I always look forward to bring out the rhythm sticks! I’ll be highlight the flow of the song Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Rhythm Sticks lesson plan included here. There’s a simple pattern and a more challenging pattern that’s great for Senior Primary!
Head over here to see our 21 Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Singing Time Ideas! Lots of fun ways to teach and learn this song in Primary.
Rhythm Sticks Pattern for
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
Sing through Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (flip chart here) once, before introducing this activity. This is a great way to help transition from any other activities or to signal it’s time to start singing time!
Start with one of the simple rhythm stick patterns – either the Junior Primary pattern or any of the alternates, you will up the challenge afterwards!
Demonstrate the pattern by showing the children how to click up and down the rhythm stick and what a big arch tap looks like. Both are explained in the Senior Primary pattern below. Then, pass out the rhythm sticks and tell the kids they can practice until you get to 1 and start counting down from 10 while they gather their sticks and practice the patterns.
Sing through the song while following the rhythm sticks pattern. That was great, did you get it? Let’s try it one more time to see how well you mastered the pattern! Sing through the song again.
Are you ready for a challenge? Let’s try out this pattern next! Put the 1-page poster or full page rhythm sticks pattern cards up on the board. Look, there are some new patterns. What might this one look like? Point to one of the new patterns and see if the kids can figure out what they would do. Yes! Let’s try that together! Sing the line of the song that pattern matches and work on it together.
Now, sing through the song with all of the pattern! Call up each class one group at a time to lead the actions to add in additional repetition and singing fun.
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus
Rhythm Sticks Pattern
Over and Under
- Click one stick on top of the other, then switch position and click the other stick on top.
- 8 total clicks on each of these bold spots.
- “Tell me the / stories of / Je- / -sus / I / love to / he- / -ar“
Click Up and Down
- Hold one stick steady and click the other stick starting close to your holding hand and down to the end of the stick.
- 8 total clicks, 4 working the way down the stick and then start back up by the starting hand and work down to the end again.
- “Things I would / ask him to / te-ll / me / if / he were / he- / -re“
Tap Flat & Dab
- Tap the two rhythm sticks one on top of the other flat = on “Scenes by the”
- Hold both sticks out to the right in a dab = on “wayside”
- Tap the two rhythm sticks one on top of the other flat = on “tales of the”
- Hold both sticks out to the left in a dab = on “sea”
Big Arch Tap
- Form a big arch over head with 4 distinct taps
- “Sto- / -ries of / Je- / -sus“
Free Style and Freeze
- Free Style – kids pick their own taps or movements, as long as they are appropriate! (Those that sword fight have to hold them behind their back instead). “tell them to”
- Freeze – Stop mid-movement during your free style and hold your position on “me”
Junior Primary Pattern:
- Click Up and Down – Repeat this pattern for the first two lines
- Big Arch Taps – Repeat this pattern for the second two lines
Alternate Simple Rhythm Pattern:
- Fast taps for all the “odd” measures = 1, 3, 5..
- Slow rub for all the “even” measures = 2, 4, 6..
- Fast tap = “Tell me the stories of”
- Slow rub = “Jesus”
- Fast tap = “I love to”
- Slow Rub = “hear”
Rhythm Stick Pattern Cards
To make your rhythm stick patterns even easier to use (and come up with) for Singing Time, head over to our digital shop to purchase our Rhythm Stick Pattern Cards! Or, you can learn more information on using Rhythm Sticks in Singing Time in this helpful post!
Head over to this post next for more fun inspiration for using rhythm sticks in Singing Time with Gethsemane!
See the Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Rhythm Stick Pattern in Action
If you’re willing to look past the imperfections in the video (totally missed my dab cue!!!) and hold no judgement against me or my singing skills, then I’m willing to share this quickly made video of the pattern to help you visualize it a little better! You’ve been warned!! 🙂
If for any reason the video above isn’t loading for you, you can see it posted on YouTube here.
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Rhythm Stick Pattern Cards
You can find our printable rhythm stick pattern cards in this post! They are part of our series of printable manipulative cards and can really help you make your own fun patterns!
You’ll find this 1-page pattern chart and rhythm sticks pattern cards included in the INSTANT Primary Singing membership when Tell Me the Stories of Jesus is the featured song of the month! The extended printables are also available in the Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Singing Time Packet in my shop.
Next, head over to grab our printable Tell Me the Stories of Jesus Eraser pass game! Plus, an alternate for JR Primary.
What other fun actions could you use to increase the challenge of this Rhythm sticks pattern?
