Where Is My Soccer Ball

Every now and then, when I get busy, I post a piece from the Early Elementary book I wrote, Sunny Solos. I’m busy working on some material for my middle and high school students, so I decided this is a good time to post something from my files.

My young students like to play Where Is My Soccer Ball  because they can identify with the words! We play this after students have been introduced to ties in their method book. I teach the rhythm by rote at first. Then we  discuss the rhythm and how a tied quarter note equals one half note.  I always ask my students why didn’t I just use a half note instead of a tied quarter note. If they tell me right away that there can only be 4 beats in the measure, I know they really understand time signatures.

Grand Staff for Shamrock Composing Activity

I had a lot of fun making this composition worksheet. I drew the rainbow graphic  for a game I have been trying to design but I decided to use it here instead.  I’m not sure if I will get the game finished by March 17!

I have several students who want to notate the Shamrock Composing Activity on a real staff, so that’s why I made this sheet. One student wrote a melody divided between the hands,  and another student is writing the melody in the right hand and we’re going to make up an accompaniment later.

Thoughts on Composing Activities

I gave some of my students the option of doing the Shamrock Composing Activity that I posted yesterday. Since they had all done the Valentine composing activity, and the Christmas Train, I thought maybe they would decline. However, they were enthusiastic about it so we gave it a try.   Young children love doing the same thing over and over. That is how they gain confidence and why, the younger the child, the more material you need.  Eventually they do want to move on, which is why I asked them if they were interested.

I noticed that the students who have been using my composing activities this year are getting a lot better at composing. They all knew it would sound good to start and end on the key note, although I just called it the 5-finger scale.  One student wanted to write her piece in one of the new pentascales she had learned, and was very proud she added the sharps on her own. She is a beginning student and hasn’t even learned sharps in her lesson book, but has seen them in the games we’ve been playing.

Another student wasn’t quite sure he wanted to do it. He said the Valentine song he wrote was too hard to play. In that piece his notes were all over the place, leaping from top to bottom. This time I suggested he write only steps and repeated notes, no skips. He  is a very young student and hasn’t really learned how to play skips. This time he stepped up and down,  like his 5-finger scales and discovered how much easier it was. He liked this piece a lot better  because he can play it with ease.  He was having a little trouble with the ending, so I suggested 3 different endings to help him out, and he had very definite ideas about what he thought sounded good. I think it is perfectly acceptable to help the students out with ideas, because that’s how they are going to learn. It was also interesting that each student wrote the top line for the Right Hand and the bottom line for the Left Hand.

The first time I did a composing activity with these students in the fall,  it seemed to take forever. Now they know what they are doing and are quicker. They are also enjoying themselves more. I’m getting better at directing them, too.  I’m also excited that if I follow through on these composing activities I might have more composers in my studio. It really makes music come alive, to write your own.

After using the Shamrock Composing Activity with my students, I decided I needed to re-do it, so if you print it out today you will notice some differences from the previous post.   First, I fixed the font so the Celtic “D” doesn’t look like an “O”. I added some dots on the “i’s” and did a few other alterations to the font. Next time I’m not going to get *fancy* with  fonts for little children. I also made the shamrocks lighter so that students could actually see what they wrote. On the old handout, we had to go over each letter with a Sharpie because the shamrocks were too dark to read what they wrote.

The next step, for students who can actually read notes, will be to write their song in musical notation. I’m going to post a handout for that as soon as possible, I hope.

Eventually I want to have a composing activity for all the special days of the year, with a corresponding activity so they can write their song on a staff.

Shamrock Composing Activity

If you missed the Valentine composing activity and wanted another chance, you can do this St. Patrick’s day activity. Yes, I know a march isn’t in 3/4 time, but that’s the only rhyme I could come up with. I’m not a professional! Let me know if your students enjoy it!

Das Deutsche Musik-Alphabet (The German Music Alphabet)

 

Willkommen!

Do you notice something different about the music alphabet in the first picture above? Notice there is no letter B! I made these for my German friends, so don’t print these out if you teach in English!  The English version of the alphabet cards was posted back in the summer. The second picture is an European version of the keyboard  game I posted a few days ago.

