The other day I was in the middle of a piano lesson with Ella when she suddenly stopped, looked puzzled, and pointed to her new piece of music exclaiming, “what does that mean?”.
At the top of the page was a new music tempo term we hadn’t met before. We spent a bit of time thinking about where it fits in relation to the other speed words she knows, and then I propped up my tablet on the piano stand.
It was time to play ‘Race to the Finish”!
In this ‘Beat the Teacher‘ style game, students first pick a card to see what kind of vehicle the teacher gets to race in. Luckily, Ella drew a bicycle which means she had more time to answer her questions. I’m pretty slow on a bike in real life too!
Then she got to spin the wheel. It landed on five and Ella cheered excitedly! She only had to answer four questions before I reached the finish line on my bike.
As well as tempo terms, the game includes all kinds of instruction words found in grade one theory; terms like ‘da capo’, ‘rallentando’, ‘dolce’ and ‘crescendo’.
Students have to win three or more rounds to beat the teacher so, despite picking the racing car twice (the fastest vehicle on the track!), Ella was delighted when she completed the final round and won the game.
To find out more about how to access this game visit here, or watch the short video demo below. Let me know if you have any questions.
