June 2001 Song of the Month

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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.