Today I am posting some material that I made over for teachers in countries that use  an “H” for for the English note “B”. (I’m not expert, but from what I understand, they use a “B” for B Flat, so they are not able to use my games with the music alphabet.)  You can click on the following links to print these cards. 

german-music-alphabet

german-shamrock-keyboard-race

Circle of Fifths

I updated my Circle of Fifths poster to add some color and a little humor.

I’ve also posted a black and white Circle of Fifths Worksheet that you can print out for each student.

Shamrock Keyboard Game (Clover Cards)

 

Shamrock Keyboard  Game is  for students who are just learning the notes on the keyboard, or you can play it with anyone just for fun. I got the idea from Cecilly’s Sharp and Flat Race to Middle C.   I like to have a variety of seasonal and holiday activities available because I think it adds something and keeps piano lessons from becoming predictable.  This game has been so much fun with my students that I’m calling it Clover Cards and plan to use it all year round.

If you played Cecilly’s  Sharp and Flat Race  you already know the rules of this game.   If not, here is how I like to play it. 

Print out both pages on card stock and laminate. Cut out the cards and give one set to the student and and the other color  to the teacher or another student.  Both players sit on the piano bench. Shuffle the cards  and put a deck on each side of the piano and give each student a pawn. I have found that a removable eraser makes the perfect pawn. It’s not too big and doesn’t fall off the keys.  Each player takes turns drawing a card and moving their pawn.  The player on the right side always moves to the left and the player on the left side always moves to the right , with both players moving toward middle C. The first player to pass middle C is the winner.

Here is a picture of my student playing the Sharp and Flat Race Game. I posting so you can see how well a pencil eraser works as a pawn. Sorry for the poor quality picture.

You may run out of cards before you get to middle C, so you can turn the cards over and start again, or you can print out more cards and play past middle C and down to the other end of the keyboard.

I added an F# and Bb card to the deck, just in case you want it. I will probably not use it, but it might be a good way to introduce the two accidentals that are used first in a lot of method books.

Students will always want to play again, so switch sides and try again. This is a quick game, it doesn’t get the student too excited, and really does teach help them learn the keyboard. It is a good game to play if you have a minute or two left before the next lesson. If you have an older student, try Cecilly’s Sharp and Flat Race to Middle C.

Shamrock Rhythms

Shamrock Rhythms is a game to find the missing rhythm value in a measure. There are two pages to print out, a game board and the circled shaped cards. Each measure in the cards has a note left out. There are two measures for each note value, but you can play a quick version and use one card per note.

Print both pages on card stock. Laminate and cut out the circle cards. They would look cute printed on green card stock, but the light green shamrocks will not show up. Laminate the game board.

Place the cards upside down in the middle of the shamrock on the circle.  The student will draw a card and place it on the note or notes that are missing in the measure. (Notice that in 4 of the cards, one beat is missing and the student may put it on  either 2 eights or the quarter note. It doesn’t matter which one.) When all the cards are placed, the game is over.

.Of course, there can be many variations. Maybe you can print out 2 or more game boards and play this at a group lesson. You could use a stop watch and let students race. Or you could see who can cover their notes first. There are endless possibilities, which is how I like piano games to be because we have students with so many different ability levels.

FYI, you may notice that I have 2 cards  that have empty measures. Those are for the whole note and since they are the same, you can omit one if you wish.

On the Texas State Theory Test, there is a question for students to fill in the missing note. I hope this will give us some early extra help for that on next year’s test.

If I get a good response to this game, I will make one for the next holiday using rests.  I am also working on one in 6/8 time.

Stand Up, Sit Down Activity from Cecilly

This is a fun, helpful activity from Cecilly, and you don’t have to print anything out. Here are her directions:

Using a short piece or rhythmic pattern, (8 measures or so) choose what you want to have the student focus on (a specific recurring rhythm value, simple pattern, rest, etc.), and then explain  that every time you get to the item of focus you’ll change your body position.

