It poured rain here this morning so I took the opportunity to try out a new music theory game with the kids. When using the giant homemade grand staff with one of my beginner piano students the other day, I realized that the spaces on the grand staff would work great as parking spots for cars. And, obviously, they worked just like I had intended since I'm posting about it.
This car themed music activity for kids is a great way for kids to practice learning about lines and spaces, intervals, note reading on the grand staff, and more. It's such a versatile music theory activity that I like to use with my piano students.
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Music Activities for Kids: Learning Music Theory with Cars
For this activity, I used:
I cut the painter's tape into little rectangles so that I could label the cars and the lines and spaces of the grand staff. For older kids, this step wouldn't be necessary, but since my boys are still young, the alphabet matching component was very helpful.
K quickly grabbed a car, said the letter, and "drove" it onto the grand staff. Naturally, he said "Vroom!" as he did so.
He continued to park the cars into their spots on the grand staff.
Eventually, K ditched the cars in favor of his feet. He inched his way slowly across the lines and spaces of the grand staff, saying the letter names with each tiny shuffle of his feet.
J also checked out the activity for a little bit. While he parked his cars, we talked about line notes versus space notes, as well as the letters on the cars.
The cars were a huge hit! I can't wait to try this game out with my newest piano student who is just starting to learn how to read notes on the grand staff. He is going to love it!
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