Basketball – My Way

This is one of my most popular activities with my piano students – especially my elementary aged boys. 

First they pick a card.  Today, we were doing pentascales, so we used the Alphabet Flash Cards. 

 After a card is drawn, the student runs over to the piano, and playes the pentascale.  We always chant “tonic, whole, whole, half, whole” during this process. 

If the student is successful, I toss them the basketball, and they get to take a shot in my $2 thrift store basketball hoop.  Then, they run across the room, draw another card, and do it all over again.

This game could be modified many ways.  Students could draw note flashcards, play full scales, or even something as simple as identifying the letter names of the keys.  Any way you play it, it is loads of fun!

Sandpaper Flashcards

Wow, it has been awhile since I have posted! I have been busily working away at many things, but most of them have not been piano related. 

Anyway, here is something I have been wanting to post for awhile. This is an idea from A Galaxy of Games for the Music Classroom.  These are just plain old flashcards with basic symbols, right? Well, not exactly. I laminated the red cards, cut the symbols out of fine-grit sandpaper, and glued them to the cards. The treble clef could have been tricky to cut, but since the sandpaper is rough anyway, I just cut right through the straight line part of the clef to cut the curves. When glued to the card, you can’t even tell!

After a beginning student has learned the various symbols, I tell them we are going to have a test, and they have to name all of the symbols. They usually ace right through that, so I tell them that I need to make it really hard. They have to identify the symbol with their eyes closed. I love their reaction to that! They close their eyes and identify what is on each card simply by touch. What a fun way to reinforce learning!

Here is the pattern I used to cut the shapes out of sandpaper.

Christmas Songs

If you haven’t seen it yet, head on over to Susan’s Piano Teacher Resources site.  She is posting some wonderful Christmas songs for pre-readers and primer level students.  I already have these printed to use with my students this week.

I have also done up a few Christmas songs, hopefully with a few more to come in the following weeks.  Here’s what I have for now, though!

Oh, Come All Ye Faithful

Away in a Manger

Joy to the World

Christmas Bells and Have a Very Merry Christmas

Stars Were Gleaming

Landmark Lines Note Flashcards

I have a couple of students that are struggling a bit with quickly naming the notes.  To help them, I combined some ideas of Kevin Coan, Rebecca, and Cecilly from the Yahoo Piano Teacher’s list, and came up with these flashcards.  Each note’s nearest landmark line or space is highlighted so the student can quickly (I hope!) identify the name and play the note on the piano.  Once they can do that quickly, I will wean them to regular flashcards. 

These flashcards range from the F just below the bass staff to the G above the treble staff.  If there is interest, I will extend them to the notes above and below high and low C.  For now, though, I think these will work great for my students. 

Don’t worry if the lines of the staff don’t look quite straight on the computer screen.  They print out just fine, I promise!

Landmark Lines Note Name Flashcards

Keyboard Pentascale Sheets

I had a request to make the Keyboard Pentascale Cards into a reference page for young pianists.  Here is the result – All of the major pentascales on 2 pages.  Susan Paradis also has a wonderful version of the pentascales here. 

Keyboard Pentascale Sheets

Halloween Games

There has been some great discussion on the Yahoo Piano Teachers list about games for Halloween.  Well, thinking up games is much more fun than completing the homework for the class I need to renew my teaching certificate, so here you are! 

The first game is Trick or Treat.  Print off the Pumpkin Rhythm Cards, and place in a Halloween candy bucket.  If the student picks a rhythm, it is a “trick” and they must clap it correctly.  If they draw out a pumpkin that is says “treat” they get to pick a treat from the candy stash.  If you want to, you can print the reverse side on the back of the pumpkin cards, making for games that are a bit more commercial-looking.  That way, when you cut them out there will be an image on the front and back of each card.  There is also a blank pumpkin page so you can customize the game.

