Teaching rhythm in lower elementary can be difficult to keep interesting, as it’s one of those concepts that takes a lot of repetition for students to internalize. It can be tiring to keep coming up with new strategies or worksheets to work on the same skills.
Rhythm grids are fun rhythm worksheets that can be used in a ton of different ways:
- Use as a whole-class or small group game (which rhythm did I clap?)
- Use in rhythm centers
- Read existing rhythm grids, or make your own
- Add pitches or body percussion to each square to create a composition
- Use with standard notation, or alternative (dot) notation
Rhythm grids can be read frontwards, backwards, vertically and diagonally, so you have a ton of different rhythms on one worksheet. They can be copied individually for each student, laminated for use in centers, or projected for the whole class to view at once.
If you are creating your own rhythm grids, I recommend starting with only quarter notes & rests and pairs of eighth notes. Other note combinations get tricky to make sure they work correctly going in all directions.
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