Rhythm Frogs: Easy Center Game for Elementary Music

This year, I had a schedule change that put my fourth grade class in a one hour block, right at the beginning of the day. With the reality of unpredictable buses, I brainstormed self-starting activities students could independent complete for the first 10 minutes of class. Cue mindless scrolling my favorite shopping app. Rhythm frogs was the first activity I created for my students with my new found trinkets and toys. I saw the frogs on the screen* as I was scrolling and I knew exactly how to use them!

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Creating Rhythm Frogs

Creating Rhythm Frogs is pretty easy! After purchasing the hopping frogs*, I used a permanent marker to write the musical symbols they would be using all year on them. (You can adjust which frogs you use depending on the grade level.) I made sure each frog contained 1 beat of notation: quarter note, eighth notes, sixteenth notes, and a quarter rest. Because I purchased four sets, I have a number on the underside of each frog incase the sets get mixed together.

Playing

The rules are fairly straight forward. Each student draws four frogs and arranges them in a line. They clap the rhythm they created. They then get the opportunity (or two) to launch each of their frogs into the container in front of them. Any frog that lands in the container is replaced with a new frog from the draw pile. This keeps the rhythm patterns fresh! If you have two players, you can institute an “I clap, you check” rule before racing to launch the rhythm frogs.

I have a free PDF of the game rules for you!

So far, my students have been very good with staying on task with this activity! I hope your students enjoy Rhythm Frogs as much as mine have!

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