And the jungle came to the studio!

Back-to-piano was anything but mild. In fact, it was a little on the wild side.

   Readers, welcome to the jungle.



   (Fellow music teachers, helpful hint: If you're planning to throw a jungle theme, don't go shopping for plastic animals brand-new. Head to Value Village or Goodwill or some other thrift store. I got two bags of second-hand animals for two dollars less than that brand-new cheetah cost me. Bugs and snakes and everything.) (I even found one bag that had a plastic Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon in it. But I didn't get that bag. I was tempted, though. 😝)


   Students helped the cheetah from the table to its home on top of the piano by correctly identifying the note/symbol on each flashcard along the path for first week reviews.

   Animals helped young ones discover musical artistry in my homemade 'Hands and Sounds' game. Students rolled a dice to get a specific set of directions regarding hand technique. Then they played a note following those directions. Finally, they matched the sound they had created with a specific jungle animal.

   Jungle animals also made good assistants in keyboard awareness and note reading as well. 


   And, in this game, students moved the animal of their choice forward if they could identify the interval I played for them correctly.

   (Don't worry. All animals were sanitized before and after lessons. The rubber snake didn't like the hydrogen peroxide treatment, though. He's gone from all green to mostly green with white splotches.)

   What about online lessons?

   Baloo and Mogli from Disney's The Jungle Book joined us for some rhythm practice. We practiced clapping along with the video, then matching specific rhythmic patterns with the correct lyrics (using a worksheet I designed).

   And the Hands and Sounds game translated well to online, using Google Docs and jungle-themed clip art!

   
   I also began using online games like musictheory.net. And dice games. Much to my surprise, dice games work really, really well for online lessons and are actually fun! 

   From my perspective, I think the students enjoyed this year's Jungle Theme much more than last year's Castles theme. You might say it was a roaring success! 

   (P.S. Have you seen the music video my friend, my brother, and I put together last month? If not, click the link and check it out!) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And to this I said Amen

Image
 (Note for those who may not know: The word "Amen" comes from an ancient word -- whether Greek, Hebrew, or some other language, I do not remember -- that expressed agreement with truth. It is a transliterated word; that is, it's very similar to the original word in the original language. One person claimed it was one of two words that has been transliterated rather than translated across all languages, the other word being Hallelujah. Fun fact for the day. 😀)    Again, I had writer's block and didn't know what to write about. All I could think about was how it's February, it's a theme month, and I haven't finished planning the theme, even though the month has already started. So, once more, I turned to Pinterest . (If that link doesn't work, let me know, because I'm not sure it will actually take you to my Pinterest profile.)    This time, instead of music humour, I found this beautiful musician's prayer. And I went, "Yes! That is exa...
Read more

Gloves: For More than Keeping Your Child's Hands Warm

Image
   Snow swirls around the streets of Leningrad, Russia. Pedestrians pull winter coats tighter around themselves. Car lights shine through the flurries. In one large, multi-story building, a window on the corner of the building is lit. Inside the room, frost decorates the window panes. The only occupant – a young man, with a spark of life in his blue eyes – turns out music, gorgeous music, on the upright piano against the wall. He wears a heavy overcoat and plays with a pair of medium-weight, knit gloves – for his dormitory room has no heat.    At this point in the narrative, the music teacher jerks his enraptured student back into the present – modern Edmonton, a warm and very comfortable music studio, and the two Yamaha baby grands sitting side by side – with this question:    “ Have you ever practiced with gloves on?”    Ahh . . . no, I hadn’t. My house always had heat?!     My music teacher, undeterred by my blank look (w...
Read more

When Music Teachers Meet

Image
It was Sunday evening, and various members of  PMTA  were gathered at one member's home for the Annual General Meeting. Since I've only been a member for less than a year, this was the first time I'd been to one of their meetings. As we were setting up for supper, I asked the president, "So, what goes on in the meeting?"    She looked at me, and her face instantly displayed drama. With gusto, she replied, "You'll be thrilled, and chilled, and ... bored out of your mind!"    LOL!    That's the great thing about hanging around with other artistic minds. There's plenty of room for drama. :)    Seriously, though, I like getting together with other music teachers, because all of us can talk for hours about music. :) It was a lot of fun comparing notes back and forth and getting to know some of the other teachers. I pick up ideas from these exchanges, including other teachers' favourite methods and new things to include -- or new ways ...
Read more