CLYATTVILLE — Balls fly in the air as more than 40 youngsters move in unison below. They catch the colorful balls then step into the next part of the routine. Each student mirrors the movements of the others. Each step is the echoed step of more than 40 feet or the clap of more than 80 hands.

This is the Clyattville Elementary School Rhythm Team. Forty-six students working together, filling the school gym, adding great stomping staccatos to the thumping beats of rock music and hip-hop.

The routines include the bouncing balls, as well as tinikling sticks made of PVC pipe, small drum sticks, Frisbees. In unison, the youngsters jump, hop, run in place, dance, step, slap Frisbees like tambourines, tap out beats with the tinikling sticks.

After several months of rehearsal, the CES Rhythm Team is presenting its routines as performances. Team members performed for fellow Clyattville Elementary students, faculty and family last week. This weekend, the team travels to Jekyll Island where it will perform as part of the Share the Wealth Physical Education Conference. Next week, the team performs for Lowndes Middle School.

While the majority of the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students are in their first year with the CES Rhythm Team, P.E. teacher and team coordinator Jennifer Vinge has been doing this for 17 years, seven of which have been spent with Clyattville Elementary.

Vinge’s interest in this extracurricular activity started during her student-teaching with teacher Renee Califf, who still leads a tinikling team at Parker Mathis. Developed in the Philippines, tinikling has several performers pushing together formations of sticks on the floor while others dance in and out of the opening and closing stick formations. The slap of the sticks creates a rhythmic beat. Tinikling routines resemble jump-rope formations as some people work the sticks and others dance while not stepping on or tripping over the moving sticks.

Vinge carried Califf’s tinikling into her teaching. But Vinge added other rhythmic forms in developing her program: line-dancing, ball routines, and more. In the beginning, Vinge felt like she was learning more by watching other groups at conferences but, in the past few years, while keeping her eyes open for new ideas, she feels that other schools are learning from the CES Rhythm Team.

The extracurricular team also seems to attract more CES participants each year. With 10 male students, this year’s team has the most boy members ever, Vinge says.

Students must audition for a place on the team. Vinge gives auditioning students a basic line dance and they must perform it. Auditioning students are judged on their ability to keep a beat, learn steps, and their individual stage presence.

Rehearsals began in October, an hour after school, three days a week. The youngsters talk quietly between sets during a recent rehearsal.

When the music starts, though, they are all business, moving through their routines.

The Rhythm Team’s benefits are many, Vinge says. “It teaches the students how to get in front of people, how to behave as a group. It shows them the importance of being part of a team. If one member doesn’t show up, they see how it affects the entire group.”

The CES Rhythm Team has been helped by sponsors such as Vann Insurance, Community Partners in Education, Cannington Electric, Packaging Corporation of America, Carlton Walker, Cheyenne Roddey, Michael Whitmer, Brandi Childs.

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THE CES TEAM: (fifth grade) Kimberly Copeland, Alexis Warthen, Baily Peacock, Angeles Celestino, Jarquez Alexander, Katelyn Parker, Allison Souris, Brandi Childs, Michael Whitmer, Luis Segura, Scott Chance, Sutherlin Bennett, Kianna Williams, Cora Johnson, Kayla Massey, Shelby Griffin, Taylor Harris, Tammy Carter; (fourth grade) Christina Lott, Cheyenne Roddey, Shiann Brownrigg, Brianna Evans, Paige Stoddard, Brittney Tibedo, Sarah Ann Williams, Cami Taylor, Amanda Talley, Jasmine Johnson, Chris Ervin, Tyler McIntosh, Jeremy Taylor; (third grade) Rachel Cannington, Blaire Jarriel, Alesia Brown, Crystal Lott, Kirsten Ervin, Kaitlyn Ford, Miah Keel, Hannah Adcock, Cassidy Croft, Zachary Sirmans, Hunter O’Neal, Nicholas Christie, Adam Peavy.