Teaching Steady Beat To Young Students

I tried something new that worked wonders! I retold the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. It went something like this: Papa Bear goes upstairs (Goldilocks comes tomorrow in this goofy version) and, seeing the bed empty, peeks to make sure no one is looking, then has a ball jumping on the bed. Since he's Papa Bear, he's big and slow. I took a blue rhythm stick and bounced the beat going from the left side of my body to the right. This forces the little ones to wait for the slow beat. I then bounced Papa Bear's beat under a measure of quarter- and eighth-note rhythms and related the movement of the beat to Papa's slow bouncing. Mama bear, of course, comes upstairs next and also sneaks, when no one is looking, to jump on her bed. She's not as big as Papa Bear, so her bouncing is steady like a clock but not as slow a clock as Papa Bear's bouncing (tick-tock/ bounce bounce - lots of sounds and role playing by me). Students echo Mama Bear's beat. I tell them not to pass me up; they're to wait for the bouncy beat. I use a yellow rhythm stick to represent Mama Bear. (Goofy but good golly they got it!) Baby Bear was the red rhythm stick. He does as Papa and Mama did and sneaks upstairs to bounce on the bed. He's so little, he can bounce fast! Students keep a fast tempo with me, which is when I introduce the "Red Word: Tempo" (Red stands for "red hot words to remember about music.") Later, when reading rhythms, I'd use the different colored sticks to indicate tempo changes. Each class, from kindergarten through fifth grade, stayed with me beautifully as we performed various rhythms! I'd just tap the beat underneath the passing notes by using the different colored sticks to indicate different tempos.