Pumpkin Rhythm Cards

Pumpkin Cards – Blank

Pumpkin Cards – Reverse Side

The next game is Candy Corn Note Match. Cut apart all of the sections, and have the students match up the note on the staff, note on the keyboard, and letter name. This can be done individually or in groups, and can be competitive or not in nature. Once again, there is a blank Candy Corn page if you’d like to make your own game. I think it would be great for terms – the abbreviation, Italian word, and definition.

Candy Corn Note Match

 Candy Corn Blanks

Now, I’m going to finish writing about the Flores Consent order and Lau vs. Nichols. Really. No more procrastinating…at least for today!

Real Rhythm Cards

I made wood Rhythm Blocks of various lenghts to represent the different note values, and thought some paper ones would be good to have as well.  So I made some, and they have been uselessly sitting on my computer.  Today Cecilly posted a great idea about how to use these rhythm cards on the Yahoo Piano Teachers list, and I thought it would be nice to take a minute and upload them.  I am going to mount my cards on lightweight cardboard from cereal boxes, then “laminate” them with 2 inch clear packaging tape for durability.  Hope you enjoy them!

Real Rhythm Cards Black and White

Real Rhythm Cards Color

Summer Ice Cream Challenge

This past summer I wanted to do something a bit different for our practice incentive. I decided to do a Summer Ice Cream Challenge. It was really quite simple. I printed ice cream cones and ice cream scoops, cut them apart, and laminated them so they would last for future use. For each 10 points a student earned, I awarded them with a scoop to add to their cone. Students earned points for meeting practice and performance goals.

At the end of the summer, we had a party for students who had a minimum of 4 scoops. Yeah, this was easy to attain, but since I had several students who were going to be gone for much of the summer, it worked well. At our party we had ice cream – of course – with lots of toppings to choose from. Afterwards, we watched Bugs Bunny’s Overtures to Disaster. The kids loved it, and it was low-stress for me.

Just a word of warning – I cut out a LOT of ice cream scoops. Most of it was done during my kids’ swimming lessons, when I was just sitting with little to do. If this had been a year-long incentive program, I would have gotten really tired of cutting! It would be much easier to cut the ice cream cones and scoops from a die cut. Check your local scrapbooking store or school to see if they have one you could use.

Rhythm Blocks

I have been wanting to make these for years, ever since I read about them in the book “A Galaxy of Games for the Music Class.” (A WONDERFUL resource, by the way!) They are great for showing the relationships between note values, rhythmic dictation, and are just a lot of fun in general. Here are the steps in making these blocks.

First, I bought 7 1/2 feet of 3/4 inch square pine. It was cut to the following lenghts:
8th note: 1 inch (cut 4)
Quarter note: 2″ (cut eight)
Dotted Quarter note: 3″ (cut 4)
Half Note: 4″ (cut 4)
Dotted Half Note: 6 inches (cut 4)
Whole Note: 8 inches (cut 2)

Next, I painted them. You wouldn’t need to do this, but I like the bright colors, and wanted easy identification of the different lengths of blocks.

Using a black sharpie marker, I drew notes and rests on each of the blocks. On the quarter note blocks, I drew a quarter note on 2 sides, a quarter rest on 1 side, and 2 eighth notes on the remaining side. The notes don’t show up well in the picture, but they do in real life.

Here are a few activities that can be done with these: (you may want 2 or more sets for group activities)

The teacher chants or plays a rhythmic pattern, and the student notates it with their blocks. This can also be done as a competition between 2 students or 2 teams.

The teacher gives a certain number of beats, such as 8. A student notates with the blocks the exact number of beats the teacher has called.

The teacher gives the student a set of parameters, such as 3 measures in 4/4 time. Student builds the set number of measures. This is fun for a group of students as well.

Another added bonus of these blocks – they are wonderful for entertaining little boys while their mommy updates her blog!

Dotted Quarter Rhythm Cards

I had a request for some rhythm cards with the dotted quarter/8th note combination that so many students seem to struggle with. Well, here you are! 15 new rhythm cards online, and me sitting here wondering why I didn’t think to do this rhythm combination earlier.

Rhythm Cards Set 5