I Can Count Rhythm – a Beginning Worksheet

I Can Count Rhythm

Today I am posting the second worksheet in my “I Can” series for young beginners. My last post was I Can Write the Music Alphabet. The one I am posting today reviews rhythm. I think that it is also big enough to use on the iPad.

As with all of my worksheets, this is free for personal use. In order to print, click on the picture or the link below the picture. That will take you to another page, where you will select “download”.

I am working on a worksheet like this for rests, so hold on and I’ll post it this week. Meanwhile, don’t forget these fun rhythm games for the younger set: Quarter Note Hunt, Fish Rhythm Matching Cards,  Rhythm Round About, and Counting Up the Mountain. Average age beginners will learn rhythm values quickly with the black ink Rhythm Memory Game.

If you use all of these games with your beginning students, they will probably learn rhythm note values very easily!

I Can Write the Music Alphabet Worksheet

I Can Write the Music Alphabet

I love to make theory worksheets for my students! Just a little bit of color makes them so much more fun for students.

This worksheet is for beginning students who are learning the music alphabet. I made it with large, easy to read print for younger children. The larger print also makes it possible to use this on your iPad with older beginners who can write smaller. You will have to experiment because pre-children vary a lot in their ability to write on the iPad.

All my printables are free for personal use. In order to print, click on the picture or the link below the picture. That will take you to another page, where you will select “download”.

I am making a series of these larger worksheets for my younger students. I will post more as I have time. I hope you enjoy them!

Thanksgiving Games and Worksheets

A few weeks ago I posted some Thanksgiving hymns and fun songs. I just realized I have never published a list of Thanksgiving material from my website.

I’ve only made one Thanksgiving Game, and I need to make some more for an upcoming group lesson. Below is a game my students loved last year. You can find the directions here. It’s very easy and fast, plus, it comes in 3 ability levels.

Save the Turkey Game, easiest version

For a slightly more difficult version of the same game, try  Save the Turkey Game, set two

There is a more advanced version of these cards, too. The only reason I call this intermediate level is because of the key signatures.  The more difficult key signatures can be removed to make this a much easier game.

Save the Turkey, early intermediate version

Next, here are some Thanksgiving worksheets from my website.

The next worksheet, Turkey Find the Notes, can be put in a sheet protector and used with a wet erase or a dry erase marker. That way you only have to print one copy and you can use it over and over. Also, this is big enough to use with your iPad or Kindle Fire.

Turkey Find the Notes (black and white)

Color the Feathers is a quick worksheet to review treble clef notes.

Color the Feathers

I also made a black and white version. This is good to use at a group lesson with the students who come early.

Color the Feathers (black and white)

I posted my revised version of Funny Thanksgiving Food a few weeks ago. Two versions are available, one in color like the example below, and one in black and white. I made the color version to be used with an iPad or Android tablet.

Funny Thanksgiving Food

I made the Turkey Egg Worksheet to help my beginners learn the alphabetical order of notes on the staff. Some of my younger students are amazed to learn that turkeys lay eggs!

Turkey Egg Worksheet

Thanksgiving Group Lessons

If you have ever wondered how to make sure everyone has the same amount of lessons the week of Thanksgiving without taking the entire week off, try having group lessons or a Christmas performance class on Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. It is too late to consider it this year, but you can put it on your calendar for next year.

Strawberry Notes

Strawberry Notes

The TMTA convention was  last week, and I really enjoyed myself. I saw so many old friends and made some new ones.  I talked to many publishing representatives as well as authors of the excellent piano teaching material available to us. I hope that I will find time to review some of the new music resources I learned about.

Today I am posting a worksheet to coordinate with this summer’s ladybug theme. It often takes students several years to learn to identify note names, and a little color on the page is a lot more fun. I like to work on lines and spaces separately at first, so I grouped them together.

A lot of teachers have told me their students are enjoying the “Summer Treat” set of worksheets I posted last year. If you are a new reader, the links are below.

Summer Treat Note Story 

Orange Popsicle Notes

Frozen Yogurt Rhythms

Snow Cones Signs and Symbols

Thank you for all your kind comments. It is really wonderful to be appreciated!

Bunny Basics

Bunny Basics

One of my students has a pet bunny, so I made a music note story worksheet for her. I am sharing it with you in case you are looking for something for the Easter season. You can use it at a group lesson or give it to an individual student.

I learned some new facts about rabbits while I worked on this and maybe you will, too!

Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats Revised

Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats, the worksheets that I made several years ago, are great to help students who are having trouble writing key signatures. Sometimes students are confused or have trouble putting the accidentals on the correct line or space.  Last year I changed some of the graphics in my old versions  for a cleaner, more updated look, and I am just now posting them.

I laminate these and use them as helpful posters when I am showing how to write key signatures.  They can also be printed and put in the  student’s binder for reference. The blank staff at the bottom can be used for practice. If you print multiple copies, try using the “fast” or “economy” setting to save ink. I do that and they look fine, just not as vibrant.

The large staves and spaced apart sharps and flats really do make writing key signatures simple and fearless, especially if I use them with 2 other helpful posters on a giant staff, Down a Fourth and Up a Fourth. Many students have told me they didn’t understand how to write key signatures until we used Simple Sharps and Fearless Flats. With fall testing coming around, I hope they will be useful.

Orange Popsicles – to practice writing notes on a grand staff

 

Orange Popsicles

 This weekend I am attending the Texas Music Teacher’s Convention. We have a lot of teachers in Texas, so we have 3 days of workshops.

