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 (70% off......woohoooo!). Finding inexpensive pumpkins proved to be a bit of a challenge but I finally found some.
I put velcro dots on the sleeves of the scarecrows and on every pumpkin and used velcroed game pieces from another one of my games to set it up.
On either sleeve of each scarecrow is a picture of some musical term such as "mf" and on each pumpkin is a definition that matches the pictures on the scarecrows' sleeves. My students have up to 5 minutes to lay the pumpkins down next to the matching scarecrows. The smile on their faces has made all the preparation worth it!
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. 
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. 
This game is also good at helping my students visualize the piano keys in their minds. Keyboard visualization is such an important skill to have when playing piano especially when the students begin jumping all around the keyboard. They have to have a good idea and memory of where their fingers are without constantly looking down to make sure.
Games like this really help to build visualization skills in my students. This game takes no more than 2 minutes to play. Remember to count your blessing this week! Happy Thanksgiving. This is piano blogger signing off.........
