Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

I love thinking up ways to help my students quickly identify and locate piano notes. I came up with this game about 3 years ago and have been using it ever since. The beauty of a game like this is that it grows with your students. All you need for this game is card stock, magic markers, colored sticker dots, and a ball.  I'd suggest laminating anything you make. There's this store near to where I live that allows you to laminate your own stuff for only $.25 a foot!  I go in there at least once a week.  Great place! I lay down six to seven note cards on the floor.  Each with a  circle sticker adhered to a particular note. Then I hand my students the ball.  I hold up either a letter name or staff note (depending on their level of understanding) and they have to find the card on the floor that matches the card in my hand.  When they find it, I tell them to slam the ball down onto the card as hard as they'd like.  ...

WOW! It's been a while since I've blogged.  I just had to share this game I'm having my students play this week.  I like getting the kiddos outdoors every once in a while to take teaching beyond the four walls of my studio.  Since we're in the middle of our fall season I wanted to create an outdoor matching game where my students would match pumpkins to scarecrows.  I feel the best way to keep musical terms and note identification fresh in my students' minds is to constantly quiz them with  games. I got this idea as I was wandering the aisles of a local fabric store and spotted these amazing scarecrows.....DING!  The idea had been planted.  I then thought, "wouldn't it be cool if I could buy 10 ornamental (fake) pumpkins and have the kiddos run around my front yard matching pumpkins to scarecrows?" I kept visiting the fabric store until the scarecrows were discounted as far as they were going to go  (...