Some Thanksgiving Worksheets

Last year I polished up and I posted some Thanksgiving worksheets that I had used over the years. I have so much material on my website that it is hard to find some of the older things, so I am reposting them today. You won’t need all of these, but you can pick and choose what intrests you. I plan to use some of them at my group lessons right before Thanksgiving.

Turkey Notes

This is a quick worksheet for beginners who are just learning the names of their notes. You can also use it to play games or to pass out at a group lesson. Be sure to print in landscape mode.

Funny Thanksgiving Food

I was in a whimsical mood when I made this. (I’m usually in a whimsical mood. I don’t know when I’ll grow up!) If you have some younger students who are still learning their keys on the piano, they will enjoy this. You can also use it with your own young children and let them color the funny food.

Color the Feathers

This is another worksheet that you can use at group lessons or with your own children. Be sure and check out the black and white version if you want them to color the entire thing. This is also something you can give to children who are waiting for  other siblings and have nothing to do.   

Turkey Find the Notes

It is real easy to set your PDF dialog box to 2 on a page and save some paper. Then you can use it for several weeks to see if your student’s time improves. 

Usually Thanksgiving gets lost in piano lessons as we prepare for Christmas so I hope you enjoy the change of pace.

Pre-reading Away in a Manger, Anglican version

Away in  a Manger

There are several tune settings for this well-known Christmas carol. Last year I posted the version that is the most popular version here in the United States.  But there are other versions, including the one I am posting today.   This version is also the one most often used in the UK, according to my friends from England. If you are from the Anglican tradition, this is probably the version you know.  

I did some research on this tune. For some reason I thought maybe it was an old English tune, maybe even a folk song. I was surprised to discover the tune was actually composed by a member of the Methodist church here in the United States. How it became the tune used by the Church of England is probably an interesting story! Maybe it was chosen because it is really a lovely melody and very child friendly. Spanning just over one octave, it is easy to sing and play. The lilting melody has no dotted notes and fits the words perfectly. The harmony is charming and I hope to add a teacher duet one of these days.

I tried very hard not to put this in C position, but it really made no sense to force it into another key when the key of C  works out so well for pre-reading this melody. I did have to add a hand crossing to play the A above middle C, but I don’t think that will be too much of a problem if your student started lessons a few months ago. I hope the diagram at the top will help with that.

For those of you who always ask, yes, I drew the pictures including the manger, the hand, and the keyboard in Photoshop. I  engraved the score in Finale.

I have a traditional  score that I’m using with some of my students that is exactly like this, except the notes are on the grand staff . If there is enough interest from the UK, I will also post it here.

Colorful Paper Keyboards

Colorful Paper Keyboards

There are so many different things to do with a paper keyboard. There is something different about working away from the piano. Sometimes students freeze up at the piano and can’t even find middle C. I think it has something to do with performance anxiety, since the piano is usually used at the lesson to perform for the teacher. But away from the piano, our students are usually more relaxed. So a paper keyboard is a good tool to work on names of the keys.

There are other uses for a paper keyboard. You can use them at group lessons when you don’t have a real keyboard for students to use. Your students can “play” along with you or another student who is at the piano. Then students can take turns coming up and playing the same thing on your piano. They can practice 5-finger patterns, ostinati, simple duets, ensembles, and intervals, for example.

A paper keyboard can also be used to play games. I don’t have time today to list all the games I’ve played on a paper keyboard, but I hope to have time soon. 

I have made some black and white keyboards in the past, but the one I am posting today have the black key groups in color. I got the idea from a pre-school student who had some trouble keeping up with the other children in a game. By using a color to help her identify her position, she relaxed and was able to do just fine.

I like to make enough keyboards to use at a group lesson. Be sure and set your printer to landscape format. Then laminate, cut on the lines, trim next the the second group of three, and tape the two parts together so that it will fold easily for storage in a pocket folder. I use wide, clear strapping tape because regular tape will split at the fold after a few uses.  Place the first group of three on the left before you tape it, and your keyboard will have middle C in the middle!

