Fun Piano Stuff

I was so nervous about teaching piano lessons in my home for a few reasons. One was I just wasn't sure if I could do it. Even though I've played the piano since I was 6, I had never taught before so I was unsure. The second reason was my kids. I quickly discovered that I LOVE teaching piano. I feel so good that I am able to use my knowledge and talent and share that with others. I have some really great students and I am remembering why I am so passionate about music. I got 3 more piano students last week so I am now up to 7 students. My kids are not loving this as much as I am so I think 7 is a good amount for what my kids can handle right now. I wish I lived in a big house where I could have my own piano studio but for now, my piano is in my kitchen. Sounds pretty funny, I know, but I needed to be able to turn on a movie for my kids and teach in another room. It works for now.
This last weekend I wanted to get some fun ideas to use in my teaching so I started looking around online and I found so many great things! I found a few piano blogs that I spent several hours reading and have gotten some great ideas off of them. Here are a few things I discovered.

This is a rhythm pizza. A great little thing to help kids understand the concept of eighth, quarter, half and whole notes, especially when they haven't learned fractions yet.
One of my new students is a 3 year old. I was a little nervous because I have no idea what to do with someone that young but I found lots of things to do with young kids, this is one of them.
This is just a little folder game with ladybugs that have a few music symbols on them. This is a lapbook that I made that just has some different flashcards in it and a mini rhythm pizza
I will be the first to admit that I could not come up with any of this on my own so here are the links where I found these.
http://heidispianonotes.blogspot.com/
http://www.susanparadis.com/
http://lowepianostudio.blogspot.com/
http://musicmattersblog.com/

I basically just read through these 4 blogs for several hours after the kids went to bed and founds lots and lots of great ideas. I'm excited to start using them in my teaching!

These are just 2 folder games that I found and made Sunday morning for Nathan to play with in church. (Since our church starts at 2 I had plenty of time in the morning)


Here is the website I found these on: http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/filefolders.asp