It’s the time of year to change up the same-old-same old and keep your kiddos interested and excited about their piano lessons and their piano practice. One of the best ways to do this is to host a studio-wide practice challenge event.
So – to help you get through these last few weeks before spring we’re giving you all the materials you need to host a fun pirate-themed practice challenge in your studio!
How It Works
1. For each student, cut out a treasure chest (see handout below), write their name in the space provided, and tape the treasure chest to the front of a ziplock bag. Hang it in a highly-visible place in your studio.
2. Students are then given a treasure map each week for 3 weeks. On this map is a practice task or an in-lesson task to complete. Each week when the task has been completed, students are given treasure to put into their treasure chest (ziplock bag). I’m going to use chocolate gold coins but you could use pennies to avoid food.
3. At the end of the challenge, students who complete their treasure collecting receive their reward (also your choice… I’m going to use a goody bag idea off my Pinterest page).
The Materials (Three Cheers for Free!)
We love to see the practice incentives we create and share popping up in different piano studios all over Facebook – it warms our heart 🙂 And so here are all the materials you need to make this challenge happen in your own studio.
1. Promo Poster and Social Media Sharing Image.
2. Student Treasure Chests (print and cut out, give one to each student and write student’s name on each one, attach to a ziploc bag)
3. 3 Weeks of Practice/Lesson Challenges (print, cut and give one card to each student each week. If they complete the task they add a gold coin to their treasure chest).
“All In” Is The Way To Go!
These challenges provide GREAT material for social-media sharing, and newsletters and are just one more way you can generate word-of-mouth advertising. We do suggest that you go “whole hog” to keep everyone pumped about the event. You can find awesome and inexpensive decor at your local dollar store, but also on the pirate-themed party page on Orientaltrading.com.
If you’re stoked about the challenge but don’t know where to begin when it comes to Week 2 and the composing activity… check out our uber-popular resource “The Curious Case of Muttzart and Ratmaninoff: Adventures in Composing”. Your kiddos will be pumping out original compositions from Day 1 with ease!
