Some Valentine Games, Music, and Activities

Here are some Valentine’s Day music and activities that I’ve posted over the years. First I list 7 elementary piano solos, and then some worksheets and games. Click on the link below the picture to download this Valentine’s Day Material.

Roses Are Red- for the first few weeks of lessons

Chocolate Valentines pre-reading

Chocolate Valentines on-the-staff

Love Somebody Pre-reading

Love Somebody Primer (on-the-staff)

Love Somebody Level 2 (8th notes and some hands together)

There’s a Little Wheel a-Turning in my Heart (late elementary)

Write a Valentine’s Song (a composing activity)

Valentine Notes (a worksheet to write notes on a grand staff)

Valentine Note  worksheet  (draw lines to connect notes to the staff)

Rhythm Heart Beats (for dictation) You can put this one on your IPad and save paper!

More Rhythm Heart Beats

Valentine Note Hunt – a student favorite!

Hearts and Clubs – Notes

Hearts and Clubs – Intervals

Hearts and Clubs – Keyboard Flash Cards (use these instead of note flash cards with the Hearts and Clubs Notes board game.

Steal a Heart – a board game for group lessons. This is good for reviewing ledger lines with your older students. My middle school students love this game in group lessons.

Cards for Steal a Heart – the PDF contains many ledger line cards.

If you want to keep up with other Valentine’s Day material I may post, you can subscribe to this Word Press blog at the top. It is completely private and you can unsubscribe any time.

Valentine “Card” Hunt

It’s Valentine’s Week, and if you’re looking for a last-minute quick and easy activity for young students, here is a Valentine’s Day game  you still have time to print  and use today! There is not much planning, the rules are simple, and all you need is a few minutes to cut out the cards . This activity is a re-post from January in case you are a new reader, or didn’t see it the first time I posted it, and I’m posting it here today as a reminder. Also some teachers wanted to see a photo of the folded cards. If you are a parent, this a fun game to play with your children to introduce rhythm names.

The printable cards look like this:

Valentine Card Hunt

Click on the link under the picture above. That will take you to my website where you can download the free printable. Print the pages on sturdy card stock and cut them out. Do not laminate the cards. Fold in the middle so the heart is on one side and the notes on the other. (Cardstock is easier to fold if you score it lightly using a ruler and a dull point, such as a dull butter knife. Leave a comment if you need more directions.) After folding, the cards sit up like a tent. Hide them around the room with the Valentine heart facing out. Do not hide too well, or students will not find them and next Christmas you will still be finding Valentine cards in little hidey-holes in your studio!

Directions

Tell your student that you have hidden little Valentine “cards” all over the room. The cards have different rhythm values on the back. The student’s job is to find and collect the ones with half notes (or whatever note you want to work on) as fast as possible.  Depending on how much time you have, you can play again, collecting different rhythms.

This is also an excellent activity to introduce a new rhythm to beginning students.

Objective

• To quickly learn to recognize rhythm note names
• To learn that stems can go up or down
• To introduce rhythm names to beginners
• To play a fast (under 3 minutes) Valentine’s Day game

Ages

• Early childhood to grade 2 or 3

This is a variation of a game idea from Cecilly called Quarter Note Hunt, and it has been a long time favorite in my studio.

Hearts and Clubs – Intervals

Hearts and Clubs Interval Game

I really meant to post this earlier but it is a busy time of the year. This is an interval game using my Hearts and Clubs theme. The hearts make it a good game for Valentine’s, but it can also be played any time of the year. This is another fast learning game that will not take up very much lesson time.

Objective

•  learn to identify intervals quickly by sight
• review intervals if the student already knows them
• quickly identify intervals under pressure

Ages

• Suitable for elementary and older students who have learned intervals up to octaves
• Some younger children can play if given lots of time

Materials Needed

• Printed game board with the interval flash cards
• Sand timer or stop watch
• Bingo chips

Directions

Give the student a set of interval flash cards. Set the timer. The student quickly draws a flash card and places a bingo chip on the corresponding interval degree.  The object is to cover all the interval degrees on the game board in the fastest time possible. Beginning students might enjoy a non-timed game better.

