Hey y’all! Welcome back to the blog! Today, we’re talking about using manipulatives (my kiddos call it “fun stuff”) to learn about ta and titi. Don’t worry, you can use any counting system you like with these activities, but I’ll be referring to them as ta and titi for this blog post. I introduce ta, titi, and shh to my kindergarten students in the spring each year. We start by learning sound and no sound and make lots of patterns with those. Then, we progress to having two sounds. We do lots of work with the manipulatives before I actually show them the notes or stems. This gives them a solid foundation before they have to worry about what the notes look like or what they’re called. Here are some of the ways that we use manipulatives to represent one sound, two sounds, and no sounds.
Erasers
If you know me at all, you know that I have an obsession with Target mini erasers. I have 3 Michaels Photo Storage Containers full of them. Seriously, it’s a problem. Using these erasers is a perfect way to represent sounds and no sounds! In the picture you can see we’re using carrot erasers. I create a pattern and show the kids on the document camera and they recreate it. For this example, they would say something like, “Carrot Carrot No Carrot Carrot.” At this point, I don’t worry about using erasers that are one and two syllables. It’s simply for a visual representation.
Playdough
I started using PlayDoh for sounds/no sounds after seeing a similar activity in a Quaver Music episode. They called it “Rhythm Dough” and used balls of dough to create patterns. It works essentially the same as the erasers and the kids love an excuse to use PlayDoh!
Pom Poms
Are you really a teacher if you don’t have 94,273 of these guys laying around? Put them to good use and create rhythm patterns. In this example, I used different color pom poms for ta and titi, but you don’t have to do that. I find it just makes it a little easier for the kids to differentiate between the two rhythms.
Popsicle Sticks
After a time or two using the above manipulatives, I introduce the actual ta/titi/shh terms and notation. Before I have the kids write them, I always get out the popsicle sticks and have them build the rhythms! They really seem to grasp the concept when we do this activity. When building a rest (shh), I just have them make a Z with their sticks.
I hope this gave you a few quick ideas on how to use manipulatives for introducing ta and titi! My students love when we use “fun stuff” during class because it gives them a chance to be hands on! I think these activities give the kiddos a solid foundation of how to interpret one sound, two sounds, or no sounds before we ever introduce the musical terms and notations. What’s best of all, though, is that they’re learning without even realizing it!
Do y’all use manipulatives to teach these rhythms? What are some of your favorites? I’d love to hear about them! Leave me a comment below or DM me on Instagram!
