I’ve mentioned before that during grad school, I took an Early Childhood Music course.  One of the things we discussed was using the “sound before sight” philosophy – where the student is exposed to and experiences the concepts before being taught the name or the written notation.  I’ve been doing my best to use this philosophy of teaching music with my Piano Readiness students.

I was reminded of a raindrops & rainbows rhythm game one of my classmates created for an assignment during that course when I saw Anne Crosby’s recent post, which mentioned an activity involving finger-painting raindrops/rainbows.  It immediately occurred to me that the girls in my Piano Readiness Class would LOVE a game involving rainbows, so I put together this printable.  It’s nothing groundbreaking; I’m sure teachers before me have done similar things.  But hopefully this printable might be as useful and convenient for some of you as it was for me!

This game is intended for 1 or more young beginners students as a first introduction to the idea of rhythmic notation.  The raindrop flashcards represent the short note values and the rainbows represents the long note values.  (They can be half notes and quarter notes in your mind, or quarter notes and eighth notes; it really doesn’t matter.)  After the teacher claps/chants a rhythm, students clap/chant it back and then notate the rhythm on the floor using the raindrop and rainbow cards. Students may work alone, or in pairs/groups — just be sure to print enough cards for everyone!

My Piano Readiness students gasped in delight when they saw the colorful rainbow clip art on the cards!  Lamentably, most of my Printables are usually black and white (partly because I don’t own a color printer, but also because I don’t have any experience with creating my own vector clip art).  I’m proud to say that today, I DO have a colorful printable to share!  I found the clip art on a couple of public domain clip art sites, so they are legal to use here.

Below are the full instructions.  It’s all explained on a card included in the printable, too, for convenience.  To download this printable, visit the Printables > Games page and scroll down to the R’s to find the RAINY RHYTHM GAME.  Enjoy!

  Rainy Rhythm Game (318.2 KiB, 12,062 hits)

Rainy Rhythm Game: a music game for 1 or more players

Assembly:

• Print the Rainy Rhythm Game pdf.  The second page should be printed at least 3 or 4 times.
• Cut out each card on the dotted lines, leaving about a half-inch margin around each box.

Gameplay:

• Clap a short rhythm to the student(s) that involves only two different kinds of note values (choices are: either quarter and half notes; or, eighth notes and quarter notes).  Repeat if needed.
• Note: with young students, you may wish to chant something like, “Drip, drip, rain-bow,” as you clap.
• Ask the student(s) to clap it back.
• Ask the student(s) to notate the rhythm they heard using the raindrop and the rainbow cards.  Students may work alone or in pairs/groups, depending on how you wish to divide them up.  (Just be sure to print enough cards for everyone.)
• After a minute or two, check the student(s) work and correct if needed.  If desired, you can make it a competition by awarding points for correct answers or for the fastest correct answer.  Continue gameplay as long as desired.  If desired, you can ask students to take turns being the “clapper” and come up with rhythms for the group to notate.