Rhythm is one of the most important aspects of music, and perhaps one of the most difficult to learn! However, our music resources are here to help! Our simple rhythm exercise uses cats and kittens to teach the concept of rhythm, and takes the pressure of teaching rhythm off of classroom teachers. Our method also allows students to develop their understanding of rhythm values in a fun and creative way! This resource is suitable for Junior and Senior Infants.
You will need:
- Flashcards with an image of a cat, as below
- Flashcards with an image of two kittens, as below
How it works:
- Show class photo of cat. Ask students ‘What is this photo of?’. Take guesses until someone guesses cat. Ask everyone to say the word cat aloud. Say the word cat and clap one beat. In this case, syllables will represent the beats. Cat is one syllable, so it is one beat.
- Teacher gets class to say ‘cat, cat, cat, cat’. Then, add in claps. Class claps as they say cat. The students should repeat this until they have grasped the concept.
- When class is comfortable with this, move onto flashcard with kittens. Ask students ‘What is this photo of?’. Take guesses until someone guesses kitten.Say the word kitten, emphasizing the two syllables. Get class to say kit-ten. Repeat a few times until class is comfortable. Then clap the two syllables as you say them. Get class to say and clap kitten. Repeat this until students have grasped the concept.
- Teacher to say the phrase ‘kit-ten cat’. Get class to say this phrase a couple of times. Teacher then says the phrase and claps out ‘kit-ten cat’ at the same time. Teacher does this a few times, then gets class to join in. Try this until class has grasped the concept.
- Explain to class that we want to make up our own rhythm.. The teacher constructs a bar of rhythm, using cats and kittens. See below for example. The example below would read as ‘cat kit-ten kit-ten cat’. The teacher says aloud and claps the rhythm constructed a couple of times. The class then says aloud and claps the rhythm. Next, the teacher constructs a new rhythm and gets the class to help. Picking one student at a time to add either a cat or kit-ten to the pattern, the class forms rhythm patterns together as a group. The class then says aloud and claps the rhythm patterns formed.
6. When class have grasped this, allow them to construct a bar of rhythm in groups. The class will say aloud and clap each groups rhythm.
Using cats and kittens, the class have learnt the concept of rhythm in a fun way!
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