Jewel Notes

Jewel Notes

 I like to use a variety of seasonal grand staves in private and group lessons for dictation,  learning note names, steps and skips, etc.

Recently my husband presented me with these stones he found. My husband is not a musician, but he loves all my games and is always trying to help me think of new ones.  I was so excited to get these stones because I love the color and they feel so good in the hand. I promptly made this staff and called it Jewel Notes. The stones are flat on the bottom and sit very nicely on the paper.

I used it in various ways with my group lessons. With one group I played a short group of notes that were stepping,  skipping, and repeating and the students took dictation using the stones. For older groups I made the dictation more difficult.  With another group I had students come and play a short pattern and the students wrote it with their stones. My students shared my enthusiasm for the stones!

There are hundreds of ways to use a grand staff, because, after all, if you don’t understand the staff, you can’t read music. You can use this to find landmark notes, learn the name of notes,  take music dictation, and even just to learn lines and spaces. It can be used with beginners to high school students. This is a great way to review for the ear-training portion of the Texas State Theory Test.

If you want to use this, print it in landscape and laminate it. If you don’t have any little glass stones, make some with construction paper or find something creative. I think it would be fun to have different colors of “jewels” and let the students choose.

On my website I have grand staves for various holidays as well as a plain black one. The idea is you can use seasonal items, such as candy, for your notes. This one doesn’t look much like October, but there is one on my website that is orange and you can use Candy Corn as the notes.

Cover the Key Game

Cards  for Cover the Keys Game

Every beginner’s first challenge is to learn the names of the keys on the piano. I think the fastest way to learn is to make a game of it, such as Cover the Keys. In the past I called out letters and the student would cover them with large plastic tokens that I bought at Staples.   

Recently I decided it would be more fun to select alphabet cards rather than calling them out, so I made some I could  use for a long time. 

To play this game, laminate the cards,  cut them out, and put them in a small bowl.  Laminate and print out one game board for each student. Students take turns  drawing the alphabet cards  and then covering the correct key on the Cover the Keys game board.  I still use my colorful  plastic tokens to cover the keys,  but I made the cards small enough to use as  tokens on the game board if you would rather do that.

In an individual lesson, I play along with the student.  One of my students is  just learning the notes, so I had to help her out.  After playing the game a few time, I didn’t need to help her because she had learned all the keys. How’s that for quick learning? When you take turns drawing the cards  there is an element of luck involved, and she was tickled to actually beat me!

If you play this game with a lot of students, be sure to print enough of the alphabet cards, especially if you use them as tokens.  I’ve actually never used the wild card, but since there was a space, I made one. It is certainly optional, and depends on how much time you have to play the game.

If you notice, I have the keys grouped into two and three black key groupings. If they learn that the group of two starts with C and the group of 3 starts with F, it helps them learn the keys faster. You can go to the piano before or after you play the game and have the student play CDE and then FGAB all the way up the piano. Little children, especially, need to relate the game board to an actual piano!

If you want an European version of the music alphabet, please send me an email and I will send you one. Tell me what you would like on it.

Five Little Pumpkins Pre-reading

Five Little Pumpkins

One of my beginning students knows this song, but he hasn’t learned to read on the staff yet. He saw the “on-the-staff” version and I could see in his eyes that he really wanted to play it. To give him a little treat, I wrote this pre-reading version.  Before you print it out for your students, please make sure they are old enough to follow the notes on the page.  This is longer than most pre-reading music and I didn’t want to make two pages, so there are a lot of notes packed into one page.

If  you want to use this with a student, here are my suggestions.

1. Sing the song together for several weeks so that your student knows it. Tap it out on the fall board. Do motions with it. Use rhythm instruments. Trust me, if they don’t know this song, it is going to be difficult to follow on the page. Remember, I wrote this out for a child who can already sing it.

2. When he knows the song, you are ready to teach it on the piano. I broke it into 2 lessons and only worked on the first four lines the first week. 

3. Young students will have LOTS of trouble  following all the repeated notes. All the quarter notes are really supposed to be eighth notes, of course, and there is a reason repeated eighth notes are beamed! So get out your trusty pointer and point to the notes to help the student follow the score.

