The Table Is a Drum

Sitting around their table, children play it like a drum with flat palms, fists and fingertips, then move the same rhythm into their feet and steps around the table. It goes from rhythm in the hands to rhythm with the whole body.

How to play

1. Seated at the table, discover the drum sounds: flat palms (loud), fingertips (rain) and soft knuckles (knock, knock) (2 min).
2. The teacher plays a short rhythm on the table and everyone echoes it: “Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom” (2 min).
3. Loud and soft, fast and slow: play along with the teacher's hands, which rise (loud) or lower (soft) (2 min).
4. The rhythm moves to the feet: echo it with your feet under the table, then with hands and feet together (2 min).
5. Stand up and walk around the table to the beat a classmate plays on the drum; when it stops, you stop (2 min).
6. End with rain that fades away: tap with fingertips softer and softer until silence (2 min).

Rules

• Play the drum with open hands, never hard enough to hurt.
• Listen first, then repeat.
• When the drum goes quiet, we go quiet and freeze.

Variations

Adaptations

• Hearing impairment: rest hands on the table to feel the vibration and watch the teacher's hands.
• Sound sensitivity: play on a cloth or with soft hands, and the child can wear headphones if needed.
• Limited mobility: do the foot part with hands on knees and the walk around the table in their own chair.

Learning goals

• Repeat simple rhythms with hands and feet.
• Tell loud from soft and fast from slow.
• Coordinate rhythm with traveling.

Teacher tip

Clear off anything on the tables that might bounce. The usual mistake is banging: from the start, say the drum “gets grumpy” if you hit it too hard.

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