Treble Clef Beanbag Toss

This week in music class, my first graders are reviewing all 12 notes on the treble clef staff from C4 to F5. Most of them are able to identify about 10 of the 12 correctly on a regular basis, which is great. This is all thanks to Sharon Burch and Freddie the Frog. If you are a music teacher and haven't heard about Freddie yet, you're missing out! Go check out this site when you're done here. So far I've read "Freddie the Frog and the Thump in the Night" and "Freddie the Frog and the Secret of Crater Island" with the 1st graders. I make sure to read each of them through on two different days with each class, so that students who miss a day of music don't totally miss out on the story. It's also a great review for the others who were there.

I made a game to review the notes they know and the kids have had a blast playing it, and I've had a blast watching them learn. I call it the treble clef beanbag toss. Here's how it works:

Materials Needed:

• 6 Beanbags (I use different colors, but you could adapt it based on what you have)
• 6 Dry Erase Markers to match the color of the beanbags
• White Board (either one per team or a large one for everyone to write on)
• Treble Clef Floor Staff (I made a long one out of a clear vinyl carpet protector like the one pictured at the bottom of this post with electric tape lines on the bottom...I'll try to remember to take a picture of mine and post it on here)

Directions:

• Divide class into 6 teams (or number of beanbags you have).
• Have teams sit down in lines facing the floor staff.
• On teacher's command, first person on each team tosses the beanbag onto the floor mat (if they throw too far, their team loses that turn)
• Student who tossed figures out what note their beanbag landed on, and writes it on the whiteboard using their team's colored marker.
• After writing on the board, the students go sit at the end of their line.
• As a class, check all of the answers. I make the kids say cues with me like "The space notes spell FACE" every time we check an answer so that they have to pay attention. 
• If an answer was correct, that color team gets a point. If it was not correct, there is no point given. I try not to call attention to the individual who made a mistake, I just say that the "green team" was not correct. The students are also pretty good about understanding that we all make mistakes.
• At the end of the class period (yes, they can play it the entire 40 minutes without getting bored), I let the team with the most points line up first.

Let me know if you try this in your own classroom, or if you have any ideas to tweak it! The kids seem to love it and it's amazing how much more accurate their answers get by the end of class.