Rhythm sticks are easy to hold and manipulate – perfect for young children!

Here are some ideas for using rhythm sticks in your classroom:

1 ) Have everyone sit in a circle on the floor.  Pass one pair of rhythm sticks around and ask each child to tap the sticks together in rhythm with his or her first name.  This activity makes a great icebreaker!

Example:

 /        /       /   /    /

Na- than  Car -o- lyn

2) Ask everyone to sit in a circle on the floor.  Give each child a pair of rhythm sticks.  Play a rhythm pattern on the sticks and ask them to echo the pattern with their own sticks.  Let each child have a turn at being the leader.

3) Variation on above:  Play a pattern and keep it going.  Ask each child in turn to make up their own patterns and play along with you.  Go around the circle until all children are playing their sticks.

4) Set several different items on a table, e.g. a book, ruler, plastic tub.  Let everyone take turns tapping the sticks on each item.  How do they sound different?  Do any sound similar?

5) Bring several metal pans or pots of varying sizes.  Let the children tap each one.  Notice that the larger ones produce a lower sound, the smaller ones a higher sound.

6) Try imitating other sounds with the sticks.  Tap on a desk—it sounds like rain; on a window—a woodpecker.  Try other surfaces, like a shoe or the floor.  What do these sounds sound like?

7) Pair each child with a partner.  Have one child tap out a pattern on the sticks and the other child echo it.  Switch “leaders” and “echoes.”

8) Teach the class a simple song, like Bingo.  Tap the sticks on B-I-N-G-O; substitute the sticks for the actual letters.’’

9) Tap the stick loudly three times on the floor, saying “LOUD, LOUD, LOUD.”  Then tap softly and say “soft, soft, soft.”

10) Teach the class about different meters (number of beats) in music. Have them count each beat as they tap and repeat the following pattern several times:

Example:  Play waltz music and have the children count out the rhythm as they listen. Johann Strauss is perfect for this exercise!

                /             /         /

            One          Two    Three

11) Have the class say the following while they tap: “TAP, TAP, TAP, WAIT.”  Tap only on the word “TAP.”  Rest on the word “WAIT”.  Change the pattern:  “TAP, WAIT, TAP, WAIT.” After they have learned the patterns, leave out the words and use only the sticks.

This post was contributed by Jackie Silberg, who has an M.S. in child development.  An early childhood advocate and popular keynote speaker, Jackie has given workshops, keynote addresses, seminars, and family concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, and in Singapore.  Currently, Jackie lectures at Johnson County Community College and owns Miss Jackie Music Company. She is one of the trusted experts on the Barnes and Noble Kid's Expert Circle.  Books by Jackie Silberg: Games to Play with Babies; Games to Play with Toddlers; Games to Play with Two Year Olds, Revised; Reading Games for Young Children; Brain Games for Babies; Brain Games for Toddlers & Twos

Laughter and music have the power to heal and the power to teach. They have extensive benefits in the classroom – increased retention, decreased anxiety and enhanced interest in the subject matter. Dr. Avner Ziv of Tel Aviv University has done some intriguing research showing how humor can enhance learning and creativity. “I am convinced that this is how it works: humor serves to capture students’ attention (“tickling” their curiosity about the subject at hand)... to free up their attention (by allowing for the release of stressors which might otherwise have preoccupied them)... and to hold their attention (thus providing motivation and momentum for learning). Once you capture, free, and hold attention, then retention has a better chance of happening.” 

Humor and Music in Early Childhood

Humor is a vital part of a teacher’s and a child’s educational experience because a sense of humor is learned. Like kindness or persistence, children learn by example. They model themselves after their parents, teachers, and others close to them. For this reason, humorous parents often have humorous children. There’s no question that adults can encourage a child’s sense of humor from the earliest days of infancy.

A sense of humor begins with infants mimicking their caregivers and parents. As cognitive and verbal abilities grow, so do laughter and humor. You can nourish a baby’s sense of humor by encouraging him to play games that involve pretending. For example, there’s the old favorite, peek-a-boo, in which you and baby momentarily pretend you’re not there, only to quickly reappear.

Toddlers, on the other hand, will find humor in wearing the hat, shirt, or slippers of an adult in their lives. And preschoolers tend to enjoy the incongruous. Four- and five-year-olds find a great deal of amusement in stringing together rhyming words or nonsense syllables.
 
Laughter is good for you. When you laugh the brain releases chemicals called endorphins, which make you feel good.

Laughter and Music

• Know no cultural boundaries. Two people do not have to speak the same language to laugh together.
• Increase learning and retention. It stimulate both sides of the brain and you get the message quicker and remember it longer.
• Help break the ice when you’re in a group. It is the one form of communication to which everyone can relate.
• Stimulate the brain, the nervous system, the respiratory system, the hormonal system, and the muscular system.

