Category: valentine’s day

Valentine’s Day Music Activities

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Today I’m sharing my most popular Valentine’s Day Music Activities. Click the pics for inspiration for lessons or at home activities to enhance the music learning!

Conductor's Bouquet

Conductors Bouquet Valentine’s Day Activity

Valentine Match Up

Valentine’s Day Match Up – Same Note, Different Value

Valentine's Piano Activities

Valentine’s Day Staff Note Activities for piano students.

valentine

Valentine’s Note Steps

Broken Hearts

Broken Hearts Rhythm Practice

What other music concepts with Valentine’s Day themed activities would you like to see? Comment below and I will create it and share in a future post! 

 

Another Valentine’s Day Themed Music Activity!

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Conductor's BouquetThis Valentine’s Day Themed Conductors Bouquet is going to be used in 3 ways in my studio next week:

– To teach kids which hand plays treble clef notes and which plays bass clef notes

– To teach kids how to feel different time signatures by conducting with the wands

– As a decoration to brighten up the studio so I can see kids’ faces light up as they enter for their lessons

When students arrive for lessons, I will be playing Bob Marley’s “One Love” and Annie Lennox and Al Green’s “Put A Little Love In Your Heart”. The Student will take a wand from the bouquet and using the correct hand for the symbol on the heart join me in conducting the song. We will extend the activity by conducting some of the pieces that they are working on as well. At the end of their lesson they will get to take the wand home to keep!

Here’s what you need in order to do this activity:

1. Valentine’s Wands from Dollar Tree (They come in packs of 3)

2. A sharpie marker to draw bass clef and treble clef symbols on the hearts

3. A nice vase to keep them in

4. Songs of different time signatures

That’s it!

Before we go I have a question: What other Valentine Themed songs can you suggest with different time signatures that can be used in this lesson? Please let me know in a comment below!

Same Note, Different Value: A Valentine’s Day Matching Game

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Valentine Match UpToday’s post is inspired by Meryl Brown’s One Heart Activity found on her Music Therapy Blog, Developing Melodies. 

Meryl pairs Bob Marley’s song, One Love with a matching heart game to teach preschoolers to match patterns. What I think is so cute about the idea is that it plays off the Valentine’s Day theme which is all about match ups!

Her idea inspired me to create a new game that helps piano students make the connection between notes on the staff that have different values but are the same note. I find that some kids have may correctly identify a quarter note middle C in one measure but do not realize when they see a half note C in a different measure that the two notes are the same note. This quick game is a fun way to help them make that connection.

All you need is some foam heart shapes or paper hearts and a sharpie to draw the notes. Cut the hearts in half in puzzle like designs and your game is ready!

In case you missed yesterday’s post and are looking for more valentine theme piano fun click here!

Valentine’s Day Piano Fun

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Valentine's Piano ActivitiesValentine’s Day gives piano teachers loads of ways to infuse fresh excitement into the piano lesson! Today I’m highlighting an idea from Susan Paradis’ blog which helps kids review notes on the grand staff. Her great idea is centered around an intriguing question,

“Are You A Line Or A Space?”

If you are looking for a quick, fun, and effective music theory activity with a Valentine’s Day theme to start or end your piano lesson you should definitely give this one a try!

Click the video below to hear what one of my students said when I asked her the question…It will make you LAUGH!

Tomorrow’s post will feature another exciting idea from a piano blogger! In the meantime, check out these past Valentine’s Day posts from Kids & Keys:

Music Heals Broken Hearts – A Rhythm Notation Activity

Valentine Steps – Practice reading stepping patterns on a staff

Valentine Steps

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valentine

Here is a quick activity to get the lesson started – especially on Valentine’s Day. Students can practice recognizing and playing stepping patterns on random notes. You could also have the student try to find the matching pattern. (There is one matching set). For extra fun see if the student notices that the hearts form a star in the middle! You can download a copy of this activity here.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pinterest Inspired – Music Heals Broken Hearts!

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Broken Hearts

Pinterest has got to be one of the greatest resources for inspiration that I’ve ever come across! While browsing the site recently I came across an activity from a school party that used broken hearts to review numbers that was pinned by Ann Berman. Someone suggested making a music matching game with this idea, so I did! I used it as a review for note and rest values. My 3 year old student LOVED it. The game was very easy to make. I used foam hearts and a sharpie to draw a quarter note, half note, whole note, and their corresponding rests on one half of each heart. On the other I wrote the number value. Then I cut the hearts down the middle in different shapes to make unique puzzles in order to make the activity self-correcting.

Do you use Pinterest? If so, leave your link in a comment below. Then hop on over to my Pinterest page and check out some of my boards.