We will be doing several activities during each lesson. One of the activities we will be doing is be sight reading. I couldn't find any pre-staff sight reading books, so I made this set of 40 pre-primer Sight Reading Flash Cards for my Piano Test Drivers.  The cards use whole notes, half notes and quarter notes and cover the notes C, D, E, F and G. They can be used one at a time or several can be lined up in a row for the students to play through.
I am really pleased with how they turned out. I plan to make some more later to include A and B, but for now, I am good with these because we won't be using A and B very much during the Piano Test Drive. Click here to download these cards and try them with your pre-primer level students.
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At the beginning of each lesson, the students collect their Workout Card and begin to work through it. I stop at each student's station to hear their pieces and to see how they are doing on their workout. These Workout Cards prevent the lessons from becoming chaotic as everyone knows exactly what they have to do.
If you think these workout card would be useful to you, print them off (double sided to get the lined page on the back), and try them out. Let me know how they worked for you. Every week, there are one or two students who haven’t practiced as much as they should have. This isn't too much of a problem in my multi-level lessons, but I am very strict about practice for my same-level students - their lessons are easier for me if they stay together. I try to teach towards the fastest child in the group in the hope that the other students will work hard to keep up. This works for the most part, but I could see my primer students were more interested in our theory games than practicing at home.
This is not only a motivator for students, but also for parents to keep their kiddos practicing, as I snap a picture of the chart after each lesson and email it to the parents along with the “Student Snapshot.”
If a student is pulling ahead a lot, I assign them a corresponding piece from the “Performance Book” to prevent them from becoming bored. Generally, my primer students don’t use the performance book - I reserve it for recitals and students that are ahead. They don't get a star on the chart for it but they are often so proud to be playing from the "Recital Book" that they don't mind about the star. For the higher level students, I write additional accompaniment parts to the pieces in their lesson or performance books. Then if one of them is pulling ahead, I assign them one of the additional parts to work on that week. If you have same-level groups, how do you keep your students moving forward together? |
Julia & DianaTwo sisters on two different continents, working together, creating resources that keep our students motivated and loving piano! Categories
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