Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer

You guessed it, another Christmas song! :)  This one's for my 4th graders who are preparing syn-co-pa or ti-ta-ti (you can read my brief self-debate about this in the Deck the Halls post).  We all know the tune, but here it is anyways:

Here's the PowerPoint I'll use with them, text only:

The following are the preparation slides.  I mentioned this in previous posts, but I use the tie to teach ti-ta-ti, like I do with so many other rhythmic elements.  So, we first learn about "single ti's" and read patterns containing ti-ti  but written as single ti's.  From there we add the ties, as notated below:

Once ti-ta-ti is presented, the students will then read the rhythm from these slides:

My 4th graders won't be reading the melodic slides as they won't learn ti until 5th grade.  But they can read the first two measures (in isolation) for practicing do'.  In a year or so, when I've got my curriculum established, my 5th graders will be read these:

 I made some ti-ta-ti/syn-co-pa flashcards that are extracted from song literature that I use with my students (I don't do ALL of these songs every year and often times use other songs that aren't listed below)

This card includes
1. "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"
2.  "Weavily Wheat"
3. & 4. Epo i Tai Tai

 This card includes:
1.  "Hill 'n Gully Rider"
2.  "I Got a Letter"
3.  "Lead Through That Sugar and Tea"
4.  "Alabama Gal" (Come Thru 'n a Hurry)

This card includes:
1.  "Big Bunch of Roses"
2.  "Black Snake"
3. & 4.  "Canoe Song"

This card includes:
1. & 2. "Duck Dance"
3. "Funga Alafia"
4.  "Caney Mi Macero"

This card includes:
1. "Lil' 'Liza Jane"
2.  "Rabbit Run"
3.  "Oboshinotentoten"
4.  "Shake the Papaya"/"Alabama Gal" (Come Thru 'N Hurry)

After the students have learned the songs, played the games/activities (where applicable), have successfully read the songs from notation and can read the flash cards above we will play the following song matching game.  Each of the Rudolph cards below will be cut along the dotted lines:

The cards below will also be cut out along the dotted lines.  Then, the students, either in pairs or small groups, must match the Rudolph Reindeer title card with the reindeer rhythm card below. For differentiation, you can challenge those advanced kiddos to perform this task alone.

This card's songs are "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Funga Alafia":

"Epo i Tai Tai" & "Hill & Gully Rider":

"I Got a Letter" & "Lead Through That Sugar and Tea":

"Alabama Gal" (Come Thru 'N Hurry) & "Big Bunch of Roses:

"Black Snake" & "Canoe Song":

"Duck Dance" & "Funga Alafia":

"Shake the Papaya" & "Rabbit Run":

I know not everyone can use holiday literature or might be teaching ti-ta-ti at this time of year, so I also made the exact same copies of these cards with pictures based on "The Canoe Song".  Here are a couple examples:

 This file is available for download on my Teachers Pay Teachers.

I hope you all had a great day back from Thanksgiving break!!