These cards print up the musical alphabet 15 times, in various colors and fonts. They include sharp and flat signs. Here are just a few ideas for using them that have worked well for me:
- Student draws a card out of the bag and plays that note on the piano.
- Use sticky tack and hide them around the room. When they find one, they play that note.
- If I’m on the ball, I have them hidden before the student arrives. If I’m not, no worries. I have them play their song for the week while I hide them. They’re too busy to see exactly where I’m putting them.
- If it’s taking too long, we play Hot and Cold to find them.
- It’s also possible to have them hide a few for me. Then I find them and play them, but they have to watch to make sure I don’t make any mistakes.
- Student draws several cards out of the bag and lays them out. Then they play the sequence of notes they have drawn.
- Very young students can practice putting the cards in order on the floor.
- We practice it both forwards and backwards.
- We also try building a tower that is longer than they are. (If you do this, make sure that A is on the bottom of the tower and build up, just like the notes on t he staff work.) Periodically, they lie down on the flower next to their tower to see if they need to build it any higher.
- More advanced students can play a major or minor scale starting on the letter than they draw.
Naturally, there’s no limit to the different ways you could use these, which is the only reason I was willing to go to the effort of creating them.