Giant floor piano!
One of the highlights of our preschool piano camp was the giant keyboard we used to learn some music theory and keyboard topography. I had seen some wonderful ideas on other blogs using big floor pianos, and decided that we needed one! We ended up having one made as a vinyl banner (because I wanted it to look nice and professional and to last awhile), and it turned out awesome! The kids absolutely loved running and jumping on it and learning things using this huge piano!
A few things we used it for:
- Learning HIGH and LOW on the piano – we did a BIG version of my high/low game where we picked a picture of something and the kids had to decide if it was something high or low, and then run to that end of the keyboard. They had fun jumping down the keyboard to represent raindrops, stepping up and running back down to represent a slide, etc.
- Learning about the 2 black keys and 3 black keys, and we taught them a little song by rote using the 3 black keys, and they loved walking on the keys and hopping up to the next set of 3 black keys while singing the song!
- Learning all of the white key names! My friend made the cutest beanbags and we ironed on pictures of Doggie D, Grandma G, etc. so the kids could practice putting them on the correct keys. The kids were so smart and learned them all so quickly!
Purchase the graphic used to create this giant floor keyboard banner in the Shop here!
This is the best floor keyboard ever! Looks like SO much fun!
Keep these preschool camp ideas coming please!! Can't wait to use them with my own kids!
You had so much fun! I love your floor piano:)
So I used your idea and made a giant keyboard out of a really long pillowcase slit lengthwise, painting the black notes on. All the kids in preschool today sat on it and loved it. (I wanted to use it for more stuff, but that didn't end up happening. But now I have it for my piano students and my son for future fun)
I also took your cute "higher" "lower" idea and it worked really well! I had five little kids walking like a crab while one kid played low crab music on the piano or flying like a bird while one of them played bird music. Super fun!
I also used your "piano puzzle" idea — I had them each use two of each puzzle piece and glue a long keyboard on a piece of posterboard after coloring in the black keys. Then I had them glue abc's on the notes. It turned out really well!
Finally we played a major/minor game where they had to tell if I was playing songs in major or minor. I'm sure my happy/grumpy faces had something to do with it, but they seemed to do well at that too 🙂
Thanks for all your awesome ideas! They really made my "P is for Piano" preschool class fun today. You rock!
So glad the ideas came in handy!! Sounds like such a fun preschool day – I bet those kids will definitely remember it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi there! I'd like to have something similar made because I can't find anything that seems both durable and classy. What dimensions were your keyboard?
Thanks!