Piano Ninja Warrior!

 Happy Holidays to everyone!  I have to say that this is one of my crazier metronome activities but my students absolutely LOVE it!  I came up with the title based on the show "American Ninja Warrior".  The obstacle course itself was inspired by Christie Burnett, editor of www.Childhood101.com who calls her activity  Don't Ring the Bells! Obstacle Course,  I added a few extra things and took out a few to appeal to my youngest to oldest piano students.  I created 4 obstacles.  I love Christie's idea of adding bells to each of her obstacles.  It makes it so much more fun and challenging not to mention festive.

The first obstacle is getting through both hula hoops within 8 metronome beats.  I added an extra hoop to mine to make it extra challenging!  I think when my kiddos do this next week I'll hang the bells down lower.  I decided to wrap the hula hoops in holiday ribbon as an added touch.

The second obstacle is going under the bar and heading to the next obstacle within 12 beats.  I also wrapped the bar with holiday ribbon.  Next week I'll lower the bar.  YIKES!

 The third obstacle is jumping over the garland with both feet at the same time landing on marked spots on each side of the garland.  They only have 2 beats to complete each jump creating a zigzag pattern.  Not sure how I'll change this next week.  Maybe I'll have the kiddos jump on every beat.  Hmmm........

The fourth and final obstacle is putting a hand through each of the slots of the box within 10 beats;  having 10 beats to grab the plastic candy cane from each of the 4 slots.  

   This obstacle has proven to be the most difficult for my students because I tied jingle bells to each of the 4 wreaths.  I found an empty box in my garage that I cut 4 holes into, wrapped with festive paper, and adhered 4 wreaths onto.  I dropped a plastic candy cane in each of the 4 slots.

Game Rules:

1. Every student starts out with 60 points

2. Points get deducted if they ring any of the bells while going through, under, and over things as well as going off the metronome beat

3. TWO points get deducted every time a bell jingles

4. FIVE points get deducted if they don't stay on the metronome beat for the specified number of beats each obstacle requires

5. TWO points get deducted for missing the marks while jumping over the garland

6.  If a student earns 50 points or more, they get their name and score written on the "Piano Ninja Warrior" wall of fame for all other students to see. Abishai, Amina, Abigail B.,Bolito, Shashwath, Sydney, Lainey, Abby C., Ella S., Jacob, I'mani, Ella L., Mabry, and Chase have made it on the list with Hannah, Carolina, and Emily tied for first place with a score of 58 points each.   

Most of the materials needed for the course were things I already had somewhere in my house or garage.  The other items like the wreaths, bells, and plastic candy canes, I bought from my most favorite store EVER......Dollar Tree®!   This course took a bit of work and time but seeing the smiles on my students faces made it all worth it.  Until next time, piano blogger signing off.......

Understanding Intervals

Hi Everyone!  I decided to write a blog on understanding intervals since a good number of my parents have been asking about this concept.  We'll start with labeling a few of the piano keys.

The musical alphabet consists of 7 letters A-G which repeats itself over and over up and down the piano.  So every white note is a letter from A-G.

The note with the blue tab will be the starter note which is C.  The 2nd note after C (to the right of C) is D.  The 3rd note after C is E, etc.  Intervals are the distance between two notes.  How far one white note is from another.  Translating the top example into intervals:  E is the 3rd note after C or an interval of a 3rd up from C.  G is the 5th note after C or G is an interval of a 5th up from C.

Going the other direction: B is the 2nd note down from C (to the left of C) or an interval of a 2nd down from C.  G is the 4th note down from C or an interval of a 4th down from C.

Application:  Now the blue tab is on the letter E.  E is now the starter note.  What's an interval of a 4th up from E?  What's an interval of a 2nd down from E?

Until next time, Piano blogger signing off.........

Ice Cube Tray Game

OMGosh!  Summer break flew by.  Geez Louise!  I find that the older I get, it seems, the faster time goes by.  I hope your summer break was filled with lots of trips to the pool and picnics!  

