Worksheet Game for St. Patrick's Day!

Alright... Well there has been a whole lot of baking going on so far this year and not much else!  My sewing machine hasn't made an appearance (although I'm definitely going to rectify that in the next couple of weeks) and there hasn't even been much crafting, beyond a few handmade cards and a small Valentine project for Jonathan... So today, you will NOT be reading about cake!  (Sorry if that's your favourite part), but it's time for something a little different. 

 

This weekend I came up a new worksheet that I'll be using for my piano students during March in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. 

 

 

While I was making it, and thinking of how it would work during my piano lessons, I thought it would be great to keep it general - then anybody can use it!

 

Using PicMonkey for the first time in creating the full worksheet (and then using the image in word, before saving as a PDF!) I used lots of shamrock shapes, with a starting point and 10 small shamrocks before reaching the 'You Win' pot of gold at the end of the line of shamrocks.

 

 

My plan for that pot of gold is to have a chocolate coin to aim for! 



Keeping it simple and generic I just stated that you should 'Follow instructions and move along the shamrocks to make it to your pot of gold at the end of the game'... 

 

Whether instructions are being given by a piano teacher like me, another teacher or parent this worksheet game can be adapted to anything.

 

The PDF is on Google Drive, and anybody with THIS LINK can download and print it as you like (just print on 'Actual Size').  Click here to see it.  If you're looking for a lower colour option, then perhaps printing in 'draft' will save your printing costs :)

 

Like I say, the instructions my piano students will be following are musical ones - I have a few students taking RCM piano exams in April so lots of the instructions will be based on scales, chords, ear testing and sight reading etc in preparation for the technical side of their exam. 

 

For my beginning piano students we'll do some fun challenges - playing high/low.. performing a piece loudly or softly, playing their pentascales... And some other fun ways of playing.

 

In addition to the worksheet, I also created a List of Instructions to print and go along with the worksheet.  You can download this one here - just click THIS link!

 

 

With there being 10 small shamrocks, and then one final step to finally reach the pot of gold finish point I put a Bonus to Finish instruction as well, this might be something fun, or something my student has trouble with - or maybe the point where the student can play their favourite exam piece, or play their Irish piece of music we'll be learning in March ♫

 

I'm sure you'll be able to think of LOTS of ways to use this in your lives - whether as parents or as education providers, but here are a few idea I had so far...

 

Perhaps your child has a spelling test coming up... Can they spell 10 + bonus words correctly in studying for their test!?

 

Or are there some chores your little one needs some motivation with... Maybe there will be a bonus $1 gold coin waiting for them at the end of the list of Shamrock Chores?!

 

Have some fun with homework or learning... Follow instructions to gain a 'gold coin' or other reward that fits with your current reward system!

 

Any other ideas you come up with I'd love to know!!  Just leave me a comment telling me how you enjoyed playing this Shamrock game :-)

 

I'll post some more pictures of the game in use during my piano lessons as we get further into March and play on St. Patrick's Day ♧

 



A February Round Up: Valentine Hearts, Pasta and Truffles

 



♥ Valentine's Day Piano Worksheets ♥

Valentine's Day is coming and starting tomorrow afternoon I will be taking along my musical Valentine's Day worksheets for all of my piano students along with a little pencil for them to use and keep!

I wanted to give them a little treat but also develop some of my own worksheets this year.  I started off with my Composer Love Stories - telling them stories about composers, their wives, children, songs they wrote for them and then also mentioned some things about the 'Romantic' Period of music of course!  To finish off this worksheet I did a little matching quiz to check to see if they really had read it all.  Then I realised I needed more.  A worksheet or two that would also be suitable for my much younger students!  A Love Story to write, and you'll see I suggested they write it about music, or from their piano's perspective because really, which 6 year old will tell their piano teacher which boy they love at school?!  And then finally, for all of the students that need quizzing on their notes on the staff, they can fill them in on the Love Note Staff Hunt hearts.

For Composer Valentine Love Stories just click for the PDF!

Valentine's Day Piano Love Song (Click for PDF) 

Love Note Staff Hunt (Click for PDF)

I bundled it all together, added a heart I cut out from music scrapbook paper, holes punched on either side and a pencil slotted through so it holds together.  I used just curling ribbon we had a large roll of to tie it all together.

Just a little note:  I purposefully do my documents in black and white only.  I LOVE everybody's worksheets in colour, they look amazing, but for little piano teacher me trying not to print like crazy all the time I thought it would be good to stick to black and white for my worksheets this time (as my printer just ran off 75 sheets for this week!)... And well, my students love to colour anyway :-)

For when I am printing in colour (and I do that a lot too!) here is a great list of printer cost saving tips from amazing piano blogger Susan Paradis with her latest blog post - just click here!

I think we'll be having a lot of fun with it this week, please feel free to download these documents and let me know how you used them too!

♫ Happy Musical Valentine's Day ♫

RCM Piano Exam Preparation ♫

I am SUPER excited this year to have some students taking piano exams.  So far this year I will have 5 students (4 little ones and 1 adult!) taking their Preparatory B exam and 1 student taking their Grade 1.

Having grown up with the ABRSM exam board in England I needed to learn about the Royal Conservatory system here in Canada.  I found some information on the internet but I wanted something FUN to help my students prepare.

I searched and searched but in the end decided I may as well just make my own packs!  My students know I love 'packs'.  Maybe you've seen my Olympic packs and the Winter packs still need to be posted up, oops!

I like to include a little colouring, some fun and easy stuff to fill in and of course some parts they will learn from that won't just be a boring checklist!

Front page and 1 inside preview from the Preparatory Pack.  Get your PDF version of the Preparatory B Pack here.

2 inside preview pages for the Grade 1 pack.  Get your PDF for the Grade 1 pack here.

So far the kids have loved these!  They have just been filling in the front pages right now but as we go along in this semester they'll be able to test what they know by writing what notes to play around the edge of each shape or in the blocks.  Let me know if you want further explanation of how I'll be using these in my lessons :-)