FREEBIE: Key Signature Flashcards & Name That Key Worksheet

June 27, 2020 Jennifer Boster

I’ve got a new freebie for you today! It is so important to help our students understand key signatures, including knowing the order of sharps and flats, understanding relative minor keys and remembering the rules for identifying keys with sharp or flat key signatures. Understanding the circle of 5ths is important, of course, but sometimes I think that simply drilling key signatures over and over is the best way to remember them.

I created these key signature flashcards to help students practice naming the major and minor keys associated with each key signature, and decided to give them to you as a free download! You can either print the answers on the back (make sure you use cardstock – thicker paper will make sure that you can’t see the answer through the card!), or you might want to print the answers separately and use them as a memory match game to match up the key signatures to their associated major and minor keys! You can easily use them during online lessons as well, simply hold the cards up to the screen to quiz your students.

This download also includes a Name That Key worksheet so your students can practice at home. You could even time them and see how fast they can name all of the keys.

Grab your free download here!

Giant Keyboard & Staff Manipulatives Pack

August 21, 2014 Jennifer Boster

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Since I made my Giant Floor Keyboard three years ago, I have gotten so much use out of it! It is absolutely my favorite studio resource, and has been a staple in my preschool music classes in particular, but I have also used it in piano lessons and group classes. My children love playing with it as well! The vinyl has survived lots of love and use very well and I am still so pleased with it.

The Giant Floor Staff has been wonderful as well! There are so many things you can use it for, and it’s just neat to have a large, off-the-bench area to practice theory concepts on. I usually use beanbags (several have ironed-on letter names; see above picture) or foam circles (see picture on left) with my Giant Floor Keyboard and my Giant Floor Staff, but I have been thinking that there is so much more these can be used for with the proper resources. So I created the Giant Floor Keyboard and Staff Manipulatives Pack. This is available in The Teaching Studio Store as two separate digital downloads (one for the keyboard and one for the staff), or as a bundle at a discounted rate.

Included in each pack are several sets of circular “flashcards” that fit perfectly on the keyboard and staff (if you bought the graphics from me and made them into a 3-foot by 8-foot banner), or if you make your own big keyboard or staff, they fit the following dimensions: key width on the keyboard 5-1/8 inches, space height on the staff 6-5/8 inches.

Each pack includes 12 or 13 sets of these circular flashcards, including: full-color letter names, part-color letter names, black and white letter names, black and white and part-color finger numbers, all letter names (including notes with sharps and flats), notes on the staff (to use with the keyboard to help learn where you play each note on the staff), notes on the keyboard (to use with the staff to learn letter names on the staff and how it relates to the keyboard), sharps and flats (key signature and scale practice), line and space cards to teach about the staff, and some plain black or white cards to use in any way you please.

These are perfect for teaching, reinforcing and practicing theory concepts ( notes on the staff, lines and spaces, scales, arpeggios, triads, key signatures, and much more!) in a fun, visual way. Activity suggestions are given for each set of printable circles, including ideas for groups or individuals, young beginners or more advanced students. Just print as many as you’d like, cut them out, laminate, and you’re ready to play!


Giant Floor Keyboard Manipulatives Pack	Giant Floor Staff Manipulatives Pack	Both Manipulative Packs
Includes 12 sets of printable circles, including letter names, finger numbers, sharps and flats, notes on the staff, and more. Activity suggestions are given for each set of printable circles. Just print as many as you’d like, cut them out, laminate, and you’re ready to play!Digital download. 49 pages.	Includes 13 sets of printable circles, including letter names, finger numbers, sharps and flats, notes on the keyboard, lines and spaces, and more. Activity suggestions are given for each set of printable circles. Just print as many as you’d like, cut them out, laminate, and you’re ready to play!Digital download. 77 pages.

New Freebie: Musical Memory Game

February 7, 2013 Jennifer Boster

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Sometimes young students need a more exciting way to learn their notes on the staff. I mean, flashcards are great and all, but can get a little old. This week I made a little memory matching game for a student who needed a new way to work on her notes. This game is super simple (and let’s admit it, it really isn’t THAT different from actual flashcards, but puts a new twist on it!) and it’s a nice way to shake things up a bit. Plus you get to get off of the bench for this one (a definite plus!)

Now available on my “Free Printables” page is a Musical Memory game.

My daughter was more than obliged to get in the picture and demonstrate the game!

Students match Middle C Position notes to their letter names

I laminated mine with my laminator and love how they turned out! These will last for a long time.

