Steal a Heart Game
The purpose of this game is to reinforce note names with an emphasis on the really difficult ledger line notes like the ones below. Your older students will shudder in mock-dread when they see these little puppies!
I don’t like them, either, but the thing is, composers actually USE these notes so it comes in handy to know them!
I also included the ledger line notes in the middle of the grand staff on both the treble and bass staves, such as these.
However, the you can choose the level to suit your students, because I also made a page with the easy notes! You can print out the cards you want and select cards for different levels.
To play the game, give each student a game board and stack all the little heart cards face down in reach of everyone. Students will draw a heart card (that you are going to have to cut out; oh dear), name the card, and place it on an empty heart on their game board. The object of the game is to cover all the hearts on the game board. There are only 12 heart spaces, so the game goes fast. If a student draws a Steal a Heart card, he may take a heart from the game board of the person on his right, but he must name the note he is stealing. If he draws a Be Mine card, he puts it over a card he has already named on his game board to “protect” it, and then draws another card. Another player may not steal a heart that is “protected.” (It is important to draw another card to move the game along and also so he can practice naming the notes.) If a student draws a Give my Heart card, he gives one of his cards to the player on his right, who must name the card before he can take it. You can modify this game however you want, but that’s how we played it and everyone thought it was fun, since I gave them time to figure out the note names.
Steal a Heart Cards
You will need to print out enough little cards so that there are at least 12 to 16 note cards for each student. You will need about 1 page of the written conversation cards for every 2 students so there will be a good balance between note cards and conversation cards. Look at the 4 page PDF before you print so that you can print out what you need. Use card stock and laminate everything, or spray with a clear acrylic spray coating.
To be honest, I had trouble cutting the hearts out, so I added cutting lines. I took a look at all those hard to cut out hearts and knew my hands would never make it for my large group lesson. When you start to cut a lot of these cards, you will thank me.
Have fun and thanks to all of you who are supporting this blog. I very much appreciate all of you!