Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Objective: To help build sight reading skills and knowledge by reviewing notes on the staff.
Materials:
- Cut out Music Ice Cream Cones from PianoTels.pdf (2866 downloads )
- Optional: color the ice cream cones
Players needed: works well one-on-one, or in a group, or in a classroom setting
Activity:
Mix the cut outs all together. Students build the ice cream cones. It will be six scoops tall!
Game:
Each student, or group, has a set of musical ice cream cut-outs. They race each other to see which one can build their ice cream cone first. The first one to win gets ice cream!
Preview of Musical Ice Cream Cones
Tel loves her life as a piano player, a piano teacher, and a mom. Amid piano blogging, piano teaching, and piano playing, she loves a chance to fit in a good exercise class, volunteer at her kids’ school and at her church, and go on long dates with her husband. Full bio at About Tel.
The race format is the part I’d want to watch play out with a wobbly beginner, because six scoops tall means a student has to identify a lot of notes correctly before anyone gets the promised ice cream. I wonder whether the competitive element helps or hinders the slowest readers in a group setting, since sight reading rewards accuracy over speed at this stage. Coloring the cones first seems like a smart low-stakes warm-up for younger kids who freeze when a staff appears.