Photo of a xylophone and mallets

Have you ever considered using music centers in your music room?  I’ve used them for over 20 years and they are hands-down my favorite day in music (as well as my students’ favorite days!)  Music centers offer many benefits to instruction:

  • Centers are a wonderful opportunity for students to interact with content at their own pace.
  • They provide you opportunities to observe how students interact with content.
  • Music centers provide additional practice/rehearsal for essential learning.
  • It can be an opportunity to do one-on-one assessment or check-ins with students who may need additional help.
  • Students are given autonomy to explore what they enjoy, need or want to learn.

I’m sharing some of my favorite elementary rhythm music centers below!

Rhythm Kaboom

Rhythm Kaboom is game that I learned from Aimee Curtis Pfitzner on her blog, O For Tuna.  The concept is simple!  Take craft sticks and write a rhythm on one of the stick.  (I love these using colorful craft sticks!)  I use 15-20 different rhythms, but also write the word KABOOM on 5-6 sticks.

To play the game, put the sticks in a cup with the rhythms/words face down.  To play, have a group of 3-6 students play.  One student pulls out a craft stick.  They must read the rhythm on the stick to keep it.  The goal is to collect as many rhythms as you can.  If you pull out a stick with the word KABOOM on it, all of your sticks go back into the cup.  At the end of the game, the student with the most rhythms/sticks is the winner!

Student playing rhythm game with craft sticks.

Pirate Rhythms

This is a student FAVORITE!  I print a series of little pirate maps and with an invisible ink pen with a blacklight (I use these invisible ink pens in my classroom), I write rhythm patterns somewhere on the map.  But here’s the secret – laminate the map!  The invisible ink works with the lamination and the cards remain in perfect shape after many uses.  With those same pens with the blacklight, students have to find the rhythm on the map and read it to a friend.  They LOVE searching for the rhythms!  Once they are done, I have them write me a few rhythm patterns using invisible ink as well!

Student reading rhythm pattern using blacklight pen.

Spin-A-Rhythm

In addition to reading rhythms, I want students to have opportunities to practice writing rhythms as well.  Spin-A-Rhythm is a simple concept.  Students spin the spinner and whatever rhythm it lands on, they must read then write the rhythm.  I’m sharing my version of Spin-A-Rhythm as a FREEBIE with you here.  You will need to purchase the spinner piece for the game.

Heartbeat Rhythms

This last center was inspired by my good friend, Chrissy Hutzel from Hutzel House of Music.  She makes the Heartbeat Rhythm kits and sells them on Etsy.  My local Dollar Tree had the bags in stock and I had been collecting water bottle caps for another game, so I made my own sets.  What I love about this is the visual of 4-beats in a pattern.  Students create 4 rhythm patterns using different durations, then read and play those rhythms back using rhythm sticks.  It’s such a fun and simple way to get students creating music with notation!

Students tapping rhythms with rhythm sticks.

These are four simple and easy music centers to get your students thinking about rhythm.  Need more ideas for music centers?  Check out my FREEBIE on TeachersPayTeachers about using music centers in elementary music!