I realised something when playing flashcard games with this group: my mind goes completely blank when it’s hot. We’re right in the middle of Summer here, and it is HOT! Good fun and lots of it was had with this group of students.
What we did:-
Game: (Approx. 30 mins) Something’s Missing (found here: Something’s Missing board game). For instructions on how to play, and some variations in the comments below it, click here: How to play, and extras.
Game: (30 mins) We played a much harder version of the Wiggly Worm Game (found here: Wiggly Worm Game). I printed out all 3 types of playing cards for this group to use. They had to name notes on the piano, even though half of them didn’t play piano (I feel they should still be able to locate the notes on a piano keyboard, it really isn’t that hard), they needed to name notes on the staff and name key signatures (you can choose whether your students need to only name major key signatures or both the major and minor for the cards you use.
Ensemble Piece: That left us about 30 minutes to see how far we could get through Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (found here: Brandenburg Concerto no. 3). The First and Second movements are available for 1st, 2nd and 3rd violin.
Performance: Play what we were able to get through of the Brandenburg Concerto for the parents.
Alternatives:
– If you wanted to omit one of the games and do some scales as warm up instead, you could use some of the ideas found here:10 ways to make scales interesting).
– You may want to do some exam general knowledge with them in a quiz show type of scenario.
– “Dig up” some information on Bach and spend 5 minutes looking at his life and the history behind the Brandenburg Concertos.
