Nancy Stewart

Rhythm sticks are great for building listening skills, fine motor skills, and definitely self control! My favorites are the shorter natural finish sticks made by Remo. Though more expensive than the longer painted ones, they are well worth the price and you will only need to buy them once. Whichever rhythm sticks you have, make sure one of each pair is smooth, and one has ridges for scraping. Simply follow the directions in the lyrics. You can play along with the recorded version, or sing acapella, allowing you to slow down some lines when necessary for younger children. After you do this very structured song, it's fun to do the more playful Peel the Potato , letting children choose ingredients for the stew. They just love it and will keep the song going for quite a long time- adding sillier and sillier things to the stew! NOTE: Before you use rhythm sticks with children for the first time, talk about keeping their sticks in their own space, and keeping the movements small, being careful not to accidentally whack the child next to them! Some children have a lot of trouble with this, but talking about it ahead of time is great prevention! Rhythm Stick Song tap (4 times) times) (tap sticks alternately on ground) (tap sticks together for 'talk')

Lyrics