4. Of course, some of the students are capable of playing this by ear, or partly by ear, so go for it! The days where piano teachers didn’t want students to learn to play by ear are over, thank goodness.  That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t learn their notes, but nowadays we want a balanced approach.  

This is a pre-school song, so your older elementary students will find it babyish. Go with your instincts. If you want the on-the-staff version I posted last year, here is the link.

For all the teachers who are curious about the artwork, I drew the pumpkins and grass in PhotoShop. I wrote the notes in Finale and imported the score into Photoshop where I changed the color of the notes and added finger numbers.

Rhythm Values for Fish Rhythm Cards

Rhythm Values for Fish Rhythm Cards

My little 5 year old student has enjoyed fishing for rhythm cards. He’s learned the names of all the notes now, and can almost remember the names of the rests. We played the rhythm memory game at our last lesson because he is learning the value of the notes now. Speaking of that memory game, how many teachers think I should make the cards bigger? Another teacher suggested I make some fish cards to go with the ones I posted a few days ago with the note values on them and the fish facing in the opposite direction. This way the student can match the note to the rhythm value with the correct fish facing each other. It seems really simple, but I think it’s going to be fun for a pre-school student. Let me know if it is fun for your pre-school student. I think even beginning first and second graders will like them!

To print, click on the link which will take you to my web site. Then click on “download” and you can print out a free PDF of the cards.

Three Halloween Pre-reading Sheets

Once a Year On Halloween

 

Halloween Is Almost Here

Halloween, Halloween

A few months ago I took these off my website because I wanted to fix them up, change some things around, and add key names over the rhythm notes. Well, I’ve finished them and here they are! These were a big hit with my students last year. If you have some beginning students who like to play Halloween pieces, try them out! I also have versions of these “on the staff” if your student is past the pre-reading stage. You can get them on my website.

I had every intention of adding teacher duets, but I just have not had time. So this will give you a good chance to improvise, if you’re not inclined to do that. Just play some perfect 5ths in the right key, and before long you will be making up your own teacher duet!

To print these,  click on the titles which will take you to my website. From there click “Download”.  They are free for you to print out  for your students to enjoy.

Fish Rhythm Cards

Fish Rhythm Cards

My beginning student wanted to play the fishing game, so I made some rhythm flash cards for him. He had not learned rests yet, but after playing this game, now he knows them!  I changed the color of the fish so they are all a solid color. I thought this would help young and/or distracted children to focus on the notes. Then they looked too plain, so I added the dots.

My little student is bothered by the fact that the dotted half note doesn’t have his own name!  He feels sorry for it. Then he wanted to know why I didn’t make a dotted half rest. Isn’t it funny what children will key on?

I also used these cards with lower elementary level students,  and for them I set a time limit to see how many they could catch and identify in a certain amount of time. Otherwise, we would have spent the whole lesson fishing, which I think was fine with the kids, but not for me because I have a lot of music I want to teach!

The cartoon nature of these cards show they are intended for young children, so I don’t plan to make any with higher note values. However, if you want to play a fishing game with older students, you can use regular flash cards. I suggest a time limit for this, too.

Every day I get emails asking me what program I use to make these fish. I drew these myself in Photoshop.  The reason they look so homemade is because they are! I’m not an artist, so it’s kind of painstaking for me. But I love art and I wish I could really draw.

Back to School

Back to School

I wrote another piece for my beginning pre-school student. I haven’t actually used it yet. Does anyone want to check it out for me and see if there are any errors? I usually like to use something before I post it.

This time I wrote a simple duet. My student is getting really good at playing with me. He always reminds me to play an introduction!

Soon, he is going to be using his thumb and pinkie. But I don’t want to go on until I am really sure he can follow 3 notes. I hope it is soon because I’ve just about written all the 3 note tunes I can think of!

Lizzy’s Cat — a pre-reading piece

Lizzy’s Cat

Young students often get the 4th and 2nd fingers mixed up. This is because the  child under 6 or 7 does not understands mirror image fingers like an older child. Even some older children get this mixed up when they first start lessons. And then there is me. I still get mixed up and will often write the opposite finger when I am putting finger numbers in my music.