I couldn't think of a musically related name for this game so I'm calling it the "Ice Cube Tray Game". I know, not very original but there you go!  The three places I LOVE to shop at are craft/hobby stores, teacher stores, and my all time favorite......dollar stores.  A few weeks back I was roaming the aisles of Dollar Tree® and came across these blue ice cube trays (2 in a pack).  I couldn't think of what to do with them at the time but I just knew that a game would come to me eventually.  A week before the beginning of the new school year I laid the trays out in front of me hoping that somehow an idea would pop into my head........nothing!  My creative juices were not flowing AT ALL!  So I stacked them up and put them away but kept thinking about them.  FINALLY, a few days before lessons started I came up with something that so far my kiddos have enjoyed immensely!  PHEW! You know, sometimes I get really excited about a new game, think it's going to be a hit with my students, and it bombs BIG TIME!  Of course, those are the games that never make it onto my blog.  LOL! This one is turning out to be one of my students' favorites!  Since my studio has limited space I like activities that don't take up a lot of room.  This activity is really cheap and easy to store.

So this is the game:  I bought 3 packs of ice cube trays from Dollar Tree®, typed out a sheet of tasks I wanted my students to complete, cut them into small slips of paper, folded them, and placed a piece of paper in most of the tray slots.  As you can see, I had them complete all sorts of tasks like clapping out rhythm patterns with a metronome, identifying musical terms, locating staff notes on a rubber piano, musical math, etc. I have 2 rubber pianos in my studio that I bought years ago from Toys R Us® for an incredible price during Black Friday but you could simply use a picture of piano keys or the piano itself.  I wanted the kiddos to stay in one place to save time rather than running around my studio to complete some of the tasks.  I left some of the spaces blank on a few musical math tasks to insert the division sign since I had no idea had to create the division sign with my computer keyboard.

Okay, so each slot holds a slip of folded paper with a task.  They'd start at the bottom left hand side of the tray and move up and around like an upside down "U".  If the student completed the task in the first slot correctly they'd move to the next slot.  After completing the first three slots they'd win the item in the fourth slot which they were able to remove and put aside.  Then they'd move through the next three slots to hopefully win the next item.  You get the idea!  If they were able to complete the entire game within the time limit, they earned a sticker on their prize sheet or a piano buck.   Rule of thumb with time limits:  time yourself playing the game and multiply that time by three.  That's how much time you need to give your students.

There has been no prep involved in between lessons since I've been loading the trays up before my kiddos come for the day.  I use an overhead marker to write the name of each of my students on a tray to keep them organized.  At the end of the day, I just wipe off their names with a damp paper towel and the trays are ready to be used again.  The neat thing about this game is that you can customize it to exactly where your students are in your program.  I've been finding, though, that I'm able to re-use sets of tasks for multiple students which I will be saving for the next time they play this game.

I RARELY reward my students with candy but I decided to for this game as you can see with the first two "prize slots".  I asked their parents for permission before hand.  My student, Elizabeth, likes Skittles® and M&Ms®.  The third prize was an eraser shaped like a hamburger.  I wanted one of the rewards to to relate to school but you could place anything in the "prize slots" like a sticker, multicolored erasers, a shiny rock or marble, or maybe a small bouncing ball.

This game tests EVERYTHING!  I will definitely be using this again in the future.  Until next time, Piano Blogger signing off...................

Musical Fish Tank

Ah! I LOVE summer.  Things seem to slow down this time of the year. You get to splash in a pool, inner tube down a river, enjoy a refreshing snow cone or a tall glass of lemonade while chatting with your friends sitting in lawn chairs, have picnics, walk in the warm rain, listen to outdoor entertainment, watch movies in a park, and the best part about the summer is that there is more daylight!

I wanted my piano students to start off their summer piano session with a game that represented this season best.  I don't know about you but when I think of summer I think of water play!  While walking through Michael's­® (a craft/hobby store)  I came across a set of water creatures that were on sale and I got to thinking, "Now what I can I do with these?".  There were 6 creatures in a set as well as a small net so I bought 2 sets to cover 12 musical terms per level of instruction.  Here is a picture of a few of them.  

I immediately thought of dropping them in a container filled with water which I'd call the big fish tank.  I already had a plastic container sitting in our garage so no extra expenditure there and to get the most from my purchase at Michael's® I covered 5 different topics with all 12 creatures.  So on each creature there were 5 different terms.  You can see a few of them down below.  I wrote things everywhere; on fins, underbellies, heads, legs, just anywhere there was space.

This is where I got stuck.  What do I do next?  I asked my incredibly smart creative son who gave me the idea of getting a few smaller containers (tanks), filling them with water, and making it so that the children would need to sort the creatures out from the big "tank" into the smaller "tanks" based on what was shown on each container.  I headed over to the Dollar Tree® and found 4 plastic containers, placed a velcro dot on each which I already had (so once again no extra money spent there), created slips of paper to place on each of the smaller tanks with clip art, printed them out onto card stock, laminated them, cut them to size, and added a velcro dot on the backs of each card.  It was extremely easy to switch out the cards between lessons!  I had all of these supplies on hand already since I'm always needing them to create new games.  If you like creating games like I do a small laminator (one that can laminate a standard size piece of paper) is a great investment. 

