Sunday, January 2, 2011

Piano Assignment Sheets

Here are some new piano assignment sheets I created for the new year.  I don't stress the amount of time a student must practice, but rather goals to accomplish for that week.  I inserted a staff and keyboard at the bottom, which will really come in handy.

My first assignment sheet has an example of how I use it.  For elementary students, many times the goals are the same for each piece, so to save time I assign the same goal for each piece.  Sometimes that goal will not apply, so I cross it out.  I use a practice incentive and check for different goals to see if the student can accomplish it.  They get a sticker for doing this.  I encourage them to check off the goal when they have done it, but this does not always get done.

For older students, their goals become more piece driven, so I have more space to write out details I want them to focus on.  The gray shaded area is for the name of the piece.  I like using post its as well and colored pencils to remind the students of things to work on.


Piano Assignment Sheet 2011 on Google Docs

Piano Assignment Sheet 2011


Piano Assignment Sheet Example on Google Docs
Piano Assignment Sheet 2011 Example


Piano Assignment Sheet Advanced on Google Docs
Piano Assignment Sheet Advanced 2011

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Christmas Circle of Fifths

Here is a fun activity that has students filling out the circle of fifths with ornaments around a wreath.  The student chooses an ornament and places it in the correct circle on the wreath.  You can have the ornaments all out on the table for the students to put them in order or the student can pick one at a time (a little harder).   I glued my ornaments to bottle tops for a more sturdy playing piece.

Christmas Circle of 5ths



I put my bottle cap ornaments in a peanut jar covered in Christmas wrapping paper.
Students picked one ornament and placed it on the wreath.

They continued until they completed the circle of fifths with note names.
 Then they added the key signatures on top.
Then they advanced to minor key signatures.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Songs

There's A Little Elf Sitting On My Nose
There's a little elf sitting on my nose
There's a little elf sitting on my nose
He is sitting on my nose, then off away he goes
There's a little elf sitting on my nose

There's a little elf sitting on my knee
There's a little elf sitting on my knee
He is sitting on my knee, then off away he flees
There's a little elf sitting on my knee

There's a little elf sitting on my head
There's a little elf sitting on my head
He is sitting on my head, then off he goes to bed
There's a little elf sitting on my head

Idea: Clap or pat twice after each verse.  Use a high "elf voice" to sing the song.

Christmas Cheer Sung to "Mary Had A Little Lamb"
Clap your hands with Christmas Cheer
Christmas Cheer, Christmas Cheer
Clap your hands with Christmas Cheer
Very best time of the year.

Alternatives: Spin around, Bend your knees, Reach up high, Dance around, Pat your knees, March in place, Jump around

Can Eight Brown Reindeer Pull Santa's Sleigh?
Eight brown reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh
One fell down and ran away
The elf called Santa and Santa said
"Can Seven brown reindeer pull Santa's sleigh"

Continue counting until one is left
One brown reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh
He fell down and ran away
The elf called Santa and Santa said
"Call Rudolph!"

Idea: Have eight students line up and each time you take a reindeer away, one student sits down.
Also you could have pictures of eight reindeer or foam reindeers and take one away each time.




Christmas time is here Sung to: "Farmer in the Dell"

Christmas time is near.
Christmas time is near.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Christmas time is near.
It’s time to trim the tree.
It’s time to trim the tree.
Merry Christmas everyone.
It’s time to trim the tree.
It’s time to wrap the gifts.
It’s time to wrap the gifts.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
It’s time to wrap the gifts.
It’s time to hang the stocking.
It’s time to hang the stocking.
Merry Christmas everyone.
It’s time to hang the stocking.
Santa will soon be here.
Santa will soon be here.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Santa will soon be here. 

Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas Train with New Easy Level!

Can you help Santa get the presents to the right house?  Match the notes to the correct train car.  You should be able to print out the train and put it together in one long row.

Game idea: Take turns placing the presents on the train.  Whoever gets the last card on the train wins that pile.  Whoever has the most piles wins!  I made extra presents so you can have at least five of each note.  You can also make extra copies to have the number of presents you need.

Christmas Train


Monday, November 29, 2010

Practice Trick

Students get bored quickly when they have to repeat a passage over and over.  Making a game out of repeating patterns helps students become engaged and motivated to repeat with purpose.

One thing I like to do is have a object that climbs up the piano as the student repeats the pattern correctly. The item then climbs down the piano for more repeats.

The item can be a eraser, a little toy or anything fun!  I like to use things that relate to the season or song we are studying.  So the "Easter Bunny" may hop up the piano, or for the "The Bear"by Rebikoff you could have a bear climb the piano.  

Some kids love certain sports team, so I could use a little token that represents the sport team.  It could be a magnet, or something you printed out and adhered it to a block or piece of foam.  Imagine the mascot moving up the piano.  It starts on the bench, then on the keys, then moves up to the music rack, then finally is on the the top of the piano.  If more repeats are needed, the item can move down again.  It really helps make practice fun!  See pictures below for how I used this to pracitce for our Christmas Recital.




Monday, November 22, 2010

Jenga

     Recently I used the game Jenga for a group lesson.  It is a really fun game that the kids love to play.  I got the idea from a post on the Piano Club page.  I bought a Jenga off brand game ($4.99) and decided to go with the colored blocks.  My Jenga game has yellow, blue and red blocks.  I took a sharpie and used all the yellow blocks for rhythms.  I wrote an easy rhythm on one side and a more challenging rhythm on the other side.  the red blocks were use for notes on one side and chords on the other.  The blue blocks were used for symbols.  The blue blocks made it hard to see the symbol, but not impossible.

Another idea for levels is to buy the plain wooden blocks and use different colored sharpies for each level.  This could still work for multi level play. For example, if the player who is at level one picks a level three than the closet player to them that is level three must complete the task.

The directions are below.

Jenga Directions

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Alphabet Cards

Here are some alphabet cards to print out on card stock.  You can print them out on some different colored card stock and have multiple sets.  I use my cards for many, many games.  I included some blank ones in case you want to add sharps or flats.

Alphabet Cards Google Docs
Alphabet Cards