Fun with the Practice Elves!

Well, all the practice elves found a home this week. Have you been having some fun with your elf yet or are you waiting until December 1st to officially start? Or maybe you feel like you don’t know where to begin and are looking for some ideas? Here are some of my suggestions for you:

You can move the elf from piece to piece each night and just have your child start there piano practice where the elf is. This will ensure there is a little variety each day in there practice. Wherever the elf is will be where their practice begins, then they would continue as they normally would

You can put the elf on a piece they’ve never seen before or played from their book and then they would have to begin their practice by sight-reading that piece.

The elf could be placed on a piece of music with special instructions to call a grandparent or aunt or uncle and play the piece over the phone for them. Or it could have special instructions for how many times to play the piece that day (ie “Play this piece 3 times at 7:45am and then again at 4pm) Or the elf could simply be encouraging saying something like, “You’re awesome!”
For a little help and creativity with these ideas, try printing off some speech bubbles: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=speech+bubble+prinouts&qpvt=speech+bubble+prinouts&FORM=IGRE

If you think that the Christmas piece is the one piece in particular that needs the help then use the elf and the speech bubbles to assign a new and different way to practice it each day (ie 4 times slow like a turtle, play over phone for 3 friends, play it with your eyes closed once after 3 times through, etc, etc, etc)

So, have you named your elf and begun the fun…if so, I’d love to hear about it! Share you elf’s name and post any pictures of it’s shenanigans to our facebook page so we can all enjoy the fun and creativity!

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Elf on the Shelf, Meet the Piano Practice Elf!

What an absolutely terrific week we have had! The days and weeks are flying by and I cannot believe this is the last week of November already! Not to mention we have just under three weeks left to our annual Christmas recital…or about 20 days left to practice!

I think our students have been doing a pretty outstanding job of practicing this year so far and I am so proud of the enthusiasm they shared over the Pennies for Practice idea that was presented last week! HOWEVER, I thought it might be nice to add a little something silly and fun, too! And so, we are going to incorporate the “Elf on the Shelf” idea at our studio and introduce a little Christmas magic into our daily piano practice. For those of you unfamiliar with the “Elf on the Shelf” idea, here it is in a nutshell: “The Elf on the Shelf is a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts an elf and gives it a name, the elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about all of the day’s adventures. Each morning, the elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their elf each morning.” For more info:http://www.elfontheshelf.com/content/about-us

So here’s how we are going to take this idea and work it in to our piano practice, I have printed off and laminated little elves to send home with each student this week–one per student. PARENTS, here is what you need to do: Each night after your child has gone to bed, the Piano Practice Elf will need your help choosing a new page in their piano book on which to hide. The next day, your child will need to hunt for the elf in their book and then begin their practice with the piece or concept where the Elf was hiding. You can be as creative as you want and have the elf leave little messages of encouragement, special instructions (play this piece over the phone for Nana) or tell a silly piano or Christmas joke OR as simple as you want. PARENTS: This is an absolutely OPTIONAL practice idea, but in order for it to work and to be a success, it will require your help and participation. All I hope for is that this will simply be a way of incorporating some extra Christmas fun into our practicing and be a way for our students to look forward to each day of practice! I will be sending the elves home with the students this week. Feel free to name your elf together and incorporate him/her into your practice immediately OR coordinate his/her appearance with your own elf on the shelf OR wait until December 1st to begin….it really is up to you!! Remember, once you have decided on a name together, his magic begins!! 😉 If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to email me! I would LOVE to hear what you name your Elf and about any of his antics, crazy or otherwise….you can even post pictures of his activities to our studio facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/mmmusicstudio