With that in mind, I tried to come up with a way for students to see which finger to start with in each phrase. This is what I finally designed. Let me know if it helps one of your students.

If you have ever tried to write a song using only 3 fingers, you know that it is not as easy as it might seem, especially if you want all steps and no skipping fingers. My little student hasn’t learned to use the thumb yet.

For this piece, I was inspired by folk songs in the mixolydian mode,  with the flatted 7th tone in the melody.  According to my poll, most of you want me to write a teacher duet,  so I added one here. I couldn’t decide if I wanted the  8th notes to be swung jazz style or not, so I’ll leave that to you.

Continue to have the child drop into the keys. Don’t worry about legato playing at this point. Be sure and learn the rhythm well before trying to play the piece.

T-Ball

T-Ball

When I found out one of my beginning students has signed up for T-Ball, I wrote this. If you don’t live in the US and are not familiar with T-Ball, tell your students it is a beginning baseball game for 4-6 year old children where the ball is placed on a stand rather than using a pitcher.

You will notice I only used 3 notes in this piece. At this point these are the only fingers he is using. This will help him learn a good hand position because as soon as they use the thumb their hand may fall down and there goes their beautiful knuckle arch. Also, try to have your student drop into the keys rather than try to play legato. Even worse is lifting each finger individually.  If they drop into the keys with strong finger tips, it will really help strengthen the fingers and avoid the dreaded spaghetti (straight) fingers, the last finger joint caving out,  a puny little sound, and even hand injuries in the future.  A lot of future hand problems start right at this level.

I have started adding teacher duets to my pieces. I usually improvise a teacher duet to easy pieces. Sometimes I play one that I really like and then promptly forget it the next time. I have decided  that if I write one down I can use it over and over.

Well,  writing a teacher duet is more difficult than I expected. I’m not a professional composer, just a teacher who composes on the side. I want something easy that a teacher can sight read while she watches her student play, and yet still sounds half way decent. Then there is the problem of writing it in Finale and importing it into the student part. If you use these my pre-reading pieces, is it worth it for you? Please let me know what you think.

Picture of Table Top Keyboard

I decided to add a picture of the table top keyboard that my students are using from yesterday’s blog post. This one is sitting on the coffee table in my piano studio (living room). My husband got  a glass top to put on the coffee table so I don’t have to worry about students messing it up.

You can see the chips I bought last year. They are called Counting Chips and came in a package of 75 with 5 different colors. I got them at an office supply store in the “teaching” department. They are about 1 3/8″ in size (about 3.5 cm), so they are quite large for chips. This makes them very good for very young children.  Notice that they come blank, but I’ve written the alphabet on some of them. You can also use, milk carton tops,  checkers, or soda caps. If you want to make your own out of construction paper, find something around the house to draw your circles with, such as a medicine bottle.

Now think of all the games you can play with this table top keyboard!

Wiggly Worm

Wiggly Worm

I wrote this pre-reading piece a few days ago for my new student who is almost 5. Since he is so young, I was interested in knowing just how much reading he is able to do on his own so far. I wrote this to be a beginning *sight reading* exercise, so to speak. Sight reading is so much more successful if you prepare the rhythm, so we did that by first learning the rhyme, tapping it on our knees, and then the fall board using the correct hands. It worked very well, and he was able to play it with the correct fingers without any prompting from me.  Now I know he has learned the basics of pre-reading. He is a very visual learner and I think he’s going to be an excellent music reader one of these days.  

Because of my background in Kodaly, I always prepare the student for what is coming up. That is one of the many reasons I like My First Piano Adventures, because this preparation is built into the lessons.  At this lesson we continued our preparation of playing on the white keys by identifying the names of the white keys. Last week he learned C D E.  This week I  made a paper keyboard and he put chips on the correct keyboard names. (I will post that keyboard soon.) Also, he drew lines to the correct keys on a fun worksheet. Finally, we played  the “how fast can you run up and play the correct key” game. I was  amazed that he knew every one of them!  Next week he is going to learn his very first song on the white keys and he is very excited about that.  