This game can also be played with student and teacher or at a group lesson.

Student and teacher: One player uses the hearts on the game board and the other uses the clubs. Players take turns drawing flash cards and covering the corresponding interval with chips on their game board. The first person who covers all their hearts or clubs wins.

In a group: Each player has a game board and bingo chips or you can put two students on each card. Students take turns drawing flash cards and covering the corresponding interval with bingo chips. Place discarded flash cards back in the deck or print extra if you have a large group.

Hearts and Clubs – Keyboards

Hearts and Clubs – Keyboards

A few readers wondered if I had some keyboard cards to use with the Hearts and Club Note game I posted last week. As a matter of fact, I did, but I was having a problem with what to do with the extra space on the page. I just hate to leave a space blank!

Jennifer Fox suggested I use an empty keyboard, similar to the Fly Keyboard cards, so that is what I did. You can either use it as a wild card, or take a red marker and make it whatever key you wish. Or use it for your student to draw the letters on the keys.If it is laminated, you can use it reuse it next year.

In order to play this game, you will have to use the game board for the Hearts and Club Note game. You will also find the rules for the game on that post. All you need to do is modify the game for use with the keyboard cards. You can also use these cards as flash cards, if you don’t want to play the game. And don’t forget the famous “run up to the piano and play this card as fast as you can” game!

Valentine Rhythm Hunt

Valentine Rhythm Hunt

I made this last year, using a variation of a game idea from Cecilly. All of my younger students played it at their private lesson the week of Valentine’s. They liked it so much we also played it at our performance class.

Students should be familiar with the rhythm names of notes. If they are beginners and are not secure in the names yet, use the game as a way to teach rhythm identification. It is a fast way to learn the names of notes.

Objective

• review rhythm note names by sight
• quickly identify rhythms under pressure
• play a fun, seasonal game in less than 3 minutes

Ages

• Younger children, ages 5-8

Materials Needed

• Printed Valentine rhythm cards, cut and folded, but not laminated
• stop watch or mobile phone timer

Directions

Print and cut out these Valentine rhythm cards and fold to make a tent card. Before your student arrives, place the cards around the room with the heart side facing out. Call out a rhythm value, such as “quarter note,” and start the timer. Have your student quickly find all the notes of that value. If you have time, your students can hunt for other note values. Depending on the age of the students, don’t hide them too carefully or they will not be able to find them! It is so much fun to watch them quickly run around the room looking for notes!

Children love this game. It can be used at an individual lesson or with a group. For a non-seasonal version of the same game, see Cecilly’s game, Quarter Note Hunt.

Hearts and Clubs – Notes

Hearts and Clubs

This is the first in a set of “Hearts and Clubs” activities that do not take up much valuable lesson time. I am posting this note identification printable in time for Valentine fun, but I made it generic enough so that it can be played all year long. The game board is just a starting place for all the different ways it can be used. Have fun coming up with new ideas!

There are 3 pages of flash cards included in this PDF document. If you wish, you can use your own flash cards. To keep from printing the flash cards, set your printer to print page one only.

Objective

• learn to identify notes on a grand staff  by sight
• quickly identify the notes on the grand staff
• use flash cards in a fun way

Ages

• Suitable for elementary and older piano students

Materials Needed

• Printed game board
• Note flash cards included in the download (or use your own), shuffled well
• Bingo chips

Directions

There are several ways to play this learning activity.

1. Individually: Put the flash cards you want the student to review in a stack face down. Using an hourglass sand timer, the student quickly draws a flash card and places a bingo chip on the corresponding note name. The object is to cover all the note names on the  game board before the hourglass runs out.  An alternate version is to use a stopwatch instead of a sand timer.

2. Two players, such as student and teacher or two students:  One player uses the hearts on the game board and the other uses the clubs. Players take turns drawing flash cards and covering the corresponding note names with chips on their game board. The first person who covers all their hearts or clubs wins.

