The outline for my younger beginner piano students was as follows:-
Game: Snap with Bug Flash Cards (found on Susan Paradis’ website) here: Large fly flash cards and here for the ones on the keyboard: Keyboard Fly Flash Cards. We played Concentration/Memory, and the students used large green fly swatters when they got a match. It was a hoot! I would change one thing though…towards the end we realised my flash cards were see through. Thank goodness the students didn’t cheat at the beginning! Looking back, I would have liked to have also done a Note Swap Race, but we had fun and learned things anyway. Note Swap Race instructions are here: Note Swap Race instructions
Game: Cover the Keys Bingo (also found on Susan Paradis’ website) here: Cover the Keys Bingo. We used white board markers and laminated game board for this. We played a couple of rounds of this game. If you had students without allergies and who didn’t bounce off the walls with sugar, you could use skittles or M&Ms as markers.
Activity Song: Dr Knickerbocker (from a CD I have) Students had to pair up and do the actions with me. They giggled LOTS during this song. (The Wiggles have a version here: Dr Knickerbocker Wiggles Version
Composition: Students were given this Dinosaur Stomp worksheet and had to come up with their own short melody. The rules were that it had to be in C major, it needed to begin on a C or a G, and definitely needed to end on a C (although one student made it more difficult and composed it into A minor, but that was okay). They got to fumble around on the piano in turns as they were writing their compositions, then they got to practice them really quickly.
I like setting parameters for composition when students first start out, as it gets their confidence going. Going by the exclamations of “YESSSSSS” I think my students like doing them too 😀
Performance: Students were able to perform their composition for their parents, who applauded exuberantly after each one!
