Recital Week Group Lessons Recap.

Tonight's the big night in my studio! It's been quite a hectic week, but this morning I'm actually feeling prepared and excited for what this evening will hold.

In between some regular lessons this week, I also held group lessons for my students. We had a lot of fun preparing for the recital and playing some games together. I always try to make the recital week an exciting and fun week for my students! Here are some of the activities we did in group lessons:

1. Music History Crash Course: With my intermediate group, we did a quick survey of music history. I provided informational print-outs on each period of music history, and students cycled through the stations filling out a summary worksheet. We finished the activity with a group discussion, and then I handed out the music history timeline I discovered last week as an additional resource for their binders.

2. What Would You Do?: It's always good to be prepared for the unexpected...even in a piano recital! I used plastic eggs and put a scenario inside of each egg. For my younger students, I hid the eggs in the front yard and they had to find one. For my older students, I just tossed the eggs to them. Each student had to open their egg, read the scenario, and then as a group we discussed the best way to handle the 'problem'.

3. Spelling Bee!: I played this game with my younger students as a good tie-in to all the flashcard work we've been doing this past term. They divided into groups of 2, and each group was given a grand staff and several manipulatives. I called out a word, and they had to 'spell' that word by placing their manipulatives on the correct lines and spaces on the staff.

4. Jeopardy!: I finished each group lesson with a musical version of jeopardy. Categories ranged from Music History to Rhythms to Intervals to Key Signatures and many more. The game got pretty intense, especially with some of my younger students!

If you've had group lessons in preparation for your own studio recital, I'd love to hear about what you did in those lessons.