piano readiness classes – Color In My Piano

Pinterest is wonderful, isn’t it? 🙂

While browsing Pinterest, I was inspired by this picture by the blogger Becki Lewis. Becki’s Finger Number Beanbag Game is a simple but very effective game for young beginner piano students.

Students stand in front of the mat and drop the beanbag. Then, they name the finger the beanbag landed closest to, and correctly identify RH or LH. I tried this game out with my Piano Readiness Class, and they enjoyed it! It is a quick, easy activity that effectively reviews the hands/fingers.

Becki used a marker and a piece of cardboard to draw the outline of two hands. I designed a printable on the computer to use with my students, and Becki gave me permission to share the printable with you here: visit the Printables > Games page, and scroll down to the F’s for “Finger Number Beanbag Game.” I laminated the two pages and taped them together, so that they fold for easy storage. Enjoy!

Finger Number Beanbag Game (177.7 KiB, 18,039 hits)

Early Childhood Music, Games, Group Classes, Music Camps

Floor Staff Activity: Introduction to the Grand Staff

30 November 201230 November 2012 Joy Morin

Remember last February when I created this DIY floor staff? I thought I’d share a little activity that shows how I used it recently with my Piano Readiness Class.

(Don’t mind my cat, Coda, who totally photo-bombed this photo. 🙂

The two students I was working with have already learned to identify high and low sounds when we sing or listen to music, and can recognize the treble and bass clef symbols. I showed them the floor staff (which they were totally excited about), and asked them to count the number lines and spaces with me. I demonstrated that notes can either be line notes or space notes. Then, I put the treble clef and bass clef on the floor staff, for high and low sounds.

After that introduction, I handed each student a foam disc (you can find these in the craft section at many stores) and gave them two directions: (1) line or space note, and (2) high or low note. After placing notes on the staff in this way for a while, they realized there were also “middle” notes, so we started doing that too. Then we started doing it backwards: I asked them to put a note anywhere they wanted, and to tell me whether it was a line/space note and whether it was high/middle/low.

This turned out to be a fun little activity for introducing the staff to a couple of four-year-olds! The next step will be to associate the alphabet names to the lines and spaces. 🙂

Early Childhood Music, Group Classes, Music Camps

How I Lesson Plan for Group Classes

20 January 20129 February 2012 Joy Morin

I’ve had a few requests lately from readers regarding more info about what kind of activities I do with my Homeschool Music Classes and Piano Readiness classes, so I thought it might first be a good idea to first give you a peek into how I lesson plan for group classes. Although I don’t lesson plan for teaching private lessons, I do always make a plan for group classes.

At each class, we begin and end with a “Hello Song” and “Goodbye Song.” Students like having this routine, and they are very good at reminding me about the songs if I forget about them! I have the students tap the beat on their knees (as we sit cross-legged on our carpet squares) while we sing. That way, I can tell if they are engaged even if they aren’t singing all the lyrics for one reason or another.

When I lesson plan the evening before the next day’s class, I try to include the following things: Continue reading “How I Lesson Plan for Group Classes” →