Singing and Clapping: Keeping the Rhythm
Primary 1 · Creative Arts
Singing and Clapping: Keeping the Rhythm
Lesson 6 of 8
10 min
Let's begin
Niyonzima comes home hungry. The plates from the morning are still on the mat.
He sits down to eat with the same hands he played football with.
Today you will sing about isuku, and then do one of the jobs in the song.
Isuku is the word for keeping yourself and your home clean.
It is your body, your clothes, your plate and your floor.
Say it out loud: isuku.
Sweep the floor. Wash the plates.
Put your things back where they belong. Wash your hands before you eat.
Worked example
Sing this line at walking speed:
Sweep, wash, put away, wash my hands before I eat.
Clap once on sweep, once on wash, once on away. Keep the same three places every time.
Careful! The things that make you sick are too small to see.
Hands can look clean and still carry them.
So you wash with water and soap before you eat, and again after the toilet.
A house is not cleaned by one person.
Boys sweep too. Small children can carry a plate.
Sweeping is not a punishment. It is how the people in a house look after each other.
Your shoes have a place. Your exercise book has a place.
Put each thing back the moment you finish with it.
Then nobody hunts for the broom in the morning, and the floor is easy to sweep.
Isuku: a Kinyarwanda song about keeping clean. Clap along with it.
Tip
Water and soap before you eat
Clean-looking hands are not the same as clean hands.
Sing the four jobs, then go and do one of them before bedtime.
Answer each one, then tap Show answer to check.
What does isuku mean?
Answer: keeping yourself and your home clean.
Your hands look clean. Do you still wash before eating?
Answer: yes. What makes you sick is too small to see.
Name three jobs from the song.
Answer: sweep the floor, wash the plates, put your things away.
Who should help to keep the house clean?
Answer: everybody who lives in it. Boys sweep too.
Sing the line with three claps, then do one job now.
Answer: claps on sweep, wash and away. Then go and sweep or wash a plate.
What you learned today
Quick check
