The holidays have come and gone, and school is back into a routine. Well, with the exception of a weather related delay or cancellation for those of us in a snowy region. The first day back to school, most of my students were sluggish and had a case of the post-holiday blahs! To be honest, I feel a bit sluggish too. So how can I, as a teacher, energize my classes and myself?

I have found that playing games, especially in the winter months, are a great way to energize myself and my music classroom. I love technology and it definitely has it’s place, but sometimes it’s fun to play good old-fashioned circle games. Children love to play games, and with most circle games you need little or no equipment.

Who’s Got the Rhythm? 

This is a challenging memory and rhythm game for children in fourth grade and up.

Instructions:

1. Students sit in a circle.
2. Number each child in the circle.
3. Make sure everyone knows their number before starting the game.
4. Establish a 4-beat rhythm with everyone in the circle.
5. Beat One: Pat your legs with both hands!
6. Beat Two: Clap your hands.
7. Beat Three: Snap your right hand fingers.
8. Beat Four: Snap your left hand fingers.
9. Once everyone is comfortable with the rhythm, practice the next step of the game.
10. Start with child #1.
11. Establish the rhythm pattern extremely slow and have child #1 say their number when they snap their right hand fingers and #2 when they snap their left hand fingers.
12. Next child #2 will say their number when they snap their right hand and #3 when they snap their left hand fingers.
13. This pattern will continue through all the children until you’ve gotten back to child #1.

Practice this several times until everyone can go around the circle without stopping the rhythm. It will take some repetition, but is lots of fun once the children understand the concept of the game.

The advanced version of the game is to say your number when snapping your right hand fingers and any other child’s number in the circle when snapping your left hand fingers. The ultimate challenge is to pick up the speed of the rhythm without missing a beat. This game can also be used for adults.

Who Stole the Cookies From the Cookie Jar?

The difficulty of this memory and rhythm game can be changed depending on how old your kids are.

Instructions:

1. Children sit in a circle and and establish a rhythm pattern. Depending on the age of the children, it can be a simple pat, pat-clap or pat, clap, snap, clap performed by each individual child.
2. Before starting the rhythm pattern, one child is chosen to be “It”.
3. Once the rhythm pattern is established by the circle, everyone in the circle says in a sing-song rhythm, “Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?”.
4. The child who is “it” replies with one of the children’s names in the circle – “_________stole the cookie from the cookie jar”.
5. The child who was chosen replies, “Who me?”
6. All the children in the circle reply, “Yes you!”
7. The children replies “Couldn’t be”.
8. The children in the circle reply, “Then who?”
9. The accused child replies with another student’s name, “_____________stole the cookie from the cookie jar.”

The game continues until everyone has had a turn. Once the game is learned, the child who breaks the rhythm of the game without thinking of another name of a child who stole the cookie can be “out” of the game. Children love this game and it is very easy to play.

So, let’s play some games! Enjoy!

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson