Circle Game · United States · Grades 3–5
Full lyrics, how to play the improvisation circle game, and a complete teaching guide. One of the best songs in the repertoire for introducing low sol, syncopa, and ti-tam rhythm.
Complete lyrics
About this song
All Round the Brickyard is an American folk song and circle game that threads the needle between improvisation and structure in exactly the way upper elementary students need. The frame of the song — "all 'round the brickyard, remember me" — stays constant, while the middle section opens up for each student to contribute a word and a motion. Students feel ownership over the game precisely because their word is in it.
The game runs best when you do a little setup work first. Before starting, ask the class to brainstorm one-syllable action words and write them on the board — stomp, clap, spin, shake, hop, march, snap, jump. Students can pick a word from the board or invent their own. Add one key rule: no repeats. And establish upfront that if you can't say your word on the beat, you're out. That rule focuses every student's attention on the rhythm, not just the movement.
From a Kodály standpoint, this song is a rare find. Low sol — one of the last solfege syllables typically introduced — appears just once in the song, right after a low la. That specific interval (low la to low sol) is unmistakable and easy to isolate for teaching. The rhythm also delivers two of the trickiest concepts back-to-back: ti-tam (ti-taam) in the word "brickyard," and syncopa in the phrase "remember me." Both occur repeatedly and naturally, making the song an efficient vehicle for either concept.
Teaching guide
The complete video demonstration is available inside a Singing Classroom subscription.
Teach the constant frame first: "All 'round the brickyard, remember me — I'm gonna ___ and a-remember me." Have students echo phrase by phrase. The syncopated rhythm of "remember me" is the trickiest part — drill it until it's solid before moving to the game.
Ask students to call out one-syllable action words. Write them on the board: stomp, clap, shake, hop, spin, snap, march, jump, twist. Tell students they can pick a word from the board or invent their own. This prep step prevents freezing. Also establish the no-repeat rule at this point.
Establish before starting: you must say your action word on the beat. If you hesitate or stop the song, you're out. If you repeat a word that's been used, you're out. This rule is what keeps everyone listening and focused throughout every other student's turn — not just their own.
Stand in a circle. On each repetition of the song, one student contributes their word and demonstrates the motion — everyone imitates it. Move around the circle. If you're keeping score, check off words from the board as they're used and write down new ones as students invent them.
The first student who is out — for hesitating, stopping the beat, or repeating a word — goes to a barred instrument and plays tonic and fifth on the beat. Each subsequent student who cycles out joins them. By the end of the game, the whole class is at instruments — a seamless, game-driven transition into the next activity.
After the game, zoom in on the rhythms. Ask: what's the rhythm of "brickyard"? (Ti-tam — ti-taam.) What's the rhythm of "remember me"? (Syncopa.) If you're using the song to teach syncopa specifically, sing just the words "all 'round the brickyard" and have students figure out the rhythms for the rest by ear — a wonderful way to develop independent rhythmic thinking.
By grade level
Focus on the circle game and steady beat. Use "brickyard" to introduce or reinforce ti-tam (ti-taam) in context. The no-repeat and on-the-beat rules give the game structure without eliminating the fun of improvisation.
Use "remember me" to introduce or practice syncopa. Isolate the low sol from its context after the low la — this is one of the clearest, most natural occurrences of that interval in the folk repertoire. Students hear it in a song they already know and enjoy.
Older students can notate the rhythm of the entire song after learning it by ear, using their knowledge of syncopa and ti-tam. They can also analyze the melodic contour and identify where low sol appears relative to the rest of the scale. The game itself still works well — fifth graders respond to the competitive edge.
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Stand at the board and check off words as they're used. When students invent a new word that wasn't on the original list, write it down so everyone can see it. This keeps things visible and eliminates disputes about whether a word has been used. It also builds the word list for future rounds of the game.
"Brick-yard" naturally falls into the ti-taam (eighth note followed by dotted quarter, or in some systems, eighth note followed by a quarter with the second eighth tied) pattern. Because it appears in the very first phrase of a song students learn quickly and enjoy, they hear and feel the rhythm many times before you even put it on notation paper. The word itself becomes a mnemonic — students can say "brick-yard" whenever they need to recall the rhythm.
Low sol appears just once, right after a low la — which makes the interval between them very clear and easy to isolate. This is deliberate from a Kodály sequencing standpoint: students hear low sol in context before it's formally named. After the game, you can ask students to find where the melody "dips below low la" — and they'll locate it immediately.
Sing just "all 'round the brickyard" and tell students you're going to call that part "syncopa titi titi titi titi titi titi syncopa ta (rest)." Don't sing "remember me" — just replace it with the rhythm names. Then ask students to figure out the remaining rhythms themselves. This extracts the syncopa pattern cleanly and forces students to listen analytically to a song they already know musically.
The real problem
Every teacher knows this feeling. You find a song, try it on Monday, and something goes sideways — the kids don't engage, you're not sure how to introduce it, the lesson loses momentum. It's not that the song was wrong. You just didn't have a clear picture of how it actually goes.
That's what makes The Singing Classroom different. Every song in the library, including this one, is demonstrated on video, either by Deborah walking you through how to teach it or by the bunnies animation of the game, and many songs have both. You don't have to guess how to introduce it, how to structure the activity, or how to handle the tricky moments. You watch it. Then you teach it.
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Watch Deborah demonstrate how to teach All Round the Brickyard. It's one of 150+ songs in the complete Singing Classroom library, every one demonstrated on video with a teaching guide, and many with animated game instructions.
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