My younger kiddos up to 2nd (even 3rd) grade absolutely loved playing this game! Both boys and girls enjoyed it. I got the initial idea from Pinterest and embellished it to make it even more piano related. I bought this mat from Amazon. Sometimes I will splurge and get things like this mat for games I make up. Can't always do this but I find that the more 3-dimensional the games the more exciting they are for my kiddos. The games keep terms, techniques, and notes fresh in their minds but in a fun way. Their enthusiasm to come to their lessons is what inspires me! I already had toy cars in my studio and velcro dots. I always have a huge supply of velcro dots. The dots allow me to change out game pieces quickly between lessons based on whatever terms/notes my students are learning. I made this game two-fold for students who either knew their white notes or staff notes.
If the kiddos were learning about white note letter names then their parking lot was a simple modified keyboard (I just drew this). The cars were parked on certain keys. I'd call out a letter name and they'd roll the correct car from the parking lot into town (the floormat), drive the roadways until they found the parking space that matched the term on the car.
For the kiddos who knew their grand staff notes, their parking lot was the actual grand staff. I made this with two pieces of poster paper taped together. I need to laminate it. I haven't done that yet.
Say "Hi" to my dog. He wouldn't budge so I decided to leave him in the picture. Every time I'm working in the studio that's when he brings ALL of his toys in for me to play with him. Every afternoon before the kiddos come for lessons I have to clean out the studio of all of his toys......sigh! Cute little booger, though, don't you think? Except when he decides to roll around in doodoo outside. Then not so cute.
Ok, back to the piano parking lot........I cut a paper keyboard down to size (this one is made from the Alfred company. You can purchase these at most music stores) and placed a marble on the key that I wanted them to identify and locate on the grand staff. They'd then roll that particular car out of the space or line of the grand staff based on the location of the note on the paper keyboard, roll the car onto the town mat, and drive it to its correct parking space based on the term adhered to the car and the answer found in one of the parking spaces on the mat. I didn't adhere velcro dots to the rug itself. I simply placed the small pieces of cardstock with the answers with where I wanted them to go.
I gave my students 4 minutes to complete this game if their game included the keyboard or grand staff parking lot at the beginning and 2 minutes if my kiddos were simply driving cars to matching parking spaces which was more than enough time for the kiddos who had been studying their notes and/or terms between lessons. Games are a great way to motivate my students to practice and study what they need to between lessons. For the kiddos who have not learned notes yet I simply had them drive the cars around town and park them in the matching spaces without the keyboard or grand staff parking lot at the beginning.
Until next time, piano blogger signing off........
