200 | Top 5 Songs for Teaching Steady Beat In Elementary Music

In this milestone episode of That Music Podcast, Bryson celebrates 200 episodes by digging into one of the most essential building blocks of elementary music: steady beat. He shares his top five favorite songs and chants that make steady beat practice fun and meaningful, along with how he uses them in the classroom to get kids moving, feeling the beat, and engaged. Whether you’re new to teaching steady beat or looking for fresh ideas to deepen your students’ rhythmic foundation, Bryson’s got you covered, plus you can grab his free Steady Beat Survival Guide, packed with songs and activities to help you bring steady beat to life.

Episode Chapters:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:15 Apple Tree
• 3:50 Bee Bee Bumble Bee
• 4:49 Engine Engine Number 9
• 6:33 Cobbler Cobbler
• 7:46 Queen Queen Caroline
• 8:47 Takeaways

Links and Resources: 

• The Elementary Music Summit®
• Elementary Newbie Guide
• Disabilities Guide
• Steady Beat Survival Guide
• Join Elementary Music EDGE™

Have questions or want to share feedback? Reach out to us at hello@thatmusicteacher.com - we’d love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:15 Apple Tree
• 3:50 Bee Bee Bumble Bee
• 4:49 Engine Engine Number 9
• 6:33 Cobbler Cobbler
• 7:46 Queen Queen Caroline
• 8:47 Takeaways

