The leaves in our area are putting on a brilliant display these days; around every corner is another maple tree in brilliant oranges, yellows and reds. Kids on the playground are making leaf piles and it’s all feeling very cozy and fall-ish.
While out for a walk in the leaves with our daughters, an idea for a DIY piano teaching game popped into our minds. It’s yet another great way to solidify note reading – and this time it incorporates your piano students’ current piece for some massive “in context” bonus points.
If you’re looking for a great fall activity for your young students, this is sure to become a favorite!
“Fall” In Love With Note Reading: A DIY Activity.
To create this activity you’ll need just a few simple materials and a bit of crafty skill (if I can do it, you can do it!). You’ll need some construction paper (orange, black, yellow, green and red), scissors, a sharpie, and two dice. That’s it! See… easy to love 🙂
To prep this activity, cut a tree silhouette out of black paper and glue it to an orange paper background. Cut out 12 small “leaves” from the remaining colors.
With your student’s current piece in mind, select a set of notes (I chose CDEFG) that will be your focus. Write the letter name of each of these notes on the leaves. Place the leaves in the branches of the tree. Do not glue the leaves to the tree.
How To Play
The gameplay is as simple as the setup…
- Open your student’s book to his current piece.
- Have your student roll the dice and add the two numbers together.
- The resulting value is the measure number he will then examine.
- Have your student name the notes in the treble (or bass) clef of the chosen measure.
- Your student then removes one leaf from the tree for every matching note found within the measure and places the removed leaves at the base of the tree on the “ground”.
- Repeat Steps 2-5 three more times. How many leaves were removed from the branches of the tree?
- Did your student roll “doubles”? If so… he shouts out “leaf blower!” and gets to blow the remaining leaves off the tree… à la birthday candles.
- You can modify this game by writing rhythmic values, dynamic markings, articulation markings, etc. on the leaves instead of note names.
We hope you have fun with this activity! Be sure to tag us @teachpianotoday on your pictures you share of it on Instagram and Facebook so we can see 🙂
Well, that is super cute! Can’t wait to do it next week! 🙂
Hi Cammie! Hope your students have fun with it! We hear the “leaf blower” part is a HUGE hit (go figure!) 😉
Ooooh…..I can see calling ‘leaf blower!’ being VERY popular and me needing to make MANY extra leaves!
Can’t wait to do this later – thank you 😀
Hi Elaine – yes, the “leaf blower” part is definitely a hit 🙂 Hope you have fun with it 🙂
I love the arts while playing the piano. How I am grateful to learn this all brilliant ideas. Excited to see my improvement with this. Thank you!
Thank you for this great idea!
I am going to make it using felt rather than paper so the leaves stick. That way we can prop it up.
Sounds like fun! The only thing you’d have to change is the “leaf blower” part as I don’t think it would work with felt. Sounds like a beautiful project though!
Somehow when I read the instructions, I missed the “leaf-blower” part! Of course I can’t leave that out, it would be so much fun!
Ha ha! Yes, that is the best part! (For the kids anyway… if you have someone who rolls doubles frequently it’s a cardio work-out for the teacher LOL) 😉
I tried this game this week with my student and she LOVED it! It was a great off bench activity and a cool alternative to the regular flash card or sight reading drill.
So happy to hear it, Keila! It’s always nice to take a break from flash cards 🙂