As of recently the blog has been very quite. Blogging has been a new adventure for me this year and I am still learning to balance teaching, life, and posting regularly. In addition, not only did I double my studio the spring but my husband and I also recently moved. Now that all the boxes are unpacked and things have fallen into a bit of a routine I feel I can finally start devoting more time to the blog. I have some great posts coming in the next few weeks I hope you will enjoy and a regular posting schedule!
Around the holidays I often enjoyed incorporating holiday themed games for the concepts my students are working on. For Easter I was specifically looking for a simple game idea to use with my preschool piano students. A few weeks ago I picked up some plastic Easter eggs knowing that somehow I could use them with my students. I knew I needed something simple to prepare and I wanted to provide students with an opportunity to review what we have been learning. I decided to send my preschool students on a simple egg hunt. Inside each egg is either an activity, a song, or name of a key they are learning on the piano.
For example, my preschool students are working on naming the white keys and finding two or three groups of black keys. I cut several index cards in half and either put a song they are working on, a letter from the musical alphabet, or a picture of two or three black keys. I placed the index cards in about eight eggs with a surprise sticker or temporary tattoo in one egg. I am planning to start each lesson with the review game, by having them find all the eggs and then go through each egg completing each assignment.
I am looking forward to trying this game with my young preschool beginners this week. For older students working on note recognition I have put note flashcards in each egg. I will be having these students name the note and play the correct key on the piano. There are endless options for using Easter eggs in lessons this week by putting different cards in each egg. You could review songs in preparation for recital time, practice rhythm, sight reading and much more. If you need a quick inexpensive way to add some fun to lessons this week I hope this gives you some ideas.
That’s what I’m doing this week, too! 🙂 I’ve only had two younger students do it so far this week, but they had so much fun hunting for the eggs! I put an M&M in each egg along with the activity card. I’ve also drawn on the outside of other eggs a note on the top half and a letter on the bottom half and the students have to match the eggs together. Some are notes on the staff and some are keyboard pictures. It’s been a fun couple of weeks!
I love the idea of drawing on the outside of the eggs. Great idea for another quick way to incorporate Easter into lessons. Thanks Lisa!