Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

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 not...

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; clo...