








|
Ages: 3-6
Benefits:
Building listening skills, keeping a steady rhythm, following directions,
passing left to right.
Props:
As many different rhythm instruments as you have children.
As anyone who has used rhythm
instruments with young children knows, it takes a little planning to keep
noise and chaos from erupting! The instructions that follow are based on my
experience using this song with children from 3-6 years old. This is a
wonderful use for that odd collection of instruments you may have sitting in
the corner! If you don’t have enough, make your own by going to my
homemade instrument page!
Before You Begin:
Have everyone sit cross-legged in a circle, and show each
child which is his or her right side. Tell the children they will be passing
their instruments to the right. Take the time to be sure everyone knows who is
on the right! You may also want to show and talk about each of the instruments
(what it is called, what it is made of, how to play it).
Sit in a circle with a box or basket of instruments. Give one child an
instrument and sing the song through once. Keep a steady beat with your hands
on your thighs as you sing. The child with an instrument can play, matching
your rhythm, and the other children can join you. Then instruct that child to
pass the instrument to the right, give another child an instrument, and have
all of the children sing along, keeping a steady beat on their thighs. At this
point you can give each child and instrument, and keep singing the song until
all of the instruments have gone around the circle. Younger children will do
better staying with a steady 4 beats. Older children will want to be creative
with rhythms, keeping within the 4 beat framework.
Make A Little Rhythm
Make a little rhythm all together,
Make a little rhythm,
now give it away
If you made a CD from the music file using the cool
instructions on this
website— Place the CD player near you so you can start and stop it. The song
has been recorded 5 times. So if you have more than 5 children, you can stop
and then restart the song to keep it going as long as you need to. The silence
between verses allows time for children to pass their instruments. The bass
signals the start of the next verse.
|









|