Music.

Object of the Game: Be the first to construct lego rhythm blocks to accurately represent the rhythm on each rhythm card

How to Play:
To prep for the game I divided students into 2 equal teams and had them race to sort their bags of legos into piles according to size.  Give each team the same # of rhythm cards  & long lego bases to construct their rhythms on.  (I used 5 per team w/ varying degrees of difficulty).  Challenge: The winning team must then take turns clapping and counting aloud the rhythms they have built to win.

Variation: After building the lego rhythms, mix them up and have students match up the lego measures with the correct rhythm cards.