• Reduce pain. The endorphins released during laughter have been proven to help reduce pain and enhance treatments of many illnesses and diseases.

• Is a powerful force. Breath released during a hearty laugh has been clocked at speeds as fast as 170 miles per hour.

Do Laugher and Music Increase Development?

In addition to the physical benefits of humor and music, they can be used to enhance  development. As you plan your daily curriculum and activities use them in as many ways that you can. 

• Body Awareness – Through finger plays, movement games, poems, chants, songs, and other activities that identify body parts, children become aware of all the wonderful things their bodies can do.
• Cognitive Thinking – As children learn to use factual knowledge to support their thoughts and beliefs, they learn to ask questions, develop self-reliance, and develop confidence in themselves.
• Creativity/Imagination – When children have a creative imagination it stimulates them to learn more and in new ways. It encourages playfulness and supports problem-solving skills.
• Coordination – Eye-hand coordination and gross and fine motor skills teach children how to use their bodies successfully.
• Letter Recognition – As children laugh and sing, they can learn the alphabet and phonics.
• Listening – Children develop listening skills as they listen for humorous words or respond to a certain part of a story or song.
• Phonemic Awareness – Learning the sounds of the 44 different phonemes is critical to becoming a successful reader. Playing with words, vowels and consonants and learning to associate letters with certain sounds are important pre-reading activities.
• Language Development – Laughter and music also develops rhyming, rhythm, sequencing, vocabulary, and socialization skills. 

Activities that Encourage Laughter, Fun, and Developmental Concepts

I SAW A BEAR

Objective: To teach sequencing, language, and listening skills.
 
1. Say the words with the children: 

Teacher: The other day 

Child: The other day

Teacher: I saw a bear 

Child: I saw a bear 

Teacher: A great big bear 

Child: A great big bear 

Teacher: A way up there. 

Child: A way up there.

Together: The other day I saw a bear.  A great big bear a way up there. 

Continue with the children repeating each line and then saying the line together: 

He looked at me 
I looked at him
He sized up me
I sized up him
 
Together....
And so I ran
Away from there
And right behind me
Was that bear 
 
Together....
In front of me 
There was a tree
A great big tree
Oh, golly gee;
  
The nearest branch
Was ten feet up
I had to jump
And trust my luck;
  
And so I jumped
Into the air
And missed that branch
Away up there;
  
Now don’t you fret
And don’t you frown
I caught that branch
On the way back down;
 
That’s all there is
There is no more 
Unless I meet
That bear once more
 

2. Act out this poem with each child taking turns being the bear.
3. As you act out the poem, keep asking the children, “What comes next?”
4. This activity is so much fun that your children will want to do it again and again. 

FLICKER, FLICKER, FLACK 

Objective: To teach language development, alliteration, and fun with words.
 
1. As you say this fun poem over and over, move your hands back and forth like windshield wipers.
2. Each time you say the poem, go a little faster. See how fast you can go. 

Flicker, flicker, flack
Flicker, flicker, flack
The wipers on the car go
Flicker, flicker, flack
The rain goes flick
The rain goes flack
The wipers on the car go
Flicker, flicker flack. 

3. Continue the activity by making up your own rhymes, starting the words with a different consonant. For example: 

 
Clicker, clicker, clack, the train in the meadow goes clicker, clicker, clack.
Ticker, ticker, tack, the clock on the wall goes ticker, ticker, tack. 

TONGUE TWISTERS 

Objective: To develop language fluency, alliteration skills, letter recognition, and fun with words.
 
1. Encourage your children to say the following tongue twisters three times very fast: 

A skunk sat on a stump.
The skunk thunk the stump stunk,
And the stump thunk the skunk stunk. 
 
A flea and a fly flew up in a flue.
Said the flea, “Let us fly!”
Said the fly, “Let us flee!”
So they flew through a flaw in the flue. 

2. For additional fun, try to say these fun tongue twisters: Preshrunk shirts, Aluminum linoleum, Lemon liniment, Truly rural, Mixed biscuits, Soldier’s shoulders, Peggy Babcock, Greek grapes. 

