Tika Tika: A New Rhythm Note!

Four sounds on a beat is called "tika tika".

Grade Two Students have been exploring Shel Silverstein's poem, Alligator Pie.  We have sung the words as a melody, played the beat on drums, clapped the syllables of the words, and we have even learned a speech pattern that sounds great when you perform it at the same time as the song!  

This week, we used the words of this song to learn our newest rhythm note, tika tika.  If you'd like to re-create the magic at home, just follow these simple steps.  The colour of the text matches the colour of the example below:

1. Pat the beat while you sing.  Record a beat symbol (a heart) above the words every time your hand touches your knee.

2. Draw a box around each beat.  

3. Count the number of syllables in each beat, and record a vertical line for each syllable.  Then tie the lines together with a rope to show that they belong in the same beat.  If there is just two sounds, a single rope will do.  If there are four sounds, we need two ropes to keep all those sounds together.