Manipulatives in the elementary music classroom are one of the greatest tools we have. They are an engaging way to get students involved hands on without having to write. Writing notes is definitely a skill and necessity but sometimes you want to focus on a task that writing will make slower, especially if students are new to a rhythm.

Paper Rhythm Manipulatives

Sometimes called a beat bar, these consist of a strip of paper that represents one measure (or 2 if you are in 2/4) with notes that physically represent the time they take in the measure. So each quarter note would be the size of one square and a half note would be take the space of two.

These are a great, inexpensive way to create manipulatives for your whole class.

What’s so great about these manipulatives?

I love these for a variety of reasons. They are simple to open up, pull out what you need and let students use them quickly. They also keep students on track when they write a measure. Students have a physical representation of what that measure represents spatially as well as the notes they put in it so you don’t end up with composed measures that are in 5/4 or 5.5/4, etc.

While written practice is good too. It can be time consuming when you are wanting to focus on decoding. A few ways you can use them:

• Copy a pattern and read it.
• Decode the rhythm you hear. The teacher or another student claps a 4 beat rhythm and students write it out.
• Use a known song. Write one of the lines, or put some of the rhythm on the board and students have to write the entire rhythm.
• Compose a rhythm of your own. Combine with a friend’s rhythm to make a new composition. Make a class composition when everyone claps their rhythm down the line.
• Write a rhythm and play it on a rhythm instrument. Trade with a friend.

Tips

• Print enough bags for your largest class if not a few extras. If you can go up to 35 students in a room, make 40 bags. Then if one gets destroyed, covered in some bodily fluid, or is looking questionable, you have backup.
• Print each rhythm on a different colored paper. This way your students will be able to find what they need much faster instead of having to sort through all the scraps of paper.
• Even better. Cardstock. You won’t be using a ton of paper for this even if you have a class of 35.
• Laminate. Why do all this work if it’s going to be ripped/crinkled/eaten by the end of the week?
• If time is a trouble factor, print and prep only the rhythms you need and keep adding as you go. Kids can add new rhythms to their bags as you use them.

Making the Set

While this has stick notation and regular notation options, I print back to back so that I can have students use one or the other if needed. To make a class set of 40 this is what you would need to print:

• 1 beat notes have 5 sets of 4 to a page. (8 pages for 40 sets)
• 1.5 beat notes have 6 pairs to a page. (8 pages for 40 sets)
• 2 beat notes have 5 pairs to a page (8 pages for 40 sets)
• 3 beat notes have 6 to a page (8 pages for 40 sets)
• 4 beat notes have 5 to a page (8 pages for 40 sets)
• Single eighth notes/rests have 40 to a page (I like 2 in a set) (2 pages for 40 sets)
• Single sixteenth notes/rests have 80 to a page. I personally haven’t used this but wanted to include them in case.

This is what I put in each set:

• 4 quater notes
• 4 eight notes
• 4 rests
• 4 sixteenths
• 4 sixteenth eight pairs (of each kind)
• 4 dotted eighth sixteenth (of each kind)
• 4 eighth note triplets
• 2 dotted quarters and 2 single eighths
• 2 half notes
• 2 quater note triplets
• 2 syncopa
• While there are more options, I have not used these manipulatives with longer notes (dotted half and whole).

The reason I put everything in ONE bag is so that I don’t need different bags for different concepts. No matter where I am in the rhythm sequence, students can grab a bag and pull out the notes they need. I don’t have to have separate bags for 1st grade and 4th grade. Not only do I save paper, but I save set up time! Color coding makes it so students don’t have to sift through everything.

Number It!

Number each piece of paper, measure strip, and the bag. Yup. It’s much more time consuming to set up, BUT it saves a ton of class time. As students move around, get to close to someone else’s work or accidentally pick up a different piece of paper, numbering the set makes sure students can reassemble the bags easily when they are cleaning up.

Pro Tip

If you have a parent volunteer(s), this is a great project for them that can be split up into tasks.

• Cutting
• Numbering
• Laminating
• Cutting
• Putting into bags

When I first started teaching I actually did make some of these by hand for a school but you can snag these print and cut ones here.

I also have a set just for pre-reading Kindergarten/First grade students. Before we get to rhythm notation, we use icon notation to represent steady beat and rhythm. They can use these to decode, write their own patterns, and all the things older students do but with notation that works for them. I’ve included images for walk, tiptoe, and running depending on the language you use to introduce rhythm to students as well as a variety of images such as bees/hives, stars, dogs/bones, trains/tickets and more to keep it engaging for young learners. You can snag this set here.

I hope this gives you some ideas!