Suggested Reading

• Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient: Reflections on Healing and Regeneration by Norman Cousins
• Serious Laughter: Live a Happier, Healthier, More Productive Life by Yvonne Francine Conte
• Laughter the Best Medicine: The Healing Powers of Happiness, Humor and Joy! by Robert Holden
• Tail Feathers from Mother Goose by I Opie
• My Tangs Tungled by John Brewton, G. Blackburn
• Beastly Riddles by Joseph Low
• Wim Wham Book by D. Emrich
• The Healing Power of Humor by Allen Klein
• The Learning Power of Laughter by Jackie Silberg
• The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays and Chants by Jackie Silberg

This post was contributed by Jackie Silberg, who has an M.S. in child development.  An early childhood advocate and popular keynote speaker, Jackie has given workshops, keynote addresses, seminars, and family concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, and in Singapore.  Currently, Jackie lectures at Johnson County Community College and owns Miss Jackie Music Company. She is one of the trusted experts on the Barnes and Noble Kid's Expert Circle.  Books by Jackie Silberg: Games to Play with Babies; Games to Play with Toddlers; Games to Play with Two Year Olds, Revised; Reading Games for Young Children; Brain Games for Babies; Brain Games for Toddlers & Twos

Rhythm experiences are vital. When we begin to understand the rhythm of the world, we can begin to understand ourselves.

Rhythm is something that happens over and over again in the same way. It is a pattern that repeats itself.  A room can have a rhythm in the way that the windows or ceiling follow a pattern. Clothes can have a rhythm in the way that stripes or dots follow a pattern. Seasons have a rhythm: winter, spring, summer, fall. Night and day happen over and over again.

There is rhythm and order in everything beautiful.

Children begin feeling and sensing rhythmic patterns at a very early age.  Over the years, hundreds of parents have told me, “My baby adores music. Whenever I sing to him or play music, he jumps up and down in his crib, coos, dances, smile, and giggles.”  And it’s true! Children do respond to music. For them, it’s as natural as walking and talking.

From infancy the sounds of rattles and musical toys intrigue babies as they develop.  Toddlers begin composing their own rhythmic patterns by banging on pots and other surfaces. A tune on the radio or television can spontaneously inspire a toddler to respond by swaying and bouncing his little body. 

Here is a rhythm action poem that  teaches self concept.

MY BODY HAS RHYTHM

by Jackie Silberg

I use my brain to think, think, think

(touch your head with your index finger)

I use my nose to smell

(touch your nose)

I use my eyes to blink, blink, blink

(blink your eyes)

And I use my mouth to YELL

(yell)

I use my mouth to giggle, giggle, giggle

(touch your mouth)

I use my hips to bump

(sway your hips)

I use my toes to wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

(wiggle your toes)

And I use my legs to jump

(Jump)

Here are some additional ideas for playing this rhythm game.

1. Clap the rhythm of the poem. Notice that the rhythm is the same every other line.
2. Clap two lines and speak two lines
3. Clap two lines and stamp two lines

Here is a rhythm game that develops listening skills for fast and slow rhythms.

FAST AND SLOW

1. Hold your arms straight out from your body. Make little circles with your hands...very slowly at first, then a little faster, faster still, then very fast.

2. Repeat this and ask the children to copy you.
3. Now, hold out your fingers. Bend them and straighten them. First very slowly, then a little faster, etc.
4. Repeat this and ask the children to copy.
5. Keep moving slowly and fast with different parts of your body. Your head, your shoulders, your feet (sitting or lying on your back) , etc.
6. Always repeat and have the children copy you.
7. Ask the children to move across the room in different ways. Discuss if this is a fast way or slow way.
8. You can walk, run, hop, skip, and jump. You can cross one way fast and return slowly.

This game teaches communication through sound and rhythm.

TALKING RHYTHM

1. What are some ways that you can make sounds with your body? (Hands: clap, slap, beat chest.  Feet: stamp, jump.  Fingers: snap.  Voice: talk, sing, hum, moan, bark, howl.  Mouth: blow, sigh, click, whistle.)

2. Choose a familiar rhyme or song to say. “Twinkle, twinkle, Little Star” is a good one to try.

3. Clap the first line of twinkle as you say the words ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”
4. Help the children clap and say the next line “How I wonder where you are."
5. After you have done this a few times, try clapping and just moving your mouth to the words as you clap.
6. Continue on as long as the children are enjoying the game. Try using different parts of your body.
7. Soon you will be able to use different parts of your body to express the song.
8. Teaching young children to communicate with their bodies is a good way to help them get in touch with themselves.

Walking and talking require a sense of rhythm. The more rhythmic experiences that young children have, the easier it will be for them to move forward in their lives.

Related Products

• Mozart Cubes
• Eddie the Elephant
• Jingle Bell Set

It always amazes me that whenever I present a workshop or keynote on early brain development, infants, toddlers, music, literacy, and other early childhood subjects, I always get asked “Can you tell us about the Mozart Effect?

This blog post will explain what it is and how you can utilize some of the ideas in your classroom.

What is the Mozart effect?

In 1988, neurobiologist Gordon Shaw conducted research that linked music and intelligence.

