Do you feel overwhelmed by gathering rhythm or composition assessments? Beat strips to the rescue! Simply cut the rhythm squares, each corresponding to a character from Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker”, and place them onto the beat strips provided. Laminate them and/or print to cardstock to use them in centers or print on letter paper and have students cut and paste their rhythms onto the provided worksheet. Then, have students clap or play their compositions using unpitched percussion – or, to add another level of challenge, get students improvising on pitched percussion using the patterns they composed.

This set is great for young beginners and includes quarter note (ta) and paired eighth notes (ti-ti). (No rhythm syllables are mentioned in the product itself, so these can work with any naming system!)