Last week I held my group lessons with a St. Patrick's Day Theme. My students had a blast and learned a lot too! We played several games and had a sharing time where students played their favorite pieces. Here are some pictures of our games:
Playing Tic Tac Toe with the gold coins from the Pot of gold!
1. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out all the cards to the players. It doesn’t matter if they don’t come out evenly.
2. Each player picks up his cards and holds them so that other players cannot see them. Players may want to organize their cards so that like notes are together.
3. Next, players take out of their hands any pairs they have. For example, if a player has two A's, the player takes that pair out. All the pairs from all the players’ hands go into a pile, face down, in the center of the table. However, if a player has, for example, three C's, he can only put down the pair. Depending on the level, pairs do not have to be the exact same note. For instance you can have a Middle C and a Bass C be a pair.
4. The player to the left of the dealer (Joel) spreads out his hand, face down, on the table. The player to his left (Amy) picks up one of those cards. If she can make a pair by using that card, she removes the pair and puts it in the pile at the center of the table. Otherwise, Amy just keeps that card.
5. Now, Amy spreads her cards on the table, face down, so that the player to her left can pick up one card out of her hand.
6. Play continues in this way. Eventually, one player will be left with card "The Lucky Leprechaun" and that players wins. You can also see who has the most pairs and they can be the winner as well.
To make Tic Tac Toe in line with the St. Patrick's Day theme, I have the students use the lucky coins to cover their boards. You could also use some foam shamrocks :).
I love doing stations at my group lessons and it helps me get my different leveled students grouped together. Most games lend themselves to having different levels. I just have the students choose from a different stack of cards. I separate them into color groups and then write the color on a post it note and attach it to the stack of cards I want them to choose from. Sometimes I have an older student help a younger one as well.
The one game that has to be separated into levels is the Lucky Leprechaun Game. I have some pre readers that couldn't play the staff game and you have to mix the cards all together. So I separate the group by their level of notes they have learned on the staff.
Below are the directions for the games. I leave the directions at each station and I monitor the groups by walking around and helping when needed.
Here is the same Lucky Leprechaun Game with Keyboard Cards. I am having a lot of fun playing this game. The kids enjoy seeing who has the Leprechaun at the end.
1. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out all the cards to the players. It doesn’t matter if they don’t come out evenly.
2. Each player picks up his cards and holds them so that other players cannot see them. Players may want to organize their cards so that like notes are together.
3. Next, players take out of their hands any pairs they have. For example, if a player has two A's, the player takes that pair out. All the pairs from all the players’ hands go into a pile, face down, in the center of the table. However, if a player has, for example, three C's, he can only put down the pair. Depending on the level, pairs do not have to be the exact same note. For instance you can have a Middle C and a Bass C be a pair.
4. The player to the left of the dealer (Joel) spreads out his hand, face down, on the table. The player to his left (Amy) picks up one of those cards. If she can make a pair by using that card, she removes the pair and puts it in the pile at the center of the table. Otherwise, Amy just keeps that card.
5. Now, Amy spreads her cards on the table, face down, so that the player to her left can pick up one card out of her hand.
6. Play continues in this way. Eventually, one player will be left with card "The Lucky Leprechaun" and that players wins. You can also see who has the most pairs and they can be the winner as well.
Shamrock Staff Cards 1. The dealer shuffles the cards and deals out all the cards to the players. It doesn’t matter if they don’t come out evenly.
2. Each player picks up his cards and holds them so that other players cannot see them. Players may want to organize their cards so that like notes are together.
3. Next, players take out of their hands any pairs they have. For example, if a player has two A's, the player takes that pair out. All the pairs from all the players’ hands go into a pile, face down, in the center of the table. However, if a player has, for example, three C's, he can only put down the pair. Depending on the level, pairs do not have to be the exact same note. For instance you can have a Middle C and a Bass C be a pair.
4. The player to the left of the dealer (Joel) spreads out his hand, face down, on the table. The player to his left (Amy) picks up one of those cards. If she can make a pair by using that card, she removes the pair and puts it in the pile at the center of the table. Otherwise, Amy just keeps that card.
5. Now, Amy spreads her cards on the table, face down, so that the player to her left can pick up one card out of her hand.
6. Play continues in this way. Eventually, one player will be left with card "The Lucky Leprechaun" and that players wins. You can also see who has the most pairs and they can be the winner as well.
Here is a game for St. Patrick's Day that has students adding and subtracting rhythms. Players try to be the first one to fill up their pot of gold!
Here are the directions:
Each player chooses a rhythm card that has an addition/subtraction problem on it. You can make some or use my Rhythm Addition Cards. Students calculate that answer and take that number of gold pieces to put on in their pot. You can use pennies or bingo chips for your gold. My students love my Magic Notes, so I will most likely be using them.
You could also roll rhythm dice, if you have any of them. Another idea I had was to make time signature cards and have a missing rhythm. The note value of the missing rhythm would be how many gold pieces the student gets to add to the pot.