The convention is great. I have already attended 3 sessions with Randall Faber, and sessions with Jennifer Lin, Brenda Dillon, Richard Rejino, and some other great teachers. I picked up a lot of tips and  ideas which I hope to try out with my students. If you ever have the opportunity to attend workshops for piano teachers, please take advantage of them. I  always get excited about teaching and enthused to try out all the new ideas and music.  And it is so wonderful to get together with like-minded people, because the average person doesn’t understand what is involved with being a good piano teacher.

Today I got up really early to post this companion to Frozen Yogurt Rhythms in case you want to use both printables together. You can either make copies for their notebooks, or make one laminated copy to use in your studio.

This is a continuation of my summer treats theme.  I am an amateur computer artist, but it is a  fun hobby for me.  Art is very much like piano. The more time you spend on it, the better you get.  I don’t have a lot of natural art talent, but I keep working at it, just like a student has to do to be a good musician.

Frozen Yogurt Rhythms

 Frozen Yogurt Rhythms

Every summer I have a theme for printable material for my younger students.  I have a group of the cutest young students, all about the same age, and I’m making some theory sheets for them to help study for the Texas theory exam. Maybe because it is so hot, my theme this year is “summer treats”.   (Last year my theme was frogs!)

There are some great frozen yogurt shops popping up all over the place nowadays,  so my first worksheet  is  Frozen Yogurt Rhythms.  This one has 4 short rhythm activities that will help students learn how to count  and maybe have a little fun.  I’ve made some more printable worksheets featuring fun treats for the summer that I am using with my younger students, and I’ll post them as I have time. I told my students that when they finish all of their summer worksheets, we will go out for a treat. I hope they choose frozen yogurt!

This weekend TMTA is having their annual convention with 3 days of non-stop recitals, workshops and presentations. I’m so excited to be able to visit with some of my favorite composers and I hope I will get a lot of new ideas to inspire me!

Lots of Goofs!

Lots of Goofs!

Have you ever worked on composing with your students and noticed how much trouble they have with all the little rules about symbol placement? Sometimes students ask me why it is so important to put everything in the exact place, and I remind them that music notation has been around for hundreds of years and used by people all over the world. We are very precise so it will stay that way.

This sheet will also help students who are preparing for theory exams.  As a state theory grader for many years, I noticed in particular that students put whole and half rests on the wrong line, stems on the wrong side and in the wrong direction, accidentals after the note, and flags are all over the place!

I made this for students who are about 9 and 10 years old and taking level 4 of the Texas State Theory Test, but one of my younger students asked if I would make an easier version because he thought it looked like fun. If you have any ideas of what should be on an easier version for 6 and 7 year olds, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Christmas Vocabulary Matchup

Music Vocabulary Matchup

If it’s not too late in the season, here is a worksheet for first year students to draw lines to match up vocabulary words and symbols. Sometimes students arrive at group lessons early and it’s a good idea to have something to keep them busy! Or maybe you would like to do something different at the last lesson of the year.

When I drew this red and green border, I intended on making many levels of vocabulary words for all my students.  But I think I got carried away drawing the border and ran out of time!  I was interested in making something seasonal, but suitable for all ages. Maybe next year I can add to the series.

Christmas Worksheet

Well, I guess I can put my turkey pictures away and start polishing up my Santas. I already have some Christmas themed material ready to be posted, so watch for it in the next week or so.

I would like to encourage teachers who use my  worksheets to sit with the younger students and do it with them. From all the worksheets I publish on this blog, you might think that my students are doing written work and games all the time. That is far from reality, but I do have to adjust my teaching from kindergarten to twelfth grader in a short time span.  Most of the time I work at the piano doing my best to teach musicality.  I’ve noticed that if I don’t use too much written work and if I do it with the students, they enjoy it more. It is also true if you teach very little ones, you need to break up the time. Sitting one-on-one with a worksheet such as the one I’m posting today can be useful for this. Plus, if you are doing it with the student, you can sing as you write. As Georg Telemann said in the 17th century, “Singing is the foundation of music in all things.”

My grandson and I worked this Christmas Worksheet together. He is very young and doesn’t take piano yet. But he loves music, the piano, and can write the alphabet. So together we learned that the music alphabet only has 7 letters and he was delighted to write the letters inside the notes with my help. By the time we got to the treble clef he knew that A comes after G.  We sang as we wrote. He also loved to be able to point to middle C. He proudly showed it to his mother when she came to pick him up. We want our time with our little ones to be joyful and fun.

For those of you who want a “mixed up” version of this worksheet for a student a little further along, I already have made it.  I have one little student that I’m going to sit with as we do it together. I’ll post it soon or send it to you are a PDF if you’ll email me. Also, I have a cute blank staff with peppermint clefs that you can use can use at a group lesson with peppermints as the “notes” that I’ll post in a few days.

ABC Guidenote Worksheet

 

We always have students who need some extra help in note reading. I created this worksheet to see if learning all the A’s on the staff will be easier way of learning guide notes. I printed this out in black and white and I think it will work for those of you with black and white printers. The red comes out as grey. The graphic at the top is kind of muddy. I always appreciate feedback, so let me know if you would like some more worksheets of this type.

Writing Finger Numbers for Young Beginners

I am starting some new beginners and I have been busy making some new worksheets. This one is to label the finger numbers on the right and left hands. They will be doing this in their new writing book, but I want to have some exra on hand for group lessons. I also made one for older beginners with the hands turned both ways and no teddy bear. If anyone wants me to post it, send an email or leave a comment. Write the Finger Numbers