In 1993, Dr. Fran Rauscher (University of Wisconsin) claimed that, after listening to Mozart's sonata for two pianos (K448) for 10 minutes, normal subjects showed significantly better spatial reasoning skills than after periods of listening to relaxation instructions designed to lower blood pressure or silence. This research was conducted on college students.

Later studies showed exposure to classical music improved brain development specifically in the corpus callosum, or nerve fibers connecting the brain hemispheres.

Rauscher and Shaw collaborated with Katherine Ky and their body of work is known as the Theory of the Mozart Effect.

The “Mozart Effect “caught popular imagination and led to the idea that listening to Mozart made people smarter. This idea led to the practice of exposing babies and young children to classical music (Mozart, in particular) to give them a head start in life.

Don Campbell wrote a book, The Mozart Effect for Children, which is about how children’s brains can be stimulated and grow with good music. The research shows that Mozart’s clear and exact music helps a child focus. This work shows that what goes in the ear builds the brain, communication, emotions and movement all at the same time.

While attending a brain seminar, I asked the question “Why Mozart? Why not other composers of a similar style?” The answer that I was given was that infants are born with patterns in their brain and when a young child hears Mozart’s music, the patterns are familiar and he makes a connection.

According to a study published in Health Day, the calming effect of Mozart’s music “can decrease heart rate, lower stress hormone levels, and ease distressed behavior in premature infants.” Even though this study was performed on infants, it is reasonable to expect similar results in preschool children

How can an Early Childhood Caregiver use the ideas derived from the “Mozart Effect?”

• Play music by Mozart for your children.
• Play other classical music for your children.
• Have lots of rhythm instruments available for your children
• Do art and movement activities while listening to instrumental music.

What can we learn from the “Mozart Effect?”

To improve spatial intelligence and encourage brain growth, listening to music and playing instruments will increase language development, strengthen motor skills and coordination, improve stress reduction, encourage relaxation, and stimulate right-brain activity.

For more information, a very good website is: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/music.html

This post was contributed by Jackie Silberg, who has an M.S. in child development.  An early childhood advocate and popular keynote speaker, Jackie has given workshops, keynote addresses, seminars, and family concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, and in Singapore.  Currently, Jackie lectures at Johnson County Community College and owns Miss Jackie Music Company. She is one of the trusted experts on the Barnes and Noble Kid's Expert Circle. 

Books by Jackie Silberg: Games to Play with Babies; Games to Play with Toddlers; Games to Play with Two Year Olds, Revised; Reading Games for Young Children; Brain Games for Babies; Brain Games for Toddlers & Twos

Jean Piaget (1896-1980), the noted Swiss psychologist believed that the early years are the optimum period for intellectual development. During the "pre-operational" learning stage (ages 2-7), children begin to think and react through symbols (language, drama, drawings and dreams). This stage is perfect for starting the process of learning music.

Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner (b. 1943) sets forth a theory that some children seem to "think musically" at a very young age.  Young children have the ability to understand music intuitively. They seem to have a genetic predisposition to hear, remember, and produce musical patterns regardless of whether of not they are products of musical environments.

Most importantly, music experiences at a young age increase the quality of a child's life. Music can calm and stimulate. It provides pleasure, joy and an outlet for creative expression. Music develops listening and auditory discrimination skills, develops motor skills (both large and small muscles), provides social interaction, and give joy to all.

Why Music Belongs in the Early Childhood Classroom

• Encourages taking turns. Partner songs and playing instruments teach sharing and respect for others.
• Builds self confidence. Singing songs and doing actions give children a feeling of power and control. These feelings of self esteem transfer to other aspects of life.
• Builds friendships. Group interaction is a positive way to develop relationships.
• Develops coordination. Actions with songs and movement are important for large and small muscle growth.
• Develops rhythm. Rhythm is necessary for understanding ourselves and the world.
• Inspires imagination. Music encourages children to use their imagination.
• Develops concentration and ability to focus. Memorizing words, listening for certain sounds are all part of this experience.

Sing, dance, and enjoy music with your little ones.  It will benefit you and the kids -- plus, it will bring joy to everyone!

This post was contributed by Jackie Silberg, who has an M.S. in child development.  An early childhood advocate and popular keynote speaker, Jackie has given workshops, keynote addresses, seminars, and family concerts throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, and in Singapore.  Listen to Ones, Twos, and Threes with Jackie Silberg on the BAM! Street Radio Network. Books by Jackie Silberg: Games to Play with Babies; Games to Play with Toddlers; Games to Play with Two Year Olds, Revised; Reading Games for Young Children; Brain Games for Babies; Brain Games for Toddlers & Twos