Rhythm Games

Playing rhythm games utilising favourite class texts

Practising rhythmic activities is an important part of students’ musical education and integral development. Indeed, it is crucial component for human development and learning. Practising rhythm is associated with sensory perception, cognitive processing, and motor behaviour. Emphasis is often placed on teaching rhythm- the regular pulse in music and language- linked to phonemic awareness (aurally identifying rhyme, and specific sounds)’ and the fluency pillar of early reading acquisition, in particular, reading prosody.

The following activities are a series of rhythm games for classroom use, These rhythm games are fun and high engagement. They encourage good listening and auditory discrimination. They are easy to differentiate for different ages and stages of learning. I wish to acknowledge africandrumming .com.au , from which I amended some of the following activities (originally for djembe) for teaching early reading and music.

Echo rhythms

(Each student should have an untuned percussion instrument of choice and swap after a while) The teacher plays a simple rhythm pattern over a bar (4 beats) and the class echoes. Include different patterns, actions and body percussion. As students become more proficient, individual students become the leader in the sharing circle. Each student contributes a bar for students to follow. Extension activity: when the students get very good, the rhythm could move smoothly from person to person around the circle without any pauses! Students have to remember what each person’s rhythm pattern sounds like, to play/ echo it. See how far they can get around the circle each time…

Improvisations

(Favourite class picture book needed and one musical instrument per student, a mix of both tuned and untuned percussion). The class write and perform a simple interlude that will be played throughout a favourite text. e.g. from Allen, P. (2024). Mr McGee and his hat. The rhythmic interlude is: Mr McGee lived under a tree GGGD DGGGD (tuned percussion like glockenspiel (metal) or xylophone (wood) with alphabetic letters stamped on the bars to reinforce the language and music learning link)

Example rhythm pattern (ti- ti- ti taa taa ti- ti- ti taa taa)

The teacher reads a story to the class and students learn to play the musical interlude when they get a signal from the teacher. The signal could be a double tap of the teacher’s pointer when they are following along with the text during the read- aloud. Similarly, the interlude could be played as the teacher turns each page in the story. As students get to know the story well, they could read along with prosody, and a few students could play the rhythm as an ostinato (repeated pattern) throughout the text reading. Extension activity: write a melody for the next page of the book and continue throughout the text until students have written a whole song together, over many sessions. Through talk, unpacking and discussing vocabulary and repeated reading (and singing) of the text; students are focusing on all the pillars of effective reading instruction; these being oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

Call and response

Teacher calls: 1-2-3 look at me! The class responds: 1-2 look at you! Call and response activities like these are an effective means of garnering student attention, and indicating that it’s time to move onto the next activity in the classroom. The teacher plays or sings [our voices are important and accessible instruments] a pre-determined call pattern and the students respond with its corresponding response pattern. Below is a voiced musical call and response example using classroom instructions. The teacher calls the first half of the musical phrase, and the students respond with the second half, at the same time carrying out the teacher instruction.

Call and response musical phrases are a fun writing activity for small group composing so… get writing together!

*Time to play* example rhythm (ti-ti-ti-ti taa ti-ti-taa)

Musical conversations

Follow normal conversation conventions to have a musical discussion with a partner. Conversation conventions include looking at the person who is speaking to you (if culturally appropriate), not interrupting and waiting till they have finished ‘speaking’ before responding; One person plays a simple 4 beat rhythm, and when the have finished; their partner responds. Encourage students to change the mood of the conversation by varying the dynamics (loudness and softness) and tempo (fast and slow). Following the musical conversations, encourage students to talk with each other about what they thought was the intended meaning of the conversation.

In a sharing circle, the teacher could call a student’s name, send them a rhythm and that person responds. They then send a rhythm on to another person in the circle. Musical conversations could also be call and response, where the teacher plays the first part of a sentence and individual students respond with the sentence ending, keeping rhythm sentences to a set time signature or beat count.

Rhythmic words

Use a selection of words from favourite class texts to create rhythms based on their syllables. This is a great activity for familiarising students with challenging vocabulary in informative texts. For example, from the text, Weeden & Drane (2023). Phonobet. Have a syllable hunt in the text and say, sing, play the syllables in target vocabulary… 1 syllable words: more, sound, like; 2 syllable words: zom-bies, mon-keys, grump-y; 3 syllable words: din-o-saur, al-pha-bet, con-son-ants. Kazoos are simple, inexpensive instruments which are lots of fun for syllabification activities. You need to explicitly teach students how to produce a humming or buzzing sound using a kazoo. This quick instructional video may help you to remember. https://youtu.be/TWsDuVDPBwQ

Alphabet dice

Roll two or more alphabet die/ dice. Using the phonemes on the die/ dice- compose a simple rhythm using different musical techniques. For example (body percussion, untuned percussion, tuned percussion). This activity could lead to phoneme blending activities, like the one below:

Using phonemes to sing and play simple rhythms

Drum/ instrument roll

Practise playing a drumroll/ instrument roll as a group. The teacher aims to change the speed and dynamics of the roll. When the teacher stops, so does the group. Train students to end exactly on the beat that the teacher does. This activity is a very useful reset when playing rhythms is becoming a bit too exuberant in class!

Rhythm jamming

This is clearly an extension activity. Students in the circle play their instrument to an agreed upon beat e.g. taa taa taa taa. The teacher plays a simple rhythm to the beat (pulse) laid down by the class e.g. taa taa ti-ti taa. The student next to the teacher listens to them, then plays a complementary rhythm with them e.g. ti-ti-ti-ti taa-aa. A third student joins into the rhythm jam e.g. taa-aa taa-aa. When the fourth student begins playing, the first player drops out, and begins keeping the beat with body percussion. The rhythm jam moves around the circle, with only three students playing at a time.

Follow the leader

This activity focuses on improving students’ auditory discrimination and listening skills. The teacher plays or sings a simple 4 beat rhythm and students play each rhythm back to them. The teacher plays increasingly complex rhythm patterns as students become more proficient at following the leader. An extension activity would be having the students close their eyes and relying on their auditory skills only to follow the leader/ play back the rhythm.