Teaching treble clef note names is one of my favorite units in elementary music! So many of my students tell me how cool it is to be able to go look at the music their sibling is playing in high school and understand what they’re looking at! Over the years I have found a lot of activities that my kids love, so let’s get to it!
Games for Teaching Treble Clef Note Names
Centers Games
Bean bag toss is an active game for treble clef note names. To prepare for this one, you’ll need to first have a 5-line staff on your floor. You’ll also need to prepare some index cards by writing different note names on each one. Then, divide students into two teams and line both teams up on one side of the staff. One person will pick a card, and both teams will try to toss their bean bag to land on the correct spot on the staff. Students who land on the correct spot get one point. You could change it up by either awarding more points to the team that lands on the correct spot first, or by having students jump to the correct place instead of tossing a bean bag! Just make sure that if students are going to jump that you have a larger staff.
Seeing which students or teams can write the most words using the letters on the staff is a fun challenge! There are a few ways you could play this. It could be a centers game, where students are competing against each other during that center. Or, you could have students work together during the center, and then after everyone has gone through the center, you can see which group got the most words written down. It could also be a whole class game, where students work on their own or in groups. This game is also a fun time filler at the end of class! Early on in the unit, students could write the words only. As students practice identifying notes on the staff, they could start drawing the noteheads on the staff to write the words instead of writing only the letters.
Whole Group Game
Treble Clef Bingo is another fun whole group game. I bought this game and love it! I’ll give students their own board, but then let them sit next to their friends so they can help each other. Since I have candy and water bottle stickers in my room for my Secret Star Students, I give the winners a piece of candy, but you could also do a high five, a “choose our next musical game” coupon, or a “front of the line” pass. I used to do print outs with bingo chips, but I always have kids who accidentally move their chips. Lately I’ve been doing it with these sleeves and dry erase markers and it’s working out so much better!
Instruments
Teaching treble clef note names can be exciting because students learn how to actually play melodies! So, one of my favorite ways to practice treble clef is by having students play songs out of our textbooks! I’ll pick a song out of a younger grade’s textbook. I find that the second grade book has challenging enough songs while not being too hard. We’ll talk through how to figure out the notes and rhythms together.
Then it’s time to play! I’ll partner them up, give them a xylophone, and let them figure out how to play it! This is a great time to talk about high and low notes (if it’s a space C, you’re going to play the higher sounding C on the xylophone.) Students feel so accomplished when they can play the song! My students always look at the chord letters and assume that’s the letter they’re supposed to play. Remember to tell them to ignore that letter, or make a copies with those letters cut out.
Composition
Rather than reading a song that’s already written, they could instead compose their own song! When I do this, I start with a 4×4 matrix, which equals 16 beats. I have them write their rhythms in the boxes, leaving space underneath the rhythms. After they’ve written their rhythms in, then they can get xylophones and add a letter to each sound of their composition. It’s important to note that many students will only write one letter per box. If they have eighth notes, they may only write one letter- have them write one letter per sound, not per beat. If they want two of the same pitch, then they need to write two of the same letter.
To practice the actual treble clef part of this activity, you’ll want to take this a step further by having them transfer that matrix to staff paper.
PS- you can get this matrix for free! I love these composition pages so much that I’ve made a whole packet of worksheets appropriate for K-5. If you want more ideas for composing, check out these posts I have for K-2 composition and 3-5 composition!
Assessments
Remember the game I mentioned where kids write as many words as they can using the letters on the staff? You can easily turn that into an assessment! Have each student do it on their own and collect the papers at the end of class to see how they did writing the notes on the staff for their words. Or, if you want a more formal assessment, you could tell students specific words to write. This will avoid the “I couldn’t think of any words” problem you may encounter if kids are coming up with words on their own.
Using Technology
If you want to use a little technology, Kahoot is a favorite! You’ll need to make the quiz in advance, but they make it super easy. I just add a picture to the question, and then have the options read the note names, such as “Line E.”
When kids are ready to play, you’ll project the quiz up on the screen. Students will join your game by typing in a code and their name. I ask students to have their first name somewhere in there, but I do let them get creative. When you start the quiz, students will read the question and options on the projector and then choose their answer based on the shape on their screen. I didn’t realize at first that they don’t see any words on their devices. They only see the colors and shapes for their options. There is a time limit that you can set in the quiz settings. They’ll get quick feedback of whether they were right or not and who is in the lead. My upper elementary kids love when we play Kahoot in class!
Another easy assessment you can use is Google Forms. I love this option because it’s self grading! You can create it as a quiz in the settings and make one answer be correct. I always have the settings allow students to see their score at the end so they get the feedback immediately. If you use a Learning Management System in your district you can attach the link to an assignment to make it easy to access. In Canvas I’m able to embed the Google Form right into the assignment so the kids don’t need to click a link. It’s easy for them, and it’s easy for me to collect data! Win win!
Conclusion
Teaching treble clef note names doesn’t have to be hard or overwhelming for kids (though it for sure can be!) Just take it slow, and do lots of practice activities to make sure that students of all learning styles are able to practice in a way that makes sense to them. What are your favorite ways to practice treble clef note names? Comment below or head on over to Instagram and DM me (@caffeinated.j) and let me know!
