Music for Elementary: Music Symbols (Week 4)
This past week, we talked quite a bit about different music symbols such as treble clef, base clef, natural sign, flat and sharp symbols, crescendo, quarter notes, half notes, etc. etc. (We also went over various notes as we’ve done previous weeks, though I won’t talk about those activities this week.)
We played Music Bingo (the easy version). For the link to this and other free music activities, see our free music curriculum pdf which has clickable links. We each grabbed two bingo cards and as we flipped over the card, we had to identify and cover various music-related terms. Terms included soft, loud, tie, measure, staff, quarter note, half note, whole note, 4/4 time, 3/4 time, and various notes on the piano.
We also played a couple of games from The Big Book of Music Games, Grades K – 5. (affiliate Link)
We went over the music symbols on these tic-tac-toe boards (photocopied from the book above) and played a few rounds of tic-tac-toe.
And, we played was Music Note Bingo (also from The Big Book of Music Games, Grades K – 5. (affiliate Link)). The kids know the sayings for figuring out the notes on the Treble Clef staff (Every Good Boy Does Fine — OR — Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) and F-A-C-E in the space, so even though they haven’t technically learned all of the notes, they could figure them out. In the photo below, you see four different cards. In the actual Big Book, there are 15 different cards (for teachers who have a big class). We photocopied about half of them for now.
One last thing before I go, DD decided she wanted to learn flute this year. (Actually, she wanted to play last year, but we couldn’t make it happen.) We had a local flute teacher lined up, but then that fell through I started googling for local lessons. As I was hunting around, I came across a site called Take Lessons which allows you to arrange lessons through Skype. I thought we would give that a try because it saves us from driving/waiting and all that.
DD absolutely LOVES her flute teacher, Sarah F!! DD has her lessons via Skype for a half an hour. She can actually get notes out (no small feat on the flute!) and can play a couple of easy pieces (She’s had 5 lessons.) We are incredibly happy with the lessons. And having the lessons via Skype is working out well. We highly recommend DD’s teacher, Sarah, and the Take Lessons platform in general. You can arrange for lessons not only for musical instruments but for languages, math, and other subjects. (I am not an affiliate for Take Lessons, but I wanted to mention this option because I thought other homeschoolers might find this convenient too!). DD’s (wonderful) teacher, Sarah, is currently taking on new students (as of Oct. 2015). Here is a link to Sarah F on takelessons.com or click on the photo below.
I am not an affiliate for Take Lessons, but the platform has worked really well for our family. 🙂
Follow our Musical Journey in Pictures this Semester:
- Remember if you want to print out our free Music Theory Curriculum, visit this post: Free Music Curriculum for Beginners. You’ll find links to lots and lots of free music activities there.
- Music Curriculum: Week One — See what we actually did during the first week with photos.
- Music Curriculum: Week Two
- Music Curriculum: Week 3 in Pictures – Music Note Identification Game and More
P.S. You might be interested in these related posts. These are also free!
See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! ~Liesl
