In this episode, we play round two of the original rhythm tune Sweet Beats with Mr. Rob. Rhythm lessons help supplement our note learning so this is a great song to repeat to really improve your rhythm reading!

In Sweet Beets II, we …

-Play simple 4 note patterns in a call and response fashion using ‘Beet’ and ‘Cher-ry’
-Play simple 4 note patterns with quarter notes and eighth notes
-Tap and clap long with the choruses
-Use the iconic rhythm Cher-ry to represent the eighth note
-Use the Kodaly syllable Ti-Ti, to represent a eighth note
-Use the numeric counting method (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +) to play quarter notes and eighth notes

Sweet Beets II Follow Up Activities

In this lesson, we’ve got some more Sweet Beets!

Sweet Beets is a fruit and vegetable song that’s all about playing rhythm. It combines a simple and catchy chorus:

“If you want sweet beets, we’ve got some
If you want some sweet, beets, we’ve got ’em”

with very simple call-and-response style verses like
“Beet, beet, cherry, beet!" (call)
"Beet, beet, cherry, beet!" (response)

If You Don’t Have an Instrument…

If you don’t have an instrument, then today is your lucky day! You can play Sweet Beets with just about anything… claps, taps, spoons, Boomwhackers, drums, drumsticks, actual vegetables, toilet paper rolls, whatever.

Taking it Further

Sweet Beets is more than just a catchy song… it’s a recipe for rhythmic joy!!

Step 1: Pick a subject (i.e. cars, mermaids, or in the case of Sweet Beets, vegetables)

Step 2: Write two very similar lines to serve as a chorus and if you want, set them to the melody of Sweet Beets! Write them on a card.

i.e.

“If you like cool cars, let’s build some,

Yea if you like cool cars, we’ll drive ’em.”

Step 3: Use related words and the amount of syllables in the word to build a very rhythmic chorus.

i.e.

“Truck, truck, monster, truck,

Monster, monster, monster, truck.”

Pro Tip: Make flashcards (like the Sweet Beets cards or like Note Knacks or for a really good example, the Snow Day lesson) that have the word you want to use (Truck and Mon-ster) and write the syllables underneath the musical notes.

You can model it after this animal farm rhythm game (from a later chapter) below:

Using this recipe, you can get creative with all kinds of rhythm learning songs! Your kids will have fun making them up and you’ll probably end up with a couple hit originals for the baby book!

What's Next?
In the next video, we will continue our work with Low C and High C and put it all together. Make sure your learner is familiar with the first three lessons of Chapter 2 because we’re going down a C bell sock slide!