We also worked on rhythm, steady beat, hand position, singing,  and some Kodaly hand signs. I try to do a little bit of everything at his lessons, even if it is just briefly and  not  spend too much time sitting at the piano. Teaching this age is quite different than starting an average age beginner and the teacher has to really feel comfortable with young children and moving around the room. A lot of teachers had bad experiences with pre-school children because they tried to teach them like a 7 year old.

I hope you like my new banner and also the redesign of my website. Now my website has tabs that organizes everything into categories. If you like my new website design, send me an email! I really love hearing from other teachers.

Right Hand, Left Hand

Right Hand, Left Hand

I tend to write things in a series, because as I’ve said before, I make this material for actual students. My new student loves the things I make for him and always looks forward to what I’ve made each week.

This “piece” is very practical. It is his first piece with both hands and it was so rewarding to see the look in his eyes when he realized he was going to use both hands!  I made Right Hand, Left Hand so he would be very successful on the first try, and the color coding did just that. I had prepared him well for stems going up and down. He uses My First Piano Adventures, and so he has done a lot of preparation in both the lesson and the writing book.

If you have a very young student or one with some learning differences, try this color method and I think you will find it to be very successful. I want to mention that the more we can do to help students be successful in piano, the more educated musicians we will have in the future. No, it’s not “dumbing down” teaching piano. It is opening the door to more students. Of course, we could teach the old way where most students drop out of piano, and only the most naturally gifted or extremely dedicated students take, but is that really our goal as teachers?

I am attending the National Piano Teachers Institute at SMU this week. I met one teacher from another state who knew me from my web site. She was a teacher who had suggested one of the ideas I posted. That was so cool!  I hope to post more about the workshop when I have some free time.  Let me just say that if you ever have a chance to see Dennis Alexander in person, please go!

What the Robin Said for beginners

What the Robin Said to the Worm

If your little student never mixes up his 2nd and 4th fingers on at least one hand, you have a very special preschooler. I find that about 100% of my preschoolers have trouble with the 2nd and 4th finger, but most of them eventually get it right. I also get my 2nd and 4th fingers mixed up so I certainly can understand the problems a pre-school child might have. In fact, when I first printed this I noticed that I had reversed those fingers on the little keyboard and I had to do it over again. Because of this reversal problem, I added little blocks to write in finger numbers. If your student is old enough, she can write it in herself. If will also be fine and save some time to discuss it and play various finger games, but you write it in for the student. It depends on the student.

If this is the first time you have seen this kind of music notation, take a look at my Fourth of July blog posting from  a few days ago. There I explain how to teach this kind of graphic. One other thing, be sure to encourage students to drop into the keys. They often have trouble doing that on the black keys, but don’t dwell on it.

I have posted several quick worksheets to help students with finger numbers if they continue to have trouble, even after all the activities in their method book.  Take a look at Colorful Fingers and Writing Finger Numbers if they need extra help.

To print this sheet, click on the title below the picture above. Do not click on the picture because there is no link there.  This will take you to my website where you click “preview” to print out a color PDF copy. Be sure to set your printer on landscape.

Fourth of July for beginners

Fourth of July

I have a preschool beginning student who is very enthused about taking piano. He’s only had a couple of lessons,  but each week I write  an easy little piece for him to play and he really likes them. We put them in a 3-ring binder that has a cute cover with his name on it that I made and printed out for him.  I print these  on 32 pound paper so they will hold up well.

This week I’m giving him this Fourth of July chant. It’s kind of hard to sing since the melody note is just a repeating E flat. If you are familiar with the beginning of the newer method books, this is the same kind of thing.  Teach your student to chant or sing the words in the correct rhythm keeping a steady beat.  Have your student “play” and chant on his lap until he memorizes the words before he tries to play it.  I hope the American flags will help the students’ eyes  track the finger numbers getting higher on the page.

If you don’t understand this page, here is how it works. The student plays right hand fingers 2 and 3 together on the black keys starting on D flat and E flat going up 3 octaves. The rhythm is 3 quarter notes and a dotted half note and repeats. At the end the student can improvise on the black keys while you play some sort of ostinato in the bass.

