Feel the Rhythm

Activity Overview

Dancing and making music help develop both the fine and gross motor muscles in the body, and also helps students develop a basic understanding of rhythm. Rhythmic movement helps promote spatial awareness, better coordination, balance, flexibility and agility. This activity also has an element of pattern recognition and pattern creation which helps students develop early math skills across many sensory symptoms.

What You Need

• Percussion instruments (try our Shaker Making activity!)

• Listen and Move by Greg & Steve

• Call and Response Rhythms

Steps

1. Introduce and walk through what you are going to be listening to and how you will be moving.

2. Begin Listen & Move and model the way the student could move through the song with your own body.

3. Repeat the song or return to the student’s favorite part of the song.

4. Once you have moved through Listen & Move, you can follow along with Call and Response Rhythms and see if your student can repeat the patterns that they are hearing and you are modeling.

Guiding Questions

• How does this sound make you want to move?

• Can you change how loud your sound is? Louder or quieter?

• Can you make the sounds that I make?

• What other sounds do you know that make you want to move a certain way?