As I