You've probably heard of using your hand as a visual aid for learning the names of pitches on the treble clef staff. With five fingers....err...four and your thumb to represent lines and 4 spaces, it is perfect! I wanted to take that idea just a little bit further with my students. This is what we did.
Using plastic gloves and permanent markers we wrote the names of the lines at the tips of our fingers. To solidify the concept that our fingers represented the treble clef lines, we drew lines on our fingers too. Some of my students claimed they were drawing their bones!
Next we found the spaces between our fingers and labeled them with the treble clef space names.
With my students this year I used very thin, clear gloves that you might see food service workers use in your cafeteria. They were pretty inexpensive but were quite large for some of my smaller students. They were a safe choice for students with an allergy to latex.
Another time I used latex gloves (pictured above). These gloves allowed us to write more clearly, but were MUCH more expensive. I bought a box of large and a box of small and they fit better than the plastic gloves. I would only recommend these if you were working with a pretty small class or were able to secure donations.
Permanent markers dried pretty fast during this project. I experimented with several other writing utensils include ink pens, flair pens and paint pens. Permanent markers are definitely the way to go.
After we finished our gloves we practiced using them with Music K-8's songs "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and "FACE" on YouTube. I also love Quaver Music's "Lines and Spaces" for this activity.
Like this idea? PIN IT for later!
I have been teaching the lines and spaces on students' "Handy" staff for years. I have had my students trace their hands on paper and cut them out, then glue on another piece of paper. They seem to enjoy the activity. I love the glove idea, though! If I wasn't retiring this year, I'd try it!
ReplyDelete