Giant Staff—Twister (Music Twist)

For this activity, you need a giant staff. I made mine by using a Sharpie marker to draw five evenly spaced lines on a piece of heavy white fabric. The fabric was leftover from a friend’s IKEA curtains adventure, so the whole thing was free. Alternatively, you could check out the curtains/tablecloth section in Goodwill. No need to spend a lot of money on a nice, new piece of fabric.

What You Need:

A giant staff
A treble or bass clef
- It doesn’t have to match the size of the staff. Mine doesn’t.
Cards with the musical alphabet on them, such as these
Hand and foot cards

Setup:

Lay out your giant staff and place the clef.

How to Play:

The teacher draws a hand/foot card and a letter card and calls them out. The student has to place that body part on that note.
If they are still more or less upright when the time runs out or the cards run out, they win.
If they fall down, just start from scratch.

Giant Staff—Hopscotch

What You Need:

A giant staff
A treble or bass clef
- It doesn’t matter if your clef doesn’t match your staff in size. Mind doesn’t.
Some kind of marker, such as a bean bag, bottle cap, whatever

Setup:

Lay out your giant staff

How to Play:

Stand beneath the staff and toss your marker onto the staff.
If the marker lands on a space, you’ll be hopping spaces. On one foot, hop to the first space and name the note you’re on. Then hop to the next space and name it. Skip the note with your marker. When you reach the top, turn around (still on one foot) and hop back.
If the marker lands on a line, do the same process with the lines.

Variations:

To make it easier, don’t do all the hopping. Just jump to the note your marker is on and name it.
To make it harder, change the interval. Jump up in fourths or fifths. You may or may not want to even use the marker in this case.

hopscotch-2612395_1920

Giant Staff—Bean Bag Toss

What You Need:

A giant staff
A treble or a bass clef
- It doesn’t have to match the size of the staff. Mine doesn’t.
Bean bag

Setup:

Lay out the staff on the floor and place your clef.

How to Play:

Stand together beneath your giant staff.
Mutually decide on your teacher handicap. For my beginners, I give a five second handicap. More advanced students get only one or two seconds.
The first player tosses the bean bag onto the staff. The student should call out the name of the note it lands on. The teacher silently counts out the handicap seconds and then calls out the name of the note it lands on.
- Note: Because the spaces are so much wider than the lines, I tell them that if even a tiny corner is touching the line, they should call the line note, not the space note.
Whoever called the correct note first gets a point.
Take turns tossing until someone has 10 points. Adjust the handicap as needed to make sure the student wins.

Variations:

To make it easier, limit the number of notes you have to call to the ones the student has learned. If the bean bag lands on a note outside that range, have them say “Haven’t learned it!”
To make it harder, shorten the teacher handicap.
To make it even harder, use the game to practice intervals. Instead of naming the note it lands on, they should name the note a third above the note it lands on (or a fourth, fifth, whatever).
If the student is consistently throwing the bean bag way beyond the staff or aiming so that it always lands in the same place, take over all the throwing duties yourself. They shape up quickly under that threat.

illustration-1143890_1920 — Giant Staff—Bean Bag Toss

January 2018 Plans

Here’s what we did last month:

Week 1: We practiced note names, intervals, and key signatures with Takenoko.

Week 2: We learned about composing with sequences with Sequence Song.

Week 3: We practiced intervals on the keyboard and on the staff with Winter Intervals.

Week 4: We practiced counting with Remote Control Rhythms.

Remote Control Rhythms

If you don’t have a remote controlled thing of some kind already, this activity is not worth the effort. If you do, this is easy and thrilling for many of the kids

What you need:

A remote controlled vehicle of any kind
A selection of note values written out separately. I have a set I use on a giant staff, but even quickly written notes on scrap paper would work.

Setup:

Scatter the notes around the floor.

How to Play:

The student gets 45 seconds to drive the vehicle over as many notes as she can. The teacher picks them up as the student gets over them.
The student chooses a time signature. I offered 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, and 6/4. Many students liked choosing an unfamiliar time signature.
The student organizes the notes into measures. If the beats don’t come out right, they can have one free note per measure, as long as they can identify what kind of note they need.
Once the measures were organized, the student have three tasks:
- Count and clap their rhythm.
- Pick their favorite note and play their rhythm on the piano.
- Pick several notes and play a melody using their rhythm.

Variations:

To make it easier, limit the type of notes you scatter.
To make it harder, include a variety of note values, such as triplets.
To make it very hard, have the student play the rhythm with one hand while simultaneously playing a different rhythm with the other hand.
To make it more exciting, use different instruments to play the rhythms.
To make it longer, have them choose and write down notes to go with their rhythm. They can also repeat their rhythm several times, putting it together to make a composition, with or without accompaniment.

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