Quirky Birds and Puppy Dogs
Quirky Birds and Puppy Dogs
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QUIRKY BIRDS AND PUPPY DOGS is a playful strategy for learning notes stem direction. When stems are placed correctly the notes look like p for puppy and d for dog! Watch out for q or b, those are the quirky bird notes! This sorting game will help students quickly identify the correct placement for stems. It only takes a few minutes to play during lesson time and it works.
Your download will include 8 Puppy Dog cards and 8 Quirky Bird Cards with a note on the reverse side. Mix them up and ask your student to sort them into two piles: a pile of correct stems and a pile of incorrect stems. Flip them over to see if you have a stack of puppy dogs and a stack of quirky birds.
Pages: 4 pages
Format: PDF instant download
File size: 841 KB
Terms of Use: Private Studio License (details below)
Printing Hints:
This is an easy print job, it only requires two sheets of card stock. You'll need to print double-sided in full color. Then cut the cards apart and you are ready to play.
Stem direction is, indeed, confusing for students. Every theory book I've ever read or taught from says that note stems go down starting on the middle line of the staff. This game has the middle line note stem going up. As a single note, isn't this wrong? I will have to get rid of that card, though I will still use the game. There is only one middle line note in the entire game, so getting rid of that important card is most unfortunate.
In 30 years of piano teaching I have always taught that the note on the middle line may point in either direction. If there are other notes in the measure it will point in the direction of the majority of notes. That being said, I know that Finale notates the middle line note going down by default. - Anne
I purchased this a while back, and I'm just now getting around to leaving a review. This is such a fun way to reinforce correct notation. I had a student who was obsessed with this game! She was requesting it every lesson.
Quirky Birds is such a quick and fun way to work on stems! Glad you love it too! - Anne
The BEST little set of cards to reinforce strm direction rules. Kids and adults alike love it! Thank so much Anne.
Thanks Colleen, it's a great little trick and always fun to say 'oops it's a quirky bird'. Glad you like it!