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Charlene had a great time teaching group lessons this week. Read on:

I held the first group lessons of the school year this past week. I ended up with 8 different groups ranging from two students to six students for their one hour group class. Groups were held in lieu of the private lesson, so I had three days of teaching and two days of “vacation”.

The highlight of the beginning group was the Kreative Keyboard game “Nautical Notes”. Students went fishing for fish (notes) with a fishing pole that had a magnet attached and fish that had flash cards attached to them with a paper clip. When they caught their fish, they were required to name the note and play it on the piano. They each received $1 in music money for naming the note and $5 for playing it in the correct location on the piano.

All my students are composing Halloween music for the Halloween recital. I took the opportunity to teach all my older groups about question and answer phrases and the different types of answer phrases. I made three different signs reading: Parallel, Embellished Parallel and Consequent. Each sign was then placed on the floor and students were in another room. I played a question phrase then an answer from the ear training section of the respective Teacher Guide (depending on the age of the group). Students then raced to be the first to stand on the correct sign!

We also did a great activity to review notes. (This is a good activity for students who really know their guideposts well and are expanding out to the other notes or need review on their notes.) I used only the guidepost note cards from the Teacher Flashcards and two markers. I took one marker and wrote "step" on one side and “skip” on the other. Then I took the other marker and wrote “up” on one side and “down” on the other. I had the students shake up the markers and toss them on the table. (For example, the markers may land on the table and read "skip - down"). Then I showed a Guidepost flash card and the students yelled out the name of the note a skip down from that guidepost note. (For example, if the guidepost note was Bass F, the student would answer “D”). You could play this with a large group by playing it relay style or around the world style.

We also reviewed notes by playing Note Nabber and Around the World using the Wacky Words "Wacky Walter" cards.

What a fun week!