Panda Trek!

One of the skills that I knew I needed to work on more with my students was to have them actually "write" some of the terms we often talk about.  We practice drawing clefs and writing time signatures, but though we talk about tempos, can they spell them?  How often do I ask them to draw a fermata or a repeat sign? 

Well, I wanted to fix that problem and thought it would be fun to practice all those terms using a game!  To go along with our World Music theme and to add a game to the day we study the continent of Asia in one of my camps this summer, I entitled it Panda Trek! 

This is sort of a "hide and seek" type game.  Each student is given a game board which consists of a grid with the numbers 1-24.  The game cards with the card number on the back side give them a challenge to complete and corresponds with the same number on the game board.  They might have to draw a sharp or flat, draw a rest or note, or spell out a tempo such as andante or allegro. 

The object is to find all 24 game cards and complete each square on the game board.  This game is for elementary level students although if using at a group lesson, it would be easy to put more advanced students together with younger students and let them work in teams so advanced students get an opportunity to help "teach" the younger ones.

If you would like to use Panda Trek in your own studio, feel free to go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to print it out!  The file includes the game board, instructions and the game cards.  Pages 2-5 are the game cards and are designed to be printed with pages 7-10 as the back side of the game cards.  I laminated my game boards so that I could reuse them, but it's certainly not necessary.

If nothing else, I hope this game spurs some creative ideas in your own teaching!