Transcript

Bryson Tarbet: 0:00

Steady beat is quite literally the foundation of the vast majority of what we do in the elementary music classroom. So let's talk about how we can really make sure we're giving it the time it deserves. You are listening to that music podcast with Bryon Tart, the curriculum designer and educational consultant. Behind that music teacher in the elementary music summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve. Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode can be found@thatmusicteacher.com. Hello and welcome back to episode 200 of That Music podcast. I am so incredibly excited to be here 200 episodes later. Um, who would've thought we'd still be here talking about elementary music, all the ins outs, the, the good, the bad, and the ugly 200 episodes. Later today we're gonna be talking about something that is. Literally crucial to the musical and rhythmic development of our students, and that is steady beat. I have made it very clear in my previous conversations about this that I think steady beat is one of the most important things that we teach in our classroom, and I think that we oftentimes try to. Go way too quickly through it so we can get to the cool toss and tee tees of it all, when really we need to be spending a lot of time on that foundational steady beat, even if that means we delay some of our rhythmic elements a little bit more. Honestly, like, can I tell you a secret? Like the real tea is, I think that for my kindergartners, if all they left. The entire kindergarten year was with a strong understanding of steady beat and being able to access their head voice. I would count that as a win. Throw in, make in a circle, boom. We're doing amazing because I really think that those are the really foundational things that we really can't spend too much time doing, and the more we spend time on those different foundational skills, it's just gonna make all of our other trickier concepts later down the road. Even simpler. Today we're gonna be talking about my top five songs for Steady Beat, how I use them in the classroom, and why I think you should use them too. So let's dive in. Let's jump into number one, which is one of my actual favorite songs that I use for. All kinds of different things, which is apple tree, and it goes like this. Apple tree. Apple tree. Will your apples fall on me? I won't cry. I won't shout if your apples knock me out. I use this for TAs and tee tees. I use this for soah soul. Me. I use this for dough at the end. Uh, but I use it in kindergarten, starting with a steady beat. And I have this, um, we, we do the game where the students kind of make a circle. They're connecting hands and they're walking around the circle going underneath. Two students who kind of have their hands up in a little bit of a bridge. Those are the trees. Um, and the whole idea is that they're stomping the beat. They're marching the beat. Apple tree. Apple tree. And then when we get to the end of the song, if your apples knock me. Out the people in the tree, they take their hands, they go out and they catch somebody else. And now we have another person that's gonna become a tree and it becomes this whole thing. Um, I like that because one of the students love it. It's a great double, triple, quadruple quintuple duty song that you can use for all different types of things. Um, and my students really, really enjoy it and it's a great way to practice steady beat. It also pairs it very nicely with a. A little bonus song of I climbed up the apple tree, which is a chant that goes, I climbed up the apple tree. All the apples fell on me. Apple pudding, apple pie. Did you ever tell a lie? So while that isn't one of our five songs for City Beat. It's a little extra one in there for you. Up next is Bebe Bumblebee. Bebe Bumblebee is one of my favorite chants. I have a little folk man is bee puppet. I wish he was here with me today, but he's in storage, sadly. Um, and it's basically an elimination game, right? You're going around the circle, you're bopping him on the head gently. Um, and the students love it. Uh, and it goes like this. It goes bee. Be Bumblebee stung. A man upon his knee stung a pig upon his snout. I declare that you are out, and what I like about this one is I can also pair it with comparative, so loud and quiet so I could go. Be, be Bumble, be or I could do be be bumble, be stung man upon his knee right to go to high and low. You could do fast and slow that it's a great way that you can use that. Um, you can do that with a lot of chance, but I like using BB Bumblebee for that purpose. And it's a great opportunity to get the students keeping that steady beat because you, as the teacher, when you're going around the bee puppet, you're keeping a steady beat as you're going around the circle. Up next is the chance that I'm sure every single teacher in the schools that I've taught. Can tell you what it is because I use it so much in kindergarten. Um, and this is something that I learned from my code level one instructor, Julie Swank, um, of just how to get them in the door without absolutely turning into chaos. Um, and that is engine engine number nine. So I meet the students at the door, I tell them that I'm gonna be the conductor of the train. They're gonna be the train. They have to stay behind me and we are gonna make a head behind headline and we are going to go on an adventure around the music classroom. Um, so then I start keeping, you know, I'm keeping steady beat in my feet, not really necessarily saying that. I say, can you make your feet like mine? And then I take my hands and I'm kind of padding the steady beat on my side of my legs. Again, I'm not telling those them that I just said Do what I do. And we kind of snake around the classroom and eventually we end up in a circle and that's how we get into the room. But the chain itself goes like this. Engine engine number nine going down Chicago line. If the train should jump the track, do I get my money back? Yes. No, maybe. So this is a great one for doing fast and slow.'cause you can kind of like lean into the story and say, oh, our train is coming up to a big hill. It is. So, hi. Such a big hill and we are such a heavy train that it might take us a little bit of extra power to get up the hill and then we go. Engine, engine number nine, and then we get to the top of the hill, oh, we're gonna go down the hill and we might go a little bit speedy 'cause there's a lot of weight behind us. Engine engine number nine, going down, checkout, yada yada, right? So again, another opportunity to bring any of those, some com, those, some comparatives in there as well. Um, up next is a great one that I love using because it actually gives a very great tactile connection to the steady beat, which is cobbler cobbler. Um, so cobblers, I tell my students'cause they don't know what a cobbler is. Um, it's someone who fixes shoes, um, and the cobbler, they're gonna take maybe a hammer or something and they're going to keep his shoes. Um, so pretend this is my foot. Um, I'm going to keep. The steady beat on my foot. Again, I'm not using the word steady beat 'cause I'm in coated land. Um, if you do, that's totally fine too. Um, but I say, all right, we're gonna go cobbler cobbler, my shoe, get it done by half past two. Half past two is at the door, get it done by half past four. And what I love about this. That they're literally keeping the steady beat in their feet. Um, and if they're not able to, this is something that you could have them kind of sit in a circle and you're, you kind of help them feel that in their feet. Um, help them, let them have that physical connection to the beat. Um, I believe I originally learned this, um, song from Megan McDonald, one of my wonderful mentors, um, who was my elementary methods placement. Um. I guess cooperating teacher. Um, and she's amazing. And that's one of my favorite songs that I've learned from her. And last but not least, we have Queen, queen Caroline, which is just so much fun. Um, this is something that I like using because it has some words in there that the students don't necessarily know. Um, that can kind of create some moments of intrigue and connection. And, um, also it's just, it's a simple chance. All right, so it goes like this. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see the motions. Um, so you keep the beat typically on your, on your, your knee. So Queen, queen Kara line watched her hair in turpentine, turpentine made it shine. Queen, queen Kara line. It's great 'cause all emotions are actually you just keeping the steady beat somewhere. So keeping it on your. Queen, queen Caroline, you keep it on your knees, wash your hair in turpentine, keep it on your head. Um, turpentine made it shine. You're doing like the, I don't know, shine hands. Um, and then again, on your knees. Uh, it's a great way to connect it to the, um, physical connection to the beat. And again, this is one that you could do with highs and lows, louds versus quiets. Um, fast and slow. Those comparatives can really go in. So I hope that you can understand where I'm coming from when I'm talking about the fact that Steady Beat is so imperative. To student success. Um, again, if my kindergarters never got to TAs and tts, totally fine. As long as they had steady beat, I felt good enough that when we got into first grade, they'd have that understanding already really baked into their musical understanding. So to help make steady beat a little bit easier for you and a lot more fun for your students, I picked together a free resource called The Steady Beat Survival Guide. This includes 20 of my absolute favorite songs and chants for teaching Steady Beat, along with some practical tips and activities for the songs so you can download your. Free copy today by checking out the show notes or description where you're listening, or by heading over to that music teacher.com/steady beat. Again, grab your free copy of the Steady Beat Survival Guide by heading over to that music teacher.com/steady beat. With that being said, thank you for joining us for the 200th episode of that Music podcast and as always. We appreciate if you leave us a review wherever you're watching, leave us a five star review. If you feel so inclined, leave a comment. If you're watching on YouTube, don't forget to subscribe and you know, as people say, smash that like button. Um, and as always, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.