Rhythm is what makes one song different from the next. It is the pattern of long and short notes and rests.
We have talked about how the rhythm looks more complicated than the simple steady beat. We played rhythm Tic-Tac-Toe as teams. Then we played rhythms on different sounding instruments (drum, tambourine, triangle, etc.) Each instrument has a four beat rhythm that it repeats and all instrument get to play at the same time. We're making music :)! If your son/daughter comes home saying the words, "ti, ti, ta, - ti, ti, ta," they are saying one of the rhythms. We will be doing this for a while, until each student gets to play a couple of different instruments.
At home try playing a game where someone beats out different songs, (using a pencil or metal spoon,) and see if your son/daughter can guess the song's name from it's rhythm.