Whatever activities you decide to use with your young students, I encourage you to get off of the bench more often and find new ways to bring fun and excitement into lessons!

Download the musical memory game here or visit my Free Printables page. Enjoy!

Also, be sure to enter our giveaway for a free Valentines Day preschool music lesson plan! Giveaway ends Friday, February 8 at 10:00 pm Central Time.

Upside-Down Compositions

April 26, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Sometimes my best (and most successful) teaching ideas are the spur-of-the-moment ones that I just sort of think up at the last second. Today I had a student arrive without her books (and she had not practiced much this week), so I grabbed my staff flannel board and some black felt notes.

I first had her review the notes in a C Major five-finger scale (a great note-reading review as well as a review of her scales!) by building the scale on the flannel board. I then had her build a C Major chord as well (my students surprisingly mix up chords and arpeggios all the time – I tell them to sing “ar – pe – ggio!” while playing the three notes of the arpeggio, and to sing “chord” when playing a chord – it seems to help a bit!).

I then allowed her to make up her own short song with any notes in the bass clef. She LOVED this (I have found that most young children LOVE making up their own music….let’s take that and run with it, shall we??) and came up with this song:

I then had her play it on the piano (an EXCELLENT note-reading exercise – and she did very well considering she is in level 2 of Faber’s My First Piano Adventures…barely into note reading!). I told her afterwards that we were going to do something super cool with her song. I added an upside-down treble clef at the end of her song…

…and then flipped the whole thing over!

She was excited to see that this had created an entirely new song in the treble clef! We had fun playing it and seeing what it sounded like (naming all the notes as we went…great review!).

I decided to send her home with some blank staff paper and I assigned her to write a short song (using the notes of a predetermined five-finger scale, to keep it simple and easy to play in one hand position), and then to flip it over and play the upside-down version!

Here is one we did in the C Major five-finger position:

You flip it over and you’re in a nice F position – easy for small hands.

Voila – a fun and simple note-reading/five-finger scale/composition exercise! Goodnight all!

Giant Floor Staff!

April 20, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’re all having a lovely day and have a fun weekend planned. As for me, I am sitting here in my pajamas enjoying the beginning of my weekend and a day off from teaching piano.

Those of you who have purchased my graphic to make a Giant Floor Keyboard will be excited to hear that I now have a Giant Floor Staff graphic available! My vinyl floor staff turned out great and I am so excited to use it in my music classes and camps! I have already gotten some good use out of it in my private lessons. It is so great to have a super fun and different way to help my students learn the notes on the staff, which allows them to get off of the bench and move around.

I debated about putting a clef on there or not…and ended up not. I wanted to be able to use it for bass clef or treble clef notes. I think I may try to make some big clefs that I can put on there when needed, but for now it has worked fine without.

It is nice and big (about 90 inches long 28 inches tall, not including the white border) and is perfect for children to walk, stand, jump, and run on (I know this because my four-year-old son got some great use out of it this morning….also, it is nice and sturdy!!)

Just like my Giant Floor Keyboard, I had it made on www.bannersonthecheap.com. They have excellent prices, high-quality products and super fast delivery time. Totally an awesome deal, and the ease and quality is worth the money, in my opinion!

I created my own custom-designed 3′ x 8′ banner by uploading my staff image. Stretch the image to fill the banner area (leaving a small white margin around the outside, if desired) and select the box to center it horizontally. Click “Save and Continue” and you are all set to order your Giant Floor Staff. Easy peasy.

You can use fun letter name beanbags…

…colorful craft foam notes (hmmm, makes me want to play Twister)…

…or simply allow children to walk right on there and be the notes themselves!

Students of all ages and levels (even preschoolers) will get so much use out of this giant staff!

The graphic is available for purchase here as well as on the “Printables & Downloads” page.

Giant Floor Staff Graphic
$3.00

Teaching Tip Tuesday: Visualize the Music

April 10, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Teaching Tip #8: Visualize the Music

All of my beginning students do five-finger scales/arpeggios/chords each week. Sometimes it’s fun to give them a new way to visualize these scales! I had a lot of success with my youngest student (4 years old) learning her C Major five-finger scale using these colorful fuzzies as a reminder of which notes to play! I sent the fuzzies home with her in a little baggie and she got to put them on her piano to find the right notes so she could “tip-toe up the keys.”

Another great way for young students to visualize scales (and to experience them in a whole new way using their whole body!) is to use a giant floor piano and colorful beanbags. Students can actually “tip-toe up the keys” and even “play” the scale in different ways – short or long (hopping or slowly stepping), soft or loud (saying the letter names soft or loud and stomping or tip-toeing), etc.

