Learning Rhythm

To begin my teaching, I decided to introduce the students to the concept of rhythm, so we could later connect that to the syllables of words that fit into the rhythm. 

We started by learning the song "Bee Bee Bumblebee" by playing the singing game. While standing in a circle, students helped me sing the song as I spun around. At the end of the song, whichever students I was pointing at were "out." Their job was to sit down and tap the rhythm of the song on their laps as we continued the game. I pre-taught them the difference between beat and rhythm. I started by modeling the beat and talking about how it was steady. For rhythm, I told them to tap all of the notes in the song and modeled what that looked and sounded like. Because of this, students were able to tap most of the rhythm correctly during the game, although we stopped and practiced a few different times. 

The students were very engaged in this game and loved waiting to see who would "get out" and who would "win" at the very end. This lesson provided the foundation for the students to start understanding rhythm and using it for future lessons.