A cut-and-paste exercise for developing fingers and developing minds

Here is a simple worksheet especially designed for younger students. Arrange rhythmic notes from large to small and paste them under animals that are also arranged by size.

Instructions: 1. Separate the animals and squares from the notes beneath by cutting a large horizontal line.

2. Give your child or student a pair of scissors and ask them to cut out each of the squares.

3. Talk to them about rhythm, name the notes, and tell them the rhythmic values of each. For example, "This one is a whole note, and it usually gets four counts". No matter what meter you are in, the whole note is always worth more than a half-note, and you can talk about that.

4. Once they understand that some notes are worth more than others, have them paste/glue the squares underneath the animal that best represents it in a sequential order. (From left to right, they should be, whole note, dotted-half note, half-note, quarter note, and eighth note)

I have seen some parents laminate this activity so that they can do it again and again. You could put little velcro squares on the notes and the gameboard for a quiet-time activity.