3. In a group: Each player has a game board and bingo chips or you can put two students on each card. Students take turns drawing flash cards and covering the corresponding note names with bingo chips. Place discarded flash cards back in the deck or print extra if you have a large group. If the group has different levels, give the beginners the easier flash cards.

Roses Are Red – a Pre-reading Valentine

Roses Are Red

I have a new little student who just started lessons using the unique and very creative piano method book, My First Piano Adventures, by Nancy and Randall Faber. This wonderful series is has everything you need for young beginners, but I like to make extra material to go along with the book, just for fun or review.

My student was so excited when I asked her if she would like a Valentine’s song! When I checked out my resources, I could not find a Valentine’s piece that was easy enough, so I came up with a Valentine she can play.

If you like using this kind of material for young beginners, get a copy of My First Piano Adventures Book A and study it carefully!

Steal a Heart Note Reading Game for Ledger Line Notes

Steal a Heart Game

 The purpose of this game is to reinforce note names with an emphasis on the really difficult ledger line notes like the ones below. Your older students will shudder in mock-dread when they see these little puppies!

I don’t like them, either, but the thing is, composers actually USE these notes so it comes in handy to know them!

I also included the ledger line notes in the middle of the grand staff on both the treble and bass staves, such as these.

However, the you can choose the level to suit your students, because I also made a page with the easy notes! You can print out the cards you want and select cards for different levels.

To play the game, give each student a game board and stack all the little heart cards face down in reach of everyone. Students will draw a heart card (that you are going to have to cut out; oh dear), name the card,  and place it on an empty heart on their game board. The object of the game is to cover all the hearts on the game board. There are only 12 heart spaces, so the game goes fast. If a student draws a Steal a Heart card, he may take a heart from the game board of the person on his right, but he must name the note he is stealing. If he draws a Be Mine card, he puts it over a card he has already named on his game board to “protect” it, and then draws another card.  Another player may not steal a heart that is “protected.” (It is important to draw another card to move the game along and also so he can practice naming the notes.)  If a student draws a Give my Heart card, he gives one of his cards to the player on his right, who  must name the card before he can take it. You can modify this game however you want, but that’s how we played it and everyone thought it was fun, since I gave them time to figure out the note names.

Steal a Heart Cards

You will need to print out enough little cards so that there are at least 12 to 16 note cards for each student. You will need about 1 page of the written conversation cards  for every 2 students so there will be a good balance between note cards and conversation cards. Look at the 4 page PDF before you print so that you can print out what  you need. Use card stock and laminate everything, or spray with a clear acrylic spray coating.

To be honest, I had trouble cutting the hearts out, so I added cutting lines.  I took a look at all those hard to cut out hearts and knew my hands would never make it for my large group lesson. When you start to cut a lot of these cards, you will thank me.

Have fun and thanks to all of you who are supporting this blog. I very much appreciate all of you!

Chocolate Valentines and other Valentine Piano Music

Chocolate Valentines pre-reading

Here is a little Valentine’s piece for your beginning students who have learned how to use all 5 fingers. It’s very easy because there are no skipping notes. It is good for sight-reading because the second line is a little harder for them.

I have several students who are beginning readers and I wanted to re-use my graphic, so I made an on-the staff version.

 Chocolate Valentines on-the-staff

If you are looking for more Valentine’s Day material, a few years ago I posted several arrangements of folk songs we sang when I taught school, as well as some Valentine themed activities. The links are below:

Love Somebody Pre-reading

Love Somebody Primer (on-the-staff)

Love Somebody Level 2 (8th notes and some hands together)

There’s a Little Wheel a-Turning in my Heart (late elementary)

Write a Valentine’s Song (a composing activity)

Valentine Notes (a worksheet to write notes on a grand staff)

Valentine Note  worksheet  (draw lines to connect notes to the staff)

Rhythm Heart Beats (for dictation)

More Rhythm Heart Beats

If you want to keep up with other Valentine’s Day material I may post, you can subscribe to this Word Press blog at the top. It is completely private and you can unsubscribe any time.

Enjoy!