A couple years ago, I found myself walking around an arcade that I used to visit as a kid. The bright lights, the dings from the machines, and all of the prizes brought me back to my childhood.
My grandpa and I absolutely LOVED going to the arcades and we would play the coin pusher machines. You know, the machines where you drop a quarter in and hope that it would push other coins out so you could hopefully walk away with the largest stuffed animal they had.
I try to stay away from arcades these days but I sometimes think back about the games I loved as a kid and whack-a-mole was one of them! Why anyone wants to hit a cute little creature is beyond me but I still love to test my skills against that little guy.
Nowadays, I try to stay away from the arcades because like my grandpa, I spend WAY too much money there. Instead, I try to bring some of the arcade excitement into lessons.
Keep reading if you would like to learn how to reinforce note recognition and bring one of the classic games to life!
How Swat-A-Note will help you reinforce note recognition and bring out a side of students you haven’t witnessed before.
All you need is a fly swatter and a grand staff on the floor. If you don’t have a grand staff on the floor, it’s not a problem, I have an easy solution (which I will fill you in on below).
This game is pretty simple! The teacher yells out a note name and the student uses a fly swatter (I bought mine at Dollar Tree) to swat where the note is on the staff!
Let me tell you, kids usually LOVE to swat things. I have seen the shyest of girls become very aggressive. It’s quite entertaining and the parents usually get a kick out of the process too.
I have also put together THREE other versions of Swat-A-Note which you can purchase in the shop.
With the download, you will receive a photo prop so you can let everyone in on this “Note-Worthy” game.
If you don’t have a grand staff on your floor.
In my Swat-A-Fly download, I included cards with notes on the staff! All you have to do is print out all of the cards and place the staff cards on the floor. I HIGHLY recommend that you laminate these cards as they will be hit with the fly swatters!
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Are you tired of saying “Play It Again”? We were too until we unlocked this secret weapon!