There is a new interactive staff lesson attached to Songs 1-6 in K-6 at www.musicplayonline.com. When I teach the staff, I use several tools - the floor staff games, hand staff, cookie sheet staff, and now there's an interactive tool to help students learn about the staff. If you have a SMART Board or IWB, you or your students can drag the lines to make the staff or drag the treble clefs to the staff. If you don't, you can do this with the mouse on your computer or on an iPad. The first four activities are suitable for all grades - even your kindergarten students can learn that the staff has 5 lines.
Teaching about notes on the staff is the first step in teaching children to read music. With your students in Grade 1-2, they should learn about placing notes on lines and placing notes on spaces. You can demonstrate this using the staff lesson at www.musicplayonline.com and then have your students do the same activity on the cookie sheet staff. If you don't want to buy and make the cookie sheets, you can photocopy a staff onto card stock and use.
For your students in Grades 4-6, (and sometimes Gr. 3) introducing note names is part of the curriculum. The staff lesson goes on to teach how to name note on line, then notes in spaces, then notes on the staff, then ledger lines.
Use the Staff Lesson with all grades, choosing the activities that you'll do with each grade.
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