or perhaps run-ning, walk, stand, wait.  Words and phrases are learned which can easily be translated into practical rhythms, and then eventually read.  This can be used in conjunction with word names, but this is usually added later.  The important thing to remember, is that you will need to point out that faster rhythms like 'helicopter' use shorter sounds.  That is to say that stand = 4x helicopter. Using this method, it is easy to get children performing cross rhythms in 2-4 parts, because of the strength of the word-rhythm associations.
In this method, each note value is associated with a word (ti-ti, ta, ta-a, ta-a-a, etc.)
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