For example, say the focus will be half notes.  Sing the words or count the rhythm. At the first half note, stand up (and stay up) continuing with the words/counting until the next half note when you’ll sit down (at stay down) until the next half where you’ll stand up again, etc. etc.

This creates a fun up and down movement activity and really gets the student to pay attention to the rhythm.

Cecilly said:

“I sometimes do this activity when I want the student to focus on
rests. We stand/sit on each rest. Sometimes I’ll just put the CD on
and we’ll respond this way simply as we listen to the music. Other
times we’ll chant the words. There are lots of possibilities.”

I have actually done this kind of thing with my students before and it is a lot of fun. The other day a beginning student kept missing (over and over again) a certain note. Since there were only about 5 notes in the song I knew I had to do something different, and quickly. I told him were were going to stand every time that note appeared.  In my version, we stood up and sat down immediately. Up and down we went, laughing and having fun. Amazingly, he didn’t miss that note again. It’s just a matter of narrowing the focus and it really works!

Thanks, Cecilly, for another very helpful activity.

If you do something quick and easy that really worked and you would like to share it, send me an email and I’ll post it here.

Another Revision to Counting Up the Mountain

I’m improving Counting Up the Mountain one more time. This makes how many revisions, 3? This time I’m revising the cards that go along with the game.

 One of the teachers who has used this game sent me some new ideas for cards with rests and some other things to go along with the game,  and she gave me permission to post them.  Before there were only 2 pages of cards to this game, but with her additions there are now 4 pages.  If  you printed these out previously, save some ink and just print the last 2 pages.  I always thought the game needed some more cards, so thanks to Janet for sending these ideas to me. I added the little tree on the whole and half rests so we can tell which side is up or down. 

 This is a game for students who are just learning the rhythmic value of whole, dotted half, half, quarter notes and rests in 4/4 time. The teacher holds up a card or the student draws a card and moves 4 places for whole notes, 3 places for a dotted half, and so on. It’s a quick game the teacher or parent can play with the student or several beginners can play together.  You can probably think of other ways to use the game board. Hopefully the new cards will add to the fun. The little smiley faces at the end of the cards are tokens, in case you need them.

Large Grand Staff composing with young children

I received a lot of requests for a  large size staff  that you can use as a grand staff and today I am finally getting around to posting it. I think it is rather hard to find staff paper this size, so be sure and take advantage of this if you think you can use it. It will save you some time either drawing it by hand or making your own in Word, not that it’s very difficult.  But if you are like I used to be with several children, a spouse, volunteer activities in school and church, as well as a piano studio, you need all the time you can save! Now that my children are all grown up and on their own I have a lot more free time.

This is a good size of staff paper to use for beginning composing activities.  Notating for children is difficult. It is like learning to write a new language and some of them are so young they are still learning to write words. You can draw the hard things for them, like the treble or bass clef. I teach that all notes start off as little “candy eggs” and you can either chocolate fill them or let them stay vanilla. The stem is the handle. Then I tell them to make sure the handle doesn’t come out of the top of their head! I also sing/chant “up on the right side, down on the left side” as we work.

Rhythm Hearts

I am re-posting Rhythm Heart Beats and More Rhythm Hearts in case you would like to use them this week because  they look very “Valentine-ish.”

I first published them in August,and if you scroll back to then, or look in the Rhythm category on the right, you can read how I use them to teach rhythmic dictation. If you don’t have time to go back and read those posts, here is a quick review. The Kodaly Method teaches the difference in beat and rhythm by using a “heart beat” as an example of a steady beat. Rhythm is “the way the words go” and eighth notes are “two sounds on one beat.” When I used to teach in  a group setting I would use a felt board,  but now I teach individual lessons, so I made these worksheets. If anyone would like me to elaborate on how to teach rhythm to children, let me know and I’ll do a longer post on it.

Young children and beginners can use the first sheet,  with one measure, and older students will be able to take 2 measure dictation. Don’t let your students learn how to play the piano without knowing how to take rhythmic and melodic dictation. You never know what they may want to do with their music education in the future. Even if they haven’t learned to play 8th notes in their piano music, they are fully capable of learning the concept!