                     

In the example above to the right I created cards to test some of my students' knowledge of their white notes.  One of the terms on each of the creatures were letter names corresponding to the pictures on each of the four containers. I drew a red dot on a particular note for each picture of notes.

I decided to set this game up outside so that I wouldn't need to worry about my students making a watery mess inside my house.  I set a table up, covered it with a plastic table cover, filled the big "tank" and 4 smaller "tanks" up with water from our outside hose, and the game was ready!  My younger students (up to the age of 10 years) played this game and couldn't get enough of it.  I told them that they needed to scoop the creatures out of the big tank with the net, pick them up them from the net with their fingers, look for the term they needed, and place them in to smaller tanks where they belonged.  I had to help my really young students out by directly pointing to the term on the creature they needed to identify and after telling me the meaning of the term I pointed to the smaller "tank" it belonged in if they were not able to read on their own.  I gave them 4 minutes to complete it and let them know periodically how much time they had left to keep them on track.  The total cost of this game was $13.00 but I could have saved $5.00 if I had bought the water creatures from Dollar Tree®.

 I'm not sure if you have a Dollar Tree® ­ near you but they are selling a set of 3 creatures and a fishing pole as I am writing this blog (Picture above).  I happen to like the more 3 dimensional creatures that Michael's® had so I splurged a bit plus I managed to get 5 games out of  it.  I may even fit more terms onto each of those little critters as time goes on and get even more games out of it! Until next time.  Piano blogger signing off......

Update: Candy Cup Throw

Hi All!  The Valentine's Day game was a huge success last week!  After observing my students of all ages play this game, here are the rules I settled on:

-Total game time 5 minutes
-Children up to 8 years of age will throw hearts in the first 6 cups
  -every 2 cups equals one prize sheet sticker
-Children older than 8 years of age can throw hearts in all 10 cups
  -1st 3 cups equals a sticker, next 4 another sticker, and the last 3 one final sticker
-They must pitch hearts in sequential order (cup 1, then 2, 3, etc.)
-If a heart lands in a cup out of sequence it will count if/when they get to it
-Get a heart in the targeted cup, answer the question correctly, move onto the next cup

Ideas for questions:
-show pictures of musical terms for students to identify
-have them roll the dice from my "note rollers" blog and locate notes on the piano
-have students solve musical math problems drawn on index cards
  Ex. (Dotted half note x whole) + half note=

Until next time......

A Valentine's Day Game: Candy Cup Throw

Hi All!  This week my kiddos will be playing a game I thought up while walking through the aisles of a local "Dollar" store. I LOVE the "Dollar" store!  I bought 2 packs of candy cups and 1 pack each of red and pink plastic hearts. The other materials I used were half a poster board, markers, velcro dots, plus a Valentine's Day cup (from a set of 12 I bought a few years ago). Whether this new game's a favorite among my students or not is yet to be seen but hopefully it'll be a big hit. I'll let you know what worked and what didn't after this week.

I adhered 10 candy cups with velcro dots to poster board that I cut in half.  I decorated it with markers, gathered the plastic pink and red hearts in the Valentine's Day cup and "Voila"!

The Game:  Each student will be given a cup filled with plastic hearts.  The game itself will be placed either on the floor or on a table 1-2 feet away from them depending on the age of the child; closer for the younger students and farther away for the older students.  They will have 3 minutes (maybe 5) to pitch hearts into cups and answer questions.  They have to get a heart in the 1st cup, answer the question correctly that I ask them in order to move on to the next cup.  They can't skip cups.  There's no limit to how many hearts it takes them to get one in the targeted cup.  It may take 5 attempts before a heart successfully lands in the cup they're aiming for.  Get a heart in a cup, answer the question correctly, move onto the next cup in the sequence.

I'll add a little extra incentive by telling my students that if they get through the first 3 cups they will earn a sticker on their prize sheet, then after the next 4 another sticker, and the last 3 yet another sticker.  I've been test driving this game this week and I have to say that getting the hearts into the last 4 cups (cups 7-10) is not so easy. So I think I'm only going to use the first 6 cups with my younger students (having an opportunity to earn a sticker after every 2 cups) and allow my older students to attempt all 10 cups.  Happy Valentine's Day!  Until next time........