It’s my first post of 2020 and we are going to talk about all things related to teaching note names on the treble clef staff!
I really enjoy teaching this concept to students, because I think it is the last puzzle piece that really makes music REAL for them.
I hope that makes sense…
What I mean is that it gives power to the students. Once they know how to read notes on the staff, so much music making is opened up to them!
So let’s do this! Here are my FAVORITE products, activities, and games for teaching note names!
Lines and Space Numbers
I kick off my unit with a review of the difference between spaces and lines.
I also, emphasize that “We started from the bottom now we here!”
AKA We always count starting from the bottom of the staff to the top 😉
This is a short video of a cute song that will really get in your head! It’s a great reminder to the kids of the work we did in 3rd grade (wink, wink).
Lines Acronym Worksheet
Once I have introduced the note names for the lines, I hang out there for a while. I think that they are so much harder than the spaces, so I like to take our time with them. We talk about the common acronyms, like “Every good boy does fine” and then we create our own! We still tend to use the most common acronyms later on, but I think it is a great way for students to make it more personal!
Make the Connection to Instruments Quickly
Make it real for them! Show them how important it is to work hard to remember note names. I used to do all these treble clef games and activities to get ready for recorder. Which is great, but most of the time the only 3 notes they would experience were B, A, and G. They would do so much work to learn all the lines and spaces, only to end up using such a small range.
Recorder is not the only melodic instrument in your classroom…hopefully 😉
Get out those boomwhackers. Play passages on the xylophones. Drag out the piano. Or better yet, get a floor piano! Show them that learning note names is the key to reading music and that it opens up a new world of melodic playing!
Go to Games
Write the Room
Finally, get your kiddos up and moving with this write the room activity. Students will copy down the note names on the staff from the cards around the room. They also can then take those notes and decode secret words with them!
What are your favorite treble clef games? I would love to know!
Till next time,