Rhythm Match Up Cards in 6/8

Today  I am posting the cards  to play Cecilly’s  Rhythm Match Up Game  in 6/8 meter. The time signature is not hard for students to feel and play, but sometimes they don’t see it on the page. Have you ever had students practice 6/8 meter all week in 4/4 time? Or half the piece in 4/4 and the other in 6/8? Sometimes that happens! Maybe this game will help students not make that mistake.

Here are the rules to the Rhythm Match Up Game from Cecilly. The cards from other meters were posted Feb. 4.

Objective: to correctly match up the rhythm patterns with their
corresponding time signature in 1 min. or less.

To Play: On a table or surface on one side of the playing area, place
the time signature cards face up. At the other end of the playing
area, on the floor, randomly place the rhythm pattern cards face
down. The player stands in the middle. At “go”, start the timer and
the player grabs a rhythm card, runs to the table and places it
beside it’s corresponding time signature card. Player then goes to
get another rhythm card, and so on until time is up or all cards have
been placed. After time is up, check to see that all cards have been
placed correctly. If not, help the student make corrections. Then
take all the cards from one time signature pile and have the student
lay out in a 4 meas. pattern to clap and count. Repeat with the
other pile of cards.

Rhythm Time Match-Up Game

This Game by Cecilly™ called Rhythm Time Match Up will help students recognize meter by looking at rhythm patterns. I look forward to playing it with my students. I made cards for 4/4 and 3/4 meters. The first 2 cards are easier than the last two, so print out what you need. Then laminate if you desire, cut them out, and have fun!

Here are the directions in Cecilly’s words:

RHYTHM TIME MATCH-UP RACE:

Materials: 2 time signature cards (3/4 and 4/4), 8 rhythm pattern
cards with 4 in 4/4 time and 4 in 3/4 time, 1 min. timer.

Objective: to correctly match up the rhythm patterns with their
corresponding time signature in 1 min. or less.

To Play: On a table or surface on one side of the playing area, place
the time signature cards face up. At the other end of the playing
area, on the floor, randomly place the rhythm pattern cards face
down. The player stands in the middle. At “go”, start the timer and
the player grabs a rhythm card, runs to the table and places it
beside it’s corresponding time signature card. Player then goes to
get another rhythm card, and so on until time is up or all cards have
been placed. After time is up, check to see that all cards have been
placed correctly. If not, help the student make corrections. Then
take all the cards from one time signature pile and have the student
lay out in a 4 meas. pattern to clap and count. Repeat with the
other pile of cards.

Feel free to change up the time signatures to include 2/4, 6/8, etc.
Just make sure you have rhythm pattern cards to match those meters.

Write a Valentine’s Song

Write a Valentine’s Song is is a composing activity in 3/4 time for young beginners. I didn’t write in directions on this so that you may use it in different ways.  Students can write in finger numbers or note notes. They can use left hand, right hand, or both. They can draw in bar lines if you wish and a double bar line at the end. In fact, you can use this as a rhythmic activity and not even bother to compose a tune.

If you use this to compose with a slightly older beginner, the next step would be to notate it on staff paper. I have some large size staff paper on my web site.

I have found that students often cannot complete both lines in the lesson. Sometimes I send it home to complete, or finish  the next week.

Valentine Note Hunt

 

This is the time of the year I want to make sure my students are learning the names of their notes. I have a One Minute Club contest (the idea is from Jane Bastien) the last 6 weeks of lessons, and I want everyone to be prepared. I also have a lot of students who wait for siblings during their lessons. I’m going to laminate this and let them practice the Valentine Note Hunt  while they wait. Then I’ll time them with the stop watch on my phone at the start of their lesson. For students who don’t have to wait on siblings, I’ll do this with them.

Students are really liking the laminated worksheets that they can erase if they make a mistake. It is saving me a lot of ink, too. Plus I don’t run out of worksheets! Whoever gave me that idea, thanks so much. I’m sorry I can’t remember who it was.