Turkey Find the Bass Notes

I made a worksheet I call Help Turkey Find the Notes to help students learn the bass clef. Actually I just wanted to practice drawing turkeys in Photoshop. I made this one using the various shape tools, which I think I have mentioned is about the only way I can draw. You will see this same turkey in some other worksheets I plan to post.

Anyway, it has turned out to be a fun worksheet for my students. One student was laughing while she did it and asked if I had any more like this. She actually said it was fun, I guess because of the silly turkey.  I have been giving it to students while they wait.  I don’t spend much time on worksheets during the lessons, usually.

I like to share  with my  teacher friends in cyberspace who might have a band student who only knows one clef. Or maybe your students are weak in the bass clef, like some of mine. Also, I drew this worksheet in black and white for those of you without color printers or classroom teachers who can’t print in color,

I’ve been getting some great suggestions for games from other teachers and I hope to get them posted soon.

Today is election day. It reminds me that no matter what our political views, language we speak, or our religion, music and our dedication to our students is our common bond. Teachers from all over the world read this site, some even using translation programs. Connecting with all of you has been a real blessing to me. If you would like to drop me an email, my address is on my original web site, along with my bio. Or you can leave a comment on this blog.

www.SusanParadis.com

Away In a Manger Pre-reading

                                       away-in-a-mangerpr

Here is the requested pre-reading version of Away In a Manger. I’m not posting this on my website, so be sure to remember to get it here. If you have any trouble downloading it, let me know. It is a pretty big PDF file.

For the new teachers reading this, notice that I did not use the dotted rhythm, even though I made a big deal about how to teach it by rote in the on-the-staff version. That’s because beginners have enough to worry about without seeing something as foreign as a dotted quarter followed by an eighth. By the time students are reading on the staff, they are comfortable with a lot more music symbols. Our pre-reading students can barely figure out what in the world they are doing, especially if they are young. However, if your younger students play it with the dotted rhythm, I suggest you go ahead and let them do it and just not say anything. It’s better to let them play it like they sing it.

If it is an older student, you can mention they’re playing a rhythm that is different. Sometimes I will tell them they are just very advanced because they can play rhythms they haven’t even learned yet! As a teacher, it is so much more important to me to say something positive than to tell them they’re playing something wrong, especially when they know the song.

For those of you who like to know how I do things, I wrote this first in Finale and removed the staff and other symbols. Then I imported it into Photoshop where I added finger numbers, title, LH-RH, the little keyboard,  and cleaned it up. This piece was stubborn and it took longer than I thought. The graphic is clip art.