Paint Chips and Pins=Rhythm fun!

Good beat keeping and rhythm skills come through repeated practice.  Its fun to find new ways to practice reading and performing rhythms.  In this activity students use clothes pins with notes on them and paint chips (don't you think they look like a four beat measure too?). 

I explain that every rectangle on the paint chip is a beat.  Some beats have one sound, others have two.  What note makes one sound per beat?  A quarter note (or ta).  What notes do we use when we want two sounds on a beat?  Barred eighth notes (titi).  Later these students will use the pins for half notes and whole notes as well.