Triple meter can be challenging for young students. The more they beat these rhythms out on their knees or the fall board, the better they will be down the road. For those of you who may wonder why teach young children, the answer for me is that when they get older they have no rhythm problems, among other benefits.

One thing I wanted to do was encourage my student to improvise at the end. I don’t know if he’s ever seen fireworks, but I hope he has so we can play some shimmery sounds on the black keys. Of course, being a boy he might want to go down to the bass keys and play booms and crashes, and that’s ok, too. You never know who will turn out to be a composer!

Mother’s Day Pre-reading Activity

This is a Mother’s Day activity for the young beginner. 

I had a lot of fun making it and I hope it’s not over the top with all the pink polka-dots and hearts!

When I wrote this, I decided to make the tune very easy with only one measure containing steps and skips. I didn’t put any instructions on the sheet so students can present it to their Moms as a Mother’s Day present. If you have never used composing activities like this one, email me for instructions.

 If this activity seems too easy for your students and students are familiar with pentascales,  choose a challenging key.  In the white center of the green flowers at the bottom of the page, the student can either fill in finger numbers or note names. Since the composing section  is so short, encourage your student to move up or down octaves and not just stay in one hand position. My students love to try something different, even if it doesn’t make a lot of musical sense and I’m very accepting because that will encourage them to compose more.

If you want a pretty way  for students to present this to their Mother,  trim off the white border, laminate it, and add a pink bow. Or you could print it off on sturdy card stock or glue it to foam board.  If you have any other ideas, let me know!

Come Christians, Join to Sing (Pre-Reading)

Come Christians, Join to Sing

It seems to be hard to find pre-reading hymns for Easter, so I arranged this one for one of my students. This is a good hymn for beginners because of the simple rhythm and it has long been a favorite of children.

I’m posting this before I actually try it out with a student, which I don’t like to do, but Easter will be here very soon so I thought I’d better post it at the beginning of the week. If If there are any mistakes or trouble spots, I’ll fix them and re-post the music.

Cards for Bean Bag Toss Game

Cecilly sent me a game that she made up for beginning students who are just learning the keys on the piano and she wanted to get them away from the piano with an off the bench activity. Yesterday I posted the floor keyboard, and today I am posting the Cards for the Bean Bag Toss Game. As I read the directions to this game, I decided that there are a lot of ways to use a floor keyboard, so that is why I made one and posted it yesterday. You might notice that she specifically made the game for middle C position, but I included all the music alphabet in order to use the cards for different activities. I have already posted alphabet cards, but they are in all different colors. This set uses two colors, because in her game, one color is the RH and the other color is the LH. So enjoy the game with Cecilly’s directions below, or make up your own.

  I included an H in the cards for the European teachers who like to print out material but use an H in place of the letter B. I also included a sharp and flat because I just hate to leave an empty space!

Over the weekend I am going to post alphabet cards with sharps and flats on them so the game can be played with more advanced students.

Here are Cecilly’s instructions in blue print:

Middle C Position BeanBag Toss Game

 Something I did today with my beginner to help
reinforce both the names of the white keys and the letter names of
the middle C position is a little tossing game…

I placed 2 sets of letter cards face down on the floor. Set one was in one color and included the middle C position letters for the RH (CDEFT). The other set was in a different color and included the LH (CBAGF). I also placed my movable paper floor keyboard on the floor.

My student tossed a beanbag to the letters. He took the letter card he
landed on and then placed that letter on its corresponding key on
the floor keyboard. The color determined the correct placement of
course. I had a C in each color since middle C is used in both hands.

My student seemed to enjoy the activity which was followed up immediately with the theory page that will require him to name the keys in the middle C position.

 

 

 I appreciate all your comments on my blog, but I would like to point out that Cecilly is the very creative teacher who has supplied us with a lot of the *off the bench* game ideas I post. I try to make it clear when the game is her idea. All I do is make the graphics to her games. You can find all of the games from Cecilly in the Cecilly’s Game category section on the right.