I created The Heart Chart in my music classroom in 1997 when I was searching for a clear, effective, child-friendly way to explain beat and rhythm to my elementary students. It began as a piece of poster board with 16 removeable cardboard hearts. I used it so much with all ages of students, it kept wearing out and I was continually repairing it or making a new one out of poster board.
Finally I experimented with making one out of sheet metal, foam, and magnets, showed it to my friends, and they loved it! They urged me to make it available to all music teachers.... and so I did. I began selling the Heart Chart through West Music, and it took off like crazy! I couldn't keep up with the orders. After two years I admitted to myself and to my friends at West that I could not continue to make large quantities of Heart Charts! At that time I became the only seller of the Heart Chart, and I stopped all advertising. Since then I have sold hundreds of Heart Charts to teachers who heard about it from other teachers.
The Heart Chart is a 17" by 18" piece of finished galvanized sheet metal, with vinyl graphics of 16 rests. The 16 foam hearts represent the "beat" and there are variations of the hearts that represent eighth notes and sixteenth notes. Children of all ages learn right away how to play rhythms using the hearts and rests. The Heart Chart comes with a collection of traditional notation pieces representing quarters, eighths, sixteenths, whole notes, half notes, and dotted half notes, and going from the hearts to traditional notation happens easily. All of the pieces are made of durable foam and have magnets attached.
The lesson plan book is full of ideas for taking your children from reading the hearts to reading traditional notation. Teachers who use the Heart Chart daily have invented their own amazing games to go with it. Once you use a Heart Chart to teach rhythm, you won't want to teach without it! The Heart Chart with the book and all of the manipulatives costs $84 plus $12 shipping. If you need replacement parts or an extra metal board, email me for prices. Customized Heart Charts are possible.
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