Whack It! This was Emily’s third week of lessons and we were drilling the names of the keys on the piano. She really struggled with this last week, so I had come up with this Whack It! game to play during her lesson. However, she had worked so hard during the week that she bumped her score up from 6 to 21 in the one-minute Name That Key Game (I just run my stopwatch for one minute and play keys randomly on the piano. As I play each one, she has to name it as quickly as she can.)! I was afraid this would be too easy for her, but she had fun with it anyway. Can you tell she really got into the whacking part?!

To play Whack It!, I just placed a flashcard with each of the piano keys on the floor and as I called out a key name, she had to whack it with the whacker. To finish the game, I told her that as I called each one, if she whacked it correctly the first time, I would take it away until she had correctly identified all of them. If she got any wrong, I put all the flashcards back out. Amazingly, this diligent little lady got every card right the first time!

Noelle was thrilled to be the first student admitted to one of the Agency Directory listings that correspond to this year’s practice incentive. A landmark achievement that necessitated a picture!

As I mentioned, I was at our annual state music teachers conference last weekend. The conference was held in the small town of Lindsborg, Kansas, also known as Little Sweden USA. I stole away during one of the afternoon sessions on Saturday to walk over to Main Street and enjoy the gorgeous fall weather. This charming little church building called for a picture and captures quite well the ambiance of the town.