Submitted by Pamela Rezach, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Idea posted November 1, 2002
I came up with a game idea, used it, and it worked! This is a nice game because it will give you another reason to use the rainstick that probably sits in your instrument closet most of the time. :)
The children stand in a circle. One student walks around to the beat in the middle of the circle. As he walks (and as the students sing the song), he moves the rainstick back and forth to the beat of the song. When we get to the lyrics: "Little Johnny wants to play," the child in the center stands in front of someone in the circle. That person then sings: "I want to play" - using "sol mi la sol mi." That person then does a four-beat pattern - anything s/he desires as long as it is non-locomotor. Then the rest of the students copy his/her four-beat game. After that (the beat never stopping), the student who made up the four-beat game gets the rainstick and goes to the middle of the circle. The process begins again until you want to stop the game.
The students loved this (from K to 5th grade).