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...................