The Hot Cross Buns train is actually built of Cuisenaire Rod blocks. Lined up, as in the picture, they create, in their proportional spatial relations, an embodiment of the rhythm of Hot Cross Buns.
In turn, the 2:1 spatial relations are played out as Jeanne claps pairs of the 2:1 temporal proportions: Whites<>reds (2:4); reds<>purples (4:8). Merging space and time, one child says longer rods are “spaced more” and another adds, “they go slower.” Jeanne adds, “Which is the “same thing” because “longer ones take longer to walk through.”
Rosa now really “walks” the proportions, “She’s using stomps.” And finally after looking closely at the blocks train, Randall dramatically seems to become the sequence of proportions as he jumps (4’s), slides (8’s) and makes tiny steps (2’s).
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Making Music Count 