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Popsicle Rhythm Game

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Jill Hare

Jill is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and received her Masters from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before joining the team at Teaching, Jill was a teacher in Nashville, New York and Atlanta, where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2003. An excerpt from Jill’s teaching career was published in The Teachable Moment.

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This is an easy cooperative game to practice notating rhythm in an easy way.

Depending on the level of your students, it can be used from 1-3 grades.

Materials Needed: 100 or more large Popsicle sticks.

Prior Knowledge: Students must already be introduced to the following rhythms: quarter notes, eighth notes, and quarter rests.

Procedures: Depending on class size, create cooperative groups with no less than 3 students in each. Give each group of students about 15 Popsicle sticks. Count off 4 beats and then clap (or speak) a four beat rhythm. Do this 3 times. Students use the Popsicle sticks to notated the rhythm on the floor as a group. (Note heads are not a part of the notation.)

The quarter note = 1 Popsicle Stick The quarter rest= 3 Popsicle Sticks (best manipulated to look right) The eighth rest = a pair of eighth notes to represent the beams

This is so much easier for young students to practice their notation than with a pencil and paper!