During the summer months, my lesson plans tend to be a little lighter on theory than during the year. But… I like to pull out games every couple of weeks just to make sure that students don’t forget all that they learned during the previous school year! A couple of weeks ago, I came up with this new game to review symbols: We … Continue reading
Since a number of teachers have posted about summer camp ideas over the last few weeks, I thought I’d share a couple of activities that I like to use with new groups of students. I typically use these at our first group lesson in the fall, but they’d be great ice-breakers for camps! (Note: Both of these activities are based on Dalcroze Eurhythmics. The basic … Continue reading
Here’s another game I used in group lessons last week. Each of these cards spells out a word using intervals. Students are given a starting note, then record each “stopping place” as they follow the directions: For example, in the card above they would start on “C”, then find the letters A-G-E-D by mapping intervals to arrive at the word “CAGED.” It’s helpful … Continue reading
In planning for group lessons this month, I found myself looking for a fun way to introduce/drill interval qualities in my intermediate level groups. The interval tower game was such a hit last month with my elementary students last month, I decided to adapt it and use it again. I used the same deck of interval cards (they can be downloaded here), but for … Continue reading
This new game was a BIG hit with my elementary students at group lessons last week. We’re working on instant recognition of intervals (without having to count lines and spaces), which takes a LOT of drill. With this game, though, the kids wanted to keep playing the whole lesson! Here’s how we played: I divided the students into partners and gave each pair … Continue reading
We’ve been on a heavy theory kick in my studio this month. I have several students who will be participating in theory testing as part of a festival in April, so ALL of my students have been getting the benefit of a little extra lesson planning on my part. As a part of that, I’ve been working on a couple of new games. Here’s the … Continue reading