Looking for a great anytime of the year activity to get your upper grade level kids engaged? In Rhythm Star, students will see eight boxes stacked vertically. The box on the left is for their left hand, the box on the right is for their right hand. In each box will be a series of dots, either filled in, or blank (counted as a rest).

Each box represents one beat and each dot represents one sound.

Students will read the rhythm from the top to bottom (vertically) with both hands simultaneously performing the rhythms.

For this activity, Artie's stickstations come in handy, so have the students use a pad as their left hand percussion instrument and a tambourine as their right hand percussion instrument. You can situate these on the floor, table, or desk (completely adaptable!)

Read down the rhythms from top to bottom, and advance the slides once the class masters the rhythms with their left and right hand simultaneously! As the students progress through the game, there are 5 levels of difficulty:

Level 1: Quarter Notes

Level 2: Eighth Notes
Level 3: Quarter rests
Level 4: Poly-rhythms (this one is FUN!)
Level 5: Triplets

Play this with some music in the background, either an instrumental track 100-120bpm or some of their favorite pop music as they play along and master the rhythms only to continue to advance in the level.

The class is awarded 50 points each time an example is played correctly in unison. A fun and competitive way for younger kids to practice sight reading rhythms and gain independence in both hands!