What are some ways you help your students to visualize the music?

p.s. don’t forget to enter the giveaway for a free copy of my new Spectacular Spring! lesson plan!

New Printable: Musical Easter Egg Hunt

March 29, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Today I’d like to share a fun new printable! This “Musical Easter Egg Hunt” is the perfect springtime flashcard game for your elementary-level piano students. It’s based off this version of the game that I threw together last year. I have just used it in private lessons with my young students, but it would also be great as a group activity. Hope you enjoy!

You may download the file here, or you can find it on the “Printables & Downloads” page.

Note Spelling Off of the Bench

February 27, 2012 Jennifer Boster

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Sometimes, especially with the younger students and their shorter attention spans, you just need to get off the piano bench! This week in my studio we have been playing a game with my grand staff flannel board and some big, colorful fuzzy pom-poms from the craft store.

We take turns rolling a fuzzy onto the board (like bowling!) and then see if we can name the note it lands on – either by line or space, or by the actual note name if the student knows them.

After all of the fuzzies are on the board, it’s fun to try playing it on the piano and see what song we came up with!

This is also a fun way to teach note names to a student, or as a fun alternative to flashcards. I think that children learn so well by play, that the more creative teaching aids we can use in our studios, the better they will learn and the more fun they will have!

What are some fun ways you get off the bench during your piano lessons to teach concepts in creative ways?

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fun with short and long notes!

June 22, 2011 Jennifer Boster

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At our piano camp today we talked about how some notes are short and others are LONG. We had some fun playing some short-sounding rhythm instruments (like drums and rhythm sticks) and some LONG instrument sounds (like a rain stick!), and also playing short and long on the piano.

I love the little song in Faber’s My First Piano Adventures Lesson Book 1 called “Will You Play?” – students get to sit down at the piano and improvise a super fun duet with the teacher, following directions such as “will you play some white keys softly please?”, “will you play some long sounds now with me?” and “will you play some short sounds now with me?” The kids loved playing this fun song, and did so well playing long sounds and short sounds!

And because there is not much that is more fun for kids than a bottle of Elmer’s glue and a whole bunch of craft supplies (seriously, they were in heaven!) we then moved to the table where we learned about Beethoven’s Symphony #5, and the kids got to pick short things and long things to “notate” the theme of the symphony! Pom poms, marshmallows, and googly eyes are perfect for short notes, while popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and pasta are great long notes! We sang along as we listened to the music – “short-short-short-LOOOONG….” and I think the kids enjoyed learning that Beethoven started piano lessons when he was four years old – just like many of them!

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Giant Floor Piano – the specifics!

April 25, 2011 Jennifer Boster

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I have had so many nice emails and requests to know more about how I made my giant floor piano – so I thought I’d share a post on the specifics for any interested in having a similar one made (and I know that summer is swiftly approaching, and many readers are working on summer camp plans!). In fact, I have done all the work for you, if you want to easily order an exact one for your studio, read on!

My floor piano is a 3′ by 8′ vinyl banner. It is super sturdy (which is perfect, considering all the running and jumping-on it gets!) and I was so pleased with how it turned out.

I first designed my own piano keyboard graphic on the computer to use for the banner. If you would like, you may purchase and download my graphic and save yourself the time and energy! I was very pleased with how the graphic turned out on the finished product. Visit the Shop to purchase and download the graphic.

I then searched around for the best rates on vinyl banners. I came across the website www.bannersonthecheap.com, went ahead and designed my banner, then crossed my fingers while clicking “order,” hoping it was a legit, good company who would do a good job! I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of their product, and with the fast delivery time! The vinyl is very thick and sturdy and rolls up really nicely for storage.

The banner itself is 3 feet by 8 feet, which costs under $30 from Banners on the Cheap (shipping costs are also reasonable, and I have noticed they have even better deals from time to time). When you visit their website, near the bottom you want to select the “Have your own design?” option. Choose 3×8 and click “Start Now!” In the next window select “Upload an Image” and upload your own image or mine that you downloaded. Enlarge the graphic on the preview screen to fit the banner, then center it using the center tool. When you go to the order screen, make sure you un-check option #4 (because you don’t need grommets for hanging the banner). Add to cart and you are done! My banner arrived so quickly and I am super pleased with it.

I hope this helps some of you! I’d love to know if any of you use this in your summer camps and studios, and hear your brilliant, fun ideas on how to use it. Enjoy!

Now I am toying with the idea of a giant staff banner for learning notes… 🙂

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