These fall music centers have variation so you can use them with all grade levels! 5 stations are included covering composition, rhythm and pitch.

Activities, Centers, Composition, Holidays

Fall Music Composition Using Mini Erasers

November 8, 2018

Introducing Tika-Tika With Fall Composition

This week in my K-3rd grade classes, I have done the most fun Halloween activity! Yes…I know, I know. Today is November 7th. Who says we can’t extend the festivities?! In order to introduce tika-tika to my 2nd-3rd graders this week, I needed a super engaging activity. [Enter Target mini erasers]

Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I have a ridiculous amount of Halloween “stuff.” Target mini erasers are my weakness, so over the past few years, I’ve collected lots of them. In preparation for this activity, I thought about what rhythms we could use for each eraser.

Here’s what I came up with:

Jack-o-Lantern: tika-tika
Black Cat: ti-ti
Skeleton: tika-ti
Frankenstein: tika-ti
Vampire: ti-tika (I didn’t have an eraser for vampire, but needed a rhythm for ti-tika.)

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly this concept clicked for my students. To introduce the activity, we began in whole group. I had students take turns picking what order they wanted the erasers in.

I also had students read the words and rhythms individually by coming up to the board and using a pointer. When I was confident they had grasped the idea, I split them up into small groups (about 3-5 students each) and they took turns composing their own rhythms. It was so neat to see them reading brand new rhythms so fluently!

Kiddos Reading Rhythms!

Y’all, I’m all about making life easier. Work smarter, not harder…right? What’s great about an activity like this, is that it can be differentiated for various classes and grade levels.

I used the same materials for a ta and ti-ti lesson with my Kindergarten and 1st grade kiddos.

Check out this video of a sweet Kindergarten friend reading her rhythms. She was so proud of herself! To see more videos of my kiddos reading rhythms, check out my Instagram! Click on the “My Musicians” highlights.

Here are the rhythms they used:

Pumpkin: ti-ti
Cat: ta
Monster: ti-ti
Skull: ta

My K-1 students had already been introduced to these rhythms, but this was a GREAT review for them. They had such success when working with small groups to read each other’s rhythms.

The only major difference for K-1 was to make sure they were speaking the words and rhythms to the steady beat, something we are still working on!

Rhythms & Mini Erasers In Use!

Fall Music Centers

My kiddos had such a great time practicing their rhythms with this simple activity I put together. It is included in my Fall Music Centers resource on my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, which includes ALL of the fall themed music activities below. Don’t have mini erasers? Don’t worry! I’ve included rhythm cards with the resource that are based on fall activities!