LEGO Bricks and Music Lessons?!

Have you heard about the Lego Smart Creativity Contest? I just heard about it today from a homeschool discussion board, and (though I never thought about using LEGO products in my lessons before) I think I foresee them making an appearance at upcoming lessons. I mean, how cool does this idea (taken straight from the website) look:

LEGO My Music- Rythm Study

LEGO Smart Creativity Contest Entry (SEPTEMBER WINNER!)

By Paula Augustine, Home school mom and private music instructor

Steps: 1. Give each group of 2-3 students a LEGO Smart Kit. 2. Give them 3-5 minutes to work together and line up their bricks into a rhythm composition. 3. Let each group share their rhythm composition and explain what each brick 'symbol' meant. They will need to work together to decide how to organize the bricks into length is to be played and be able to play it together when finished. I had one group use some colors as rests! Another group used dotted rhythm patterns.

Lesson Learned: The students learned to work together, work creatively, and how use symbols to communicate with the class.

Anybody else interested in entering the 2010 contest? Just visit their website here to pre-register. (The first 10,000 get a free mini LEGO kit!) I think my students and I will definitely be able to come up with some creative activities... and knowing how creative some of y'all are, I have no doubts that your ideas will be equally as great!

Leave a comment if you decide to participate, too!

A St. Patrick's Day Game

This is a kind of (read: very) cheesy game that I made up for my students. They LOVED playing it, though. (They are so easy to please!) I loved the fact that it encouraged them to learn their notes so quickly!

Things you will need:

1. Your handy scale blocks
2. This printable gameboard, created by yours truly
3. Leprechaun coins

Note: My Leprechaun coins are not actually from Leprechauns. (Shh! Don't tell my students!) They are actually sequins - 20mm gold sequins created by Darice to be specific. You can, of course substitute whatever you wish, but do not attempt to make Leprechaun coins by painting a bag of small wooden disks with gold acrylic paint. I may have tried this, and I may have lived to regret it.

To Play:

1. Decide which of the following notes you want to reinforce:

• Treble Clef Lines
• Treble Clef Spaces
• Bass Clef Lines
• Bass Clef Spaces

2. Lay out your gameboard, toss all of your scale blocks into a container, and pull out your Leprechaun coins. (Making a great show of the coins as if they are magic is optional, but I prefer it!)

3. Have students draw from the scale blocks, and place their Leprechaun coins on the corresponding rainbow lines or spaces. (i.e. If you decide to reinforce treble clef lines, and the student draws a "B" block, they will place the coin on the third line of the rainbow. Conversely, if you've decided to reinforce bass clef spaces and the student draws a "B" block, they should throw it back in the box and draw another.) Clear as mud?

4. The first line or space to reach the pot of gold (or the line or space with the most coins when time is up) "wins."

Using Scale Blocks with Young Students

• Mix up an octave or two of scale blocks and have students place them in order – forwards and backwards.

• Place one or a more blocks on their corresponding keys, and have students fill in the remaining blocks.

• Mix up all of the blocks and have students draw them at random, placing them on their corresponding keys.

• Start an egg timer. Point to a key and have students grab the corresponding scale block. Repeat and see how many blocks can the student collect before the timer runs out!

• Repeat activity four - but instead of playing a key, display a flashcard of a note on the treble or bass staff. 

• Draw a staff on a blank sheet of paper and have students place the blocks the proper lines/spaces.

• Choose a word that can be spelled using the music alphabet, draw the needed blocks, and have students build it on the keyboard.

• Choose a word that can be spelled using the music alphabet, draw the needed blocks, and have students build it on the lines and spaces of the staff.

• Mix up the blocks and have students draw them at random, placing them in a row on the music rack as they go. Then have them add rhythm to compose a song.

• Repeat any of the activities above, but reverse roles and let the students “teach” you! Be sure to make lots of silly mistakes for them to correct!

Are You Ready For Some [Piano] Football?

Because I'm a pretty cool piano teacher (sometimes) I came up with a game for one of my little football stars who didn't want to learn the names of the white keys... and it worked. By the end of his lesson, he knew every white key name!

You'll need:

• Scale Blocks (see Natalie's post here)
• Mini Footballs (I printed mine on cardstock and glued them to buttons)
• Goalposts (also known as "straws trimmed and taped together")

To Play:

• Toss all of your scale blocks into a bowl, bag, hat, box or whatever you have handy. (I used a small hand drum.)

• Decide how large you want your field to be (depending on how much time you have) and place your "goalposts"

Note: I used very skinny, flimsy straws and slipped them a fraction of a centimeter down between keys. Bad for my piano? Probably, but my piano saw 30 years of (much worse) abuse before I purchased it. If you are concerned about your keys, you could make a base out of more straws or a bit of modeling clay.

• Place your footballs at their starting positions. Team Bass Clef goes on middle C, Team Treble Clef goes two keys over on E.

• Take turns drawing a scale block and moving the football to the corresponding key. (Team Bass Clef always moves lower towards their goal post, and Team Treble Clef always moves higher towards their post.)

• The first team to score a touchdown (pass their goal post) wins!

Variations:

• Use only one football and have team Treble move it up, and team Bass move it down. This makes the game a little bit more like real football, but takes up a lot more time in the lesson.

• Penalize students for "going out of bounds." In other words, if they land their football on the wrong note, they have to go back to their last position.

• Offer the chance to earn a "point after touchdown" by answering a random question about whatever they're currently learning. (i.e. "What does forte mean?" or "Name one piece of music that Mozart wrote.")