Here’s a great game you can use with children which will help with their rhythmic skills while enjoying a great game of baseball. The game is suitable for kids from pre-K to Grade 6 as the rhythms can be as simple or complicated as the child’s level of playing.

Pick two teams. The first player goes to home base holding their drum. The teacher/umpire plays a rhythm. It may either be invented by yourself or taken from the Copy Cat Rhythm Game on this Rhythm Playground CD in the World Music and Rhythm Talk series. The child repeats the rhythm as heard. If they hit the rhythm correctly, they get to run to first base. The rest of the game is played like a regular baseball game. The kids love it!

I usually try, if necessary, to help the little ones get their rhythm right so the game ends up as a tie. In one game though, a few of the children on one of the teams were afraid to get up allowing the other team to win by a couple of points. This caused a big problem with one of the boys on the losing team. We’ll call him Billy. One of the kids said to me “Billy’s crying” to which I replied “Why, what’s up?”. “Because he lost the game” they said sadly. I then gave a bit of an explanation to the class about winning and losing, and as long as they had fun it was a good game. As I attempted to move on, the kids said “He’s not stopping”. I called Billy over to sit on my lap. He was indeed sobbing and could not stop. I explained about winning and losing in a different way by telling him a true story about my granddaughter Xara. She was having a race with her older brother and, sadly for her, lost the race. “And what do you think she did?”, I asked. She screamed at the top of her lungs, only taking in breath to let out another piercing scream. I then gave an example of her noise, trying not to hurt the kids’ ears. This lightened everyone up considerably including Billy who at least giggled a bit through his tears. “So how old do you think she was?”, I asked. Silence. “She was only 3 years old. How old are you Billy?” to which he replied proudly, “I’m four”. Case closed! Four-year-olds wouldn’t be caught dead doing something as childish as a 3-year-old. The teacher and I then staged a couple a races across the gym, one of which Billy won. We also explained that we could only play these fun games unless they understood that there was always a possibility that someone could lose, unless there is a tie of course.

Enjoy!

You may also listen to the audio version of the rules of rhythm baseball: Rhythm Baseball [Audio]

Teachers, if you are interested in World Music and Rhythm Talk, you will find details here.