The Floor is Lava: Piano Game!

Yay! Summer is finally upon us.  I decided to start the summer session off with a game that many kiddos have played at some point in their childhood! 

Among some of the creative scenarios were "The Floor is Quicksand", "The Floor is an Ocean Full of Sharks", and of course "The Floor is Lava". We must give credit where credit is due regarding the origins of this activity.  Any and every child who has ever played some version of this are the original creators! Folks such as myself have simply created our own version of this popular childhood game! 

A picture is worth a thousand words so I will share a lot of pictures with you instead of loading this blog with a whole bunch of unnecessary written text.  

Above is the gameboard I created.  Cody, our dog, had to be a part of the fun.  He is lava proof of course! Lol.

I purchased 2 plastic table covers from Amazon and taped them to the floor.  I then gathered a ton of oversized books around our house for the "rocks" and wrapped them in black paper.  I used clear packing tape to securely adhere the "rocks" to the lava pool and numbered them from 1 to 10.  My numbers being black and the student's being orange.

Here are the directions I came up with.  I went over the most important rules of the game with my students before starting specifically how to safely step from one "rock" to the other.  I made it VERY CLEAR that if they attempted to jump over the "rocks" the game would be over! Safety first! Kids love to have fun so I'm happy to report that none of my students broke the rules.  

I contacted the parents a week prior to the kiddos playing this game and asked them to have their children bring an empty backpack or backsack and to wear tennis shoes or any securely fitted shoes to their next lesson.

I gathered up items from around my studio as well as purchased a few butterfly nets, badminton rackets, plastic balls, and birdies from the Dollar Tree.  After checking their homework, listening to their assigned songs, and assigning new homework it was time to play the game! 

The students loaded their backpacks with the items and placed it on their backs.  I too loaded my backsack with the same items.  The rackets and nets were placed around the lava pool where they were needed. 

We then tied the questions around our waists with yarn. I placed the papers with the questions in page protectors and looped the yarn through one of the holes of the protectors. We each had 2 papers, one on top of the other. Here are some sample questions.

And here are one of the many templates I created.

Finally, this is a picture of the tasks we had to complete while standing on the "rocks"!  

My students have really been enjoying this game! More importantly, it motivated them to study their musical terms, notes, intervals, etc. My two most important goals in creating these games and activities are to make the lessons fun, of course, but also to encourage my students to stay on top of their studies so that we can move ahead at a good clip during their lessons rather than having to spend time going over old material, techniques, and concepts.   

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