Fun Rhythm and beat activities for kids
Making music fun through rhythm and beat activities is a simple way to help your child increase their music education. Having children from an early age start with different musical activities and music games can help given children increase social skills and help build self-confidence. Most musical games encourage children to participate in a group setting which fosters and encourages social skills. Children can increase their self-confidence by singing and playing musical instruments to communicate with others and express themselves.
Will playing run rhythm and beat activities with my kid help them become smarter? The answer is likely yes it will! Music helps with increasing literacy skills, memory, spatial reasoning, and verbal memory to name a couple! Overall, yes it will not only provide a fun and creative outlet for your child, but it can also help them with educational goals and learning overall.
Looking for fun and creative music activities for kids? Read more here – fun and creative kid music activities.
Beat VS Rhythm
These two terms can be mixed up quite easily, and I’ll be using both in this post. So let’s break down what each of them means.
Beat – A beat is a basic unit of time, think of it as similar to a heartbeat.
Rhythm – A regular series of sounds, a pattern of pulses, movement, or variation.
Let’s check out some fun games to help us learn about keeping a steady beat!
Keep the Beat
This is a fun activity to learn about how to keep the beat and is great, especially for younger kids. You can put on a metronome and set a beat. Have the child (or children) use different objects to show keeping the beat. For example, this could be tossing a bean bag, banging a paper towel tube, drumming on pots, jumping to the beat…etc. For a more challenging version of this game put on a song and have the child keep the beat, this can even be used by music teachers.
Musical Statues
This is a great activity that helps children learn about rhythm and beat! As a bonus, they’ll increase their spatial intelligence as well. Create a wide-open space without any objects, using a speaker to play a variety of different music from different genres. Ask the child, or children to dance to the music based on what they hear. Stop the music randomly and have the children freeze. Then choose a different song and have the child (children) dance now to match the new song.
Follow the Rhythm Leader
This is a great activity for a group of little ones, or for a family. Create a wide-open space without any objects and use a speaker to play music. Have the 1st leader (it can be you) get ready to lead. They will be in charge of creating dance movements and sounds that align with the rhythm of the song. Once ready play the song and everyone must follow the leader’s body movements and sound for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds, switch songs and leaders and continue. You can continue until everyone has had a chance to go or do multiple rounds!
Draw what you hear
This is a great activity for teaching rhythm patterns to kids in a fun music lesson! This can be for an independent child, or for a group of children engaging in beat and rhythm activities. Gather several blank pieces of paper, crayons, and a music player. Give the child (children) a piece of paper and a variety of crayons. Play a song through the music player and ask them to draw what they hear. Switching up the songs every couple of minutes you can rotate through as many songs as you would like providing new paper for each song for a new space for musical expression.
Create your own Drum & Rhythm
This is a great way to allow your child an outlet for creativity by creating their own drum, while also focusing on creating a steady beat using the drum. This drum can be incorporated into many different rhythm games and helps children learn about different beats.
Gather a drum base, such as empty coffee containers, cookie tins, chocolate boxes, and anything else around the house to give it a round base and drum-like look. You can get creative here with your child (children) and gather different supplies for decorating. This can include felt, construction paper, elastics, glitter, stickers, pom poms, ribbon, and markers. Use the decorations and materials to assemble a drum and decorate it as the child would like.
Once the drum is built you can teach them different patterns that they are to follow and can increase the difficulty as needed with them. You can also play a song and have them drum along to the beat or rhythm.
Have fun playing different rhythm and beat activities with your children!