Games, Music Camps

2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 4

Here’s some photos to enjoy from our final day of Musical Olympics Camp.  Since it was our last day, I invited the students’ parents to come and watch our last hour of camp.  We re-played a few of our favorite games from the week, and also had an Olympic Awards Ceremony.  More details below.

Our first game was the Ultimate Rhythm Relay, which was a culmination of all the relays we did throughout the week!  First, the student tossed the musical beach ball (from yesterday) in the air and complete the musical task it indicated.  Then, they ran to the buckets and tossed a beanbag until they got it into a bucket.  The buckets were each marked with a note/rest.  Last, students ran over to the ring toss area, where they had to toss a ring until they got it over the flag whose note/rest matched the bucket they had tossed their beanbag into.   Then students ran back to the starting point to tag the next player.  I know it sounds complicated, but these relays are much easier to explain by demonstration than they are to describe in words!  Continue reading “2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 4”

Games, Music Camps

2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 3

Here’s some photos to enjoy from Day 3 of my Musical Olympics camp:

Our first game was the Build-A-Keyboard Interval Challenge.  To prepare, I drew a large keyboard on the cement for each team using chalk.  I gave each team two spinners: a musical alphabet one, and an interval spinner (unison through 5th).  Each of the four students on each team had a job: two students held the spinners, and the other two students stood on the starting note on the keyboard and the second note of the interval in order to build interval indicated on the spinner.  Teams raced to see how many intervals they could build within 5 minutes.  I didn’t get a very good photo of this game, because my husband and I were too busy tracking each team’s points (it’s a fast-moving game!).  🙂 Continue reading “2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 3”

Games, Music Camps

2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 2

We had great weather on Day 2 of our camp last week!

Our first game of the day was Sheryl Welles’ fabulous Musical Alphabet Noodle Relay!  For this relay, team members must travel via the noodle to retrieve alphabet flags from the ground and bring them back to the starting point.  For the first round, they had to retrieve the flags in order A-G, and the second round they retrieved them backwards.  Watching them travel via the noodle was pretty hilarious, I must admit!  My students loved this game.  Continue reading “2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 2”

Games, Music Camps, Rhythm

2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 1

Last week, I held a Musical Olympics camp for my students and it was a great success!  We had such a fun week and I received a lot of positive feedback from the students and parents.  I will definitely continue doing similar camps in future years!

Over the course of this week, I’m going to be sharing lots of details and photos.  At the end of the week, I’ll share a pdf download with more details about the materials and directions for the games.  🙂

Here’s some of the details:

  • We met two hours a day, Monday through Thursday.
  • I set the time for 10am to 12pm, which was perfect because camp was over before the weather got too warm in the afternoon.
  • We were outside for all the games and activities, except for Monday when we encountered rain.  I was able to convert some games into indoor games which we did in my garage.

For Day 1 of camp, my wonderful friend Loretta (who lives a couple of hours away) came for a visit to be my camp helper!  It was great seeing her again.

Continue reading “2012 Musical Olympics Camp – Day 1”

Music Camps

Summer Camp Is Here!

This week, I’m holding my first camp of the summer!  It’s the Musical Olympics camp, and we had our first day of activities this morning.  Unfortunately, it’s been raining all morning so we had to play the games in the garage instead of outdoors.  I’m crossing my fingers for better weather the rest of the week, because I’m not sure how many more of the games I have planned can be converted to indoor games.  :\  Despite the rain, though, everybody had lots of fun!

I may not be posting here on the blog much until next week — we’ll see how it goes.  Wish me luck!  🙂

Early Childhood Music, Music Theory, Worksheets

Treble & Bass Clef Dot-To-Dot Worksheets

Here’s a new worksheet I just added to the Printables page:

To teach my beginner students how to draw and recognize the treble and bass clef, I created this pair of dot-to-dot worksheets for the treble and bass clefs.  The dots and numbers are nice and big for little eyes to see!

To download, visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to the T’s for “Treble & Bass Clef Dot-To-Dot Worksheets.”

Enjoy!

  Treble & Bass Clef Dot-To-Dot Worksheets (68.0 KiB, 37,975 hits)

Questions, Studio Business

Forum Q&A | End-Of-The-Year Tasks

I’ve let a few weeks go by again without doing a Forum Q&A, so I think it’s high time for another!  🙂  Last time, we discussed attending conferences but only received a few comments.  Feel free to add your thoughts.

The school year is wrapping up — at least for those of us in the U.S.!  So, I’m curious:

What are you up to?  What end-of-the-year preparations preparations are you working on?  Summer scheduling, progress reports, re-registration for the fall, planning summer camps, etc?  Fill me in! 

Leave your comment below this post.  🙂

Motivation, Teaching Piano

Teaching Phrase: “I Think You Are Ready For…”

Here is a phrase I find myself use more and more lately with my students:

“I think you are ready for…”  

Imagine me saying it with plenty of enthusiasm.  This phrase comes in handy in a number of circumstances, such as:

  • “Wow, you’ve got all your 5-finger patterns learned, so I think you are ready to start scales!”
  • “You are playing each hand’s part so well…now you are ready to put hands together!”
  • “Great, I think you are ready to bump up the tempo!”
  • “I think Johnny is ready for 45-minute lessons!”

Watch your student (and his/her parent) swell with pride at that last one.  Saying that line sure beats a conversation that sounds like you are trying to justify or talk the parent into switching from 30- to 45-minute lessons.

It’s all in how you present it.  Learning scales or bumping up the tempo might at first seem like a chore, but presenting the next new challenge as an acknowledgement of their accomplishments and hard work can help motivate students for the next thing.  They’ve worked their way to this point, after all, and they should be proud of it!

So, try it!  And let me know what other circumstances you think of for using this phrase.  🙂

Music Camps

Summer Music Camp T-Shirts!

The T-shirts for my summer music camps arrived yesterday! I’m so pleased with how they turned out. Take a peek:

The company I ordered the shirts from is CustomInk, and am very pleased with the quality.  They even have an artist check out your design to make sure it will look okay when printed.

I have had a number of blog readers contact me asking for more details about my summer camps.  Although the June camp is just a couple of weeks away, I don’t feel I have much to share yet!  I will most likely be sharing lessons plans afterwards, and, of course, plenty of photos.  🙂