Slug Bug!!

Happy Almost-New Year!  Yesterday I met my friend Tanya LeJeune for lunch but before we ate we went to the local teacher store (sad, I know, considering we're on vacation.)  At any rate, I saw some cute "slug bug" die cuts and that sparked this idea.  I'll be using the rhythm version in a few weeks after my 3rd graders learned ti-tika and I'll use the melodic version of the game with 2nd grade when we learn re later this year.  

Here's the song that's the basis of the game:

The kids love to sing this song, and the actions are quite fun!

Here's the "Slug Bug Melody" game that I'll use with my 2nd graders:

•These cars can be used to practice re in phrases that are extracted from folk songs.

All Around the Buttercup, Blue, Closet Key, Button You Must Wander (x2), Cocky Robin, Do, do Pity My Case, Firefly (x2), Frosty Weather, Grinding Corn, Hot Cross Buns, Ida Red(Final Phrase), Knockthe Cymbals, Let Us Chase the Squirrel (x2), Old Aunt Dinah (x3), Rocky Mountain, Sammy Sacket (x2)

•Slug BugGame:

–Divide the class into “teams” (2-4 teams would be best).  Each team is given a “hand” swatter (Go in with a colleague and buy some: http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Hand-Shaped-Fly-Swatters-Pack/dp/B0057TTB5Y )

–Taking turns with the flyswatter, a “representative” from each team comes up to the floor where all the “Slug Bugs” are scattered.  (You can also put magnets on them and put them on a magnetic board. This makes them visible for all  students, but tougher for the swatters to do this safely).  The teacher will sing a pattern, the first person to swat the correct “Slug Bug” earns that car for his/her team.  A new “representative” for each team comes up and another round is played.  Play continues until all the “Slug Bugs” have been slapped. The team with the most slug bugs at the end is the winner.

–Levels of difficulty

•Easiest: the teacher sings the phrase using solfége syllables.

•Medium: the teacher sings the phrase on “loo”.

•Harder: the teacher plays the pattern on an instrument.

Here are the cards:
First, I made "smaller" cards:

But when I printed them out I thought it would probably work better with larger cards, so I re-did them with two cars on a page:

The Slug Bug Rhythm game that I'll be using with my 3rd graders is identical, but it's focused on ti-tika:

•These cars can be used to practice ti-tika.

•Slug Bug Game:

–Divide the class into “teams” (2-4 teams would be best).  Each team is given a “hand” swatter (Go in with a colleague and buy some: http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-Hand-Shaped-Fly-Swatters-Pack/dp/B0057TTB5Y )

–Taking turns with the flyswatter, a “representative” from each team comes up to the floor where all the “Slug Bugs” are scattered.  (You can also put magnets on them and put them on a magnetic board. This makes them visible for all  students, but tougher for the swatters to do this safely).  The teacher will perform a pattern, the first person to swat the correct “Slug Bug” earns that car for his/her team.  A new “representative” for each team comes up and another round is played.  Play continues until all the “Slug Bugs” have been slapped. The team with the most slug bugs at the end is the winner.

–Levels of difficulty

•Easiest: the teacher claps and says the rhythm pattern.

•Medium: the teacher claps the pattern.

•Harder: the teacher plays the pattern on an instrument.

And then I made a "Slug Bug Mix-Up" Game.  This can be used with high do, as that is the most difficult melodic element in "The Car Song."

•Using either the stick or staff notation, give each student four cards (containing each of the first 4 phrases of the song).  The students must put the “Slug Bugs” in order to create the notation for the “A” section of the song

•Stick to Staff: the students must match the cards with stick notation to the correct cards with staff notation.

These files can be found at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.  Happy Slug Bugging!

Slug Bug Melody

Slug Bug Rhythm

Slug Bug Melody and Rhythm Games (with smaller car-cards) and Mix-Up Game

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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!!

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