Beginning Rhythm Ideas

Learning Objective – Beginning rhythm ideas
Rhythm experiences for young children are vital for their development. It puts them in sync with the world.

Play some recordings for your children that use drums.

If you can bring a drummer to your room or take the children somewhere to see a drum set, that would be wonderful.

As you listen to the music, pretend you are playing air drums.

Here are some ways to make drumbeats to the music.
Hit your fists on different surfaces.

Use wooden spoons or rhythm sticks to play on different surfaces.

Shake your entire body to the rhythm of the music.

Some children will naturally feel the rhythm of the music. Others will need more time to develop a sense of rhythm.

Hit a steady beat with a drum or your hands and ask the children to hop on the beat, stamp on the beat and march on the beat.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Awareness of drums and their different sounds.

For developing the idea – Listen to instrumental music and identify the drums. If the drum beat is simple, clap your hands with the drums.

For moving forward – “How could we use drumbeats in the classroom? Could the teacher hit the drum to tell you it’s time to sit on the circle?’

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Learning Objective – Encourages musical learning
The newest brain research says: The earlier music is introduced, the more potential a child has for learning and enjoying it in the future.

If You're Happy and You Know ItSit on the floor with your child facing you.

Sing the song "If You're Happy and You Know It."
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
(take your child’s hands and clap them together two times.)
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
(repeat clapping)
If you're happy and you know it
Then your smile will surely show it
If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.
(repeat clapping)
Keep repeating the song and changing the action.
Move your child’s hands for clapping, waving, wiggling, snapping, etc.

Do the action first and then let your child do it.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Repeat the song and clap softly and loudly.
For developing the idea – Do other movements with the song. Hop, jump, tap your foot, turn in a circle are a few to try.

For moving forward – Play the game with a stuffed animal. Let your child move the animals hand, feet, or paws to the words of the song.


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The Complete Book of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays, and Chants (RHYMES)
Familiar Objects Language Cards (CARDSET) 
Match It Up! Animal Matching Game (MATCHUP)

Acting Out Sounds

Learning Objective – Acting out Sounds
Let the children act out sound words. Make up a sentence using a sound word.

Instead of saying the word, let the children make the sound and move accordingly. For example:

First there were small raindrops and there was loud ---------(thunder sounds)

I see a fire...here comes the ---------. (fire engine sounds)
The drummer was playing on the ------. (drum sounds)

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence - “Let’s make some like thunder sounds, some fire engine sounds and some drum sounds.

For developing the idea – What sounds do you make in the morning? (wash face, brush teeth, drink milk)

For moving forward - What are some of the sounds that you hear at your house?

Book Suggestion - Bow Wow! Meow! A First Book of Sounds (Little Golden Book)

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Learning Objective – Understanding Vocabulary
This rhyme helps toddlers understand and use vocabulary.

Say the following rhyme and point to each part of the body.

You are also saying words that begin with the same sound

I’ll touch my chin, my cheek, my chair
I’ll touch my head, my heels, my hair
I’ll touch my knees, my neck, my nose
Then I’ll bend and touch my toes.
Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence -“Let’s name all the words in the rhyme that start with “nnn sound..”

For developing the idea – Where is your neck? Where are your knees?

For moving forward - Let’s look in this book and find someone’s neck, knees and nose.

Watch This!

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.

FOR INFANTS
Learning Objective – Developing positive emotional stimulation.Think of all the different places that are good for watching.
When babies can watch things move, they are happy.
A front-loading washing machine or dryer is fun for babies to watch.

Windows that are close to trees are wonderful watching places, or sit outside with your baby for an amazing amount of stimulation.

Watch birds fly from one place to another.

Watch cars moving down the street.

Watch the branches of a tree blow in the wind.

Take time to sit with your infant and watch together. Having you next to him will give him the comfort and security that he needs to enjoy the wonders of the world.

 Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Talk about how nice it is to sit and watch things together. Use lots of loving conversation.

For developing the idea – Name specific things that you are watching. For example, a bird, a tree branch, or the sky.

For moving forward – Say the words that you have just named in a sing-song high pitched voice.

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Learning Objective – Recognizing Vocabulary 
The Pointing GameTell your baby that he is going to learn a poem about finding things in the room.

Show him how to point his index finger.

Ask questions like, “Do you know where the ceiling is?

Take his index finger, point it to the ceiling and say, “There is the ceiling.”

Do this with a few more objects like body parts, tables, and windows.

Now say the poem.

Point to the window
Point to the door

Point to the ceiling
Point to the floor
Point to a table

Point to a chair
Point to your nose
Point to your hair
Point to your head now
Point to your knee

Point to your elbow
Point to me!!

Depending on the age of your baby, say as many lines of the poem that you feel he can understand.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence – Repeat the vocabulary words many times until your little one recognizes them.

For developing the idea –Take the words individually and use them in many sentences. Repeat the poem several times.

For moving forward – Make up stories using the same words in the story.

Exploring Voice Sounds

Music for Learning

Learning Objectives – Exploring voice sounds
There are many sounds that you can make with your voice. I’ll make the sound first and then you copy me.

Tell the children what sound you are going to make.

Make the sound.

Ask the children to copy the sound.

Discuss where that sound is made.

Here is an example: whisper a few words and ask the children to copy you. Talk about whispering if someone is asleep.

Here are some other sounds to make:
Singing, whistling, hissing, coughing, crying, talking, breathing, sighing, humming , laughing and sneezing.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence - What sounds do you like to make with your voice?

For developing the idea: Developing: Can you make a sad sound, a funny sound, or a singing sound?

For moving forward:  Could you teach someone at your house to make sounds? Who would that be?


Learning Objective – Learning Color Vocabulary
Each child needs a piece of paper and the following crayons: yellow, red, black and blue.

Sing the following songs to the children in the order that they appear here.

Sing one song at a time and ask them what color did they hear in the song.

Ask them to find that color crayon and draw something on their paper using that crayon.

Continue on with the next song.

Here is the order of the songs:
"Yellow Bird"
"Red Red Robin"
":Miss Mary Mack"
Skip to My Lou"
"Jennie Jenkins"

If you don’t know the song, go to kiddidles.com and you can find the words and hear the music.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: The song "Skip to My Lou" has the names of two colors. What are they?

For developing the idea: Let’s sing some of these songs again.

For moving forward:  Let’s make up a song with color words in it.

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Toddler Wooden 2 Piece Puzzle (TODPUZ)
3-D Spindle Puzzles (ANIMATCH)
Busy Baby Telephone (PHONE)
Giant Plush Stacking Ring (TALLRING)

Again, Please!

FOR TODDLERS

Learning Objective – Developing Reading Skills
Again, Please!
When toddlers like a poem, a books or a song, they want to hear it again and again. Sometimes that is very boring to the caregiver.

Here are some ideas to make it more interesting and develop reading skills in the children.

Ask the children to tell the story in their own words.

Read the story and let your children fill in words. They probably have it memorized by now.

Select simple stories that the children can memorize and they will become favorites at this age.

Help the children act out the story.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: What story do you like to hear over and over again?

For developing the idea: Let’s look at the pictures and talk about the story.

For moving forward: Can you tell me the story?

FOR TODDLERS

Learning Objective – Language Skills

Important Accents
The current brain research says: that young children develop a clear bias for words with first-syllable accents .
With this information, you can help develop your child’s language abilities.

For example, the rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is a good rhyme for playing this game. Say the rhyme and put an accent on the first word of each line.

Baa Baa black sheep
Have you any wool
Yes sir, yes sir
Three bags full
Some other rhymes that work well with accenting the first word in each line are; London Bridge, Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Things to do to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Let’s say the poem Baa Baa Black Sheep and make some of the words louder than the others.

For developing the idea: Can you ask me a question and make the first word louder than the rest?”

For moving forward: Can you sing a song making some of the words louder than the others?

Where Is the Sound?

A young child's brain grows at a phenomenal rate in the early years of life opening windows of opportunity for learning that occurs only once in a lifetime.
These simple games will promote early brain development for Infants and toddlers.

FOR INFANTS

Learning Objective – Auditory Development

Where Is the Sound?

The newest brain research says that musical experiences enhance the future ability to reason abstractly, particularly in the spatial domains.

Auditory awareness is something that comes with age and experience.

Playing games to heighten your baby’s hearing awareness will help wire her brain.

Take a wind-up musical toy and put it out of your baby’s sight.

Wind it up and ask her “where’s the music?”

When she turns to the sound, praise her generously.

Repeat this game in different parts of the room.

 If your baby is crawling, you can hide the music under a pillow or elsewhere so that she can crawl to the music.

Ideas to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Repeat the game several times and praise your baby.

For developing the idea: Put the musical toy at different levels: on a table, on a chair, on the floor, etc.

For moving forward: Put the toy next to the baby and clap hands and sing "la la la" to the music. 

FOR INFANTS

Learning Objective – Practicing Language

Speak with your body

When babies learn new words, they like to repeat them over and over because they enjoy the sounds. Practicing speech patterns is a wonderful pre-reading experience.

Start with simple words like “moon.” Say it with your mouth several times,’

Say it in the evening so that you can point to the sky as you say it.

Say it with your hands  Clap your hands as you say the word.

Say it with your head. (move your head up and down to the word).

Say it with your feet - (stamp your feet to the word.)

Say it with your eyes -(blink your eyes to the word)

Play the same game with another word or words.

Ideas to take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: It's fun to say the words in different ways. Let's say the word and I will bounce you on my knee.

For developing the idea: Let's say a new word and clap our hands at the same time. Pick a name of a family member.

For moving forward: Tell me a word you would like to say with this game.

Color Songs!

These games will help to grow the brains of infants and toddlers. Whether it’s through singing, dancing, cuddling, rocking, talking, smelling, or tasting, you can encourage the pathways of their brains to make new connections.

Learning Objective - Developing motor skills

Color Songs

The children should be sitting in front of you in a circle.
Give each child a piece of drawing paper.
Have an array of crayons next to you so that all the children can see the colors.
Sing a song to your children that has a color word in the lyrics. Here are some suggestions.
"Skip to My Lou"
"Yellow Bird"
"Red Red Robin"
"Miss Mary Mack"
"Jennie Jenkins"

Ask them to listen for a color word.
Then, select a child to come and find that color crayon and draw a circle on his paper.

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: The song "Skip to My Lou" has the names of two colors. What are they?
(Little red wagon painted blue.)

For developing the idea: Let’s sing some of these songs again.

For moving forward: Let’s make up a song with a color word in it.

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Learning objective – Developing motor skills

From infancy, as babies develop, the sounds of rattles and musical toys intrigue them. 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 children enjoy.

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)

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

Ideas that take this activity to the next level:
For building confidence: Say the poem and do the actions with your child. Give her lots of praise.

For developing the idea: Clap the rhythm with your child as you say the words. She will soon become familiar with the rhythm changing every other line.

For moving forward: Give your child a stuffed animal and help her do the actions with the toy.

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Find & Fit a Shape (TODFIT)
Chunky Mix & Stack Farm (MIXFARM)
Edushape® Train Set (TRAINBL)