Visual Note Playing

Tomorrow I will start another homeschool class - Recorder Karate 101.  I briefly mentioned this in a previous post, but thought I would share a bit about what I will be doing.  Each of the classes over a 6-week period will last an hour and a half.  During the class I will pack in information about the recorder - it's history, how to take care of it, how to hold it and obviously how to play it.  I will also include lots of games and activities to reinforce rhythm and notes on the staff. 

As a way to give them some extra visuals, I included a brief "cut and paste" project. 

Here is a look at some of the supplies I used, but to give you a list, I made the staves and blank recorder sheets on the computer and cut them to fit on these "cards".  I put them together ahead of time because I wanted the focus to be on the notes and which holes on the recorder to cover, rather than worrying about the kids getting them put together correctly.  I also put the letters on   1 1/2 inch square labels so they were easy to peel and stick.  Add in a bit of tape and cardstock, and these are ready to put together.            

The students will be allowed to choose the colors they want as I made a huge stack of all different colors.  All they need to do is choose a color, glue it down on the colored cardstock they choose and then fill in the note on the staff and fill in the holes on the blank recorder inside.

This is a brief look at the one I did as an example.  After I got done getting these all ready, I thought this might work for early piano/guitar students.   By changing the recorder portion to a keyboard or a fretboard, we could easily make a book together of their first notes.  Perhaps part of their lesson would be to add one of these as the notes are introduced to them.  What do you think?   I shall have to think on that one a bit!

And of course...what would a recorder class be without the "Recorder Dude"?  He stands about 3 feet tall, is made of foam and has velcro under each of his fingers.  As the kids learn a new note, "Recorder Dude" will demonstrate the proper way to play it.  I think this cute guy needs a better name though, so I'm planning to have this class come up with something! 

That's a look at what I've been working on. I'll be sure to post some pictures and some more ideas as we go through the coming weeks.