Do you have a birthday party coming up and are looking for a simple fun activity for children of all ages?The Cup Rhythm Game makes tapping out simple rhythms a great way to entertain and amuse party guests.Below is a simple version of this game I regularly use in music lessons. It allows time for creativity, memory, recognising patterns, coordination, socialising and much, much more. Check out composecreate.com for other ideas.
Seat the children in a circle and hand out a plastic drinking cup to each person. The cups need to make a sound when they are tapped, so a solid table surface is perfect, or a hard floor surface.Give the children a simple 4 count rhythm to follow such as 1."clap", 2."cup", 3."clap", 4."tap". Do the actions as follows: 1. Clap your hands together above the cup. 2. Tap the cup on the surface, 3. Clap again, 4. Tap your hand on the surface. This gives 4 distinct sounds.Say the actions aloud slowly as the children do them on the floor or table and gradually get faster as they become more skilled at clapping, tapping and "cupping". They will love the challenge of clapping tapping and cupping at the right time in the correct sequence. Encourage the children to make up their own rhythms. Cups can be passed to the person next to them at count 4 instead of the "Tap". This makes the game even more fun and soon cups go flying off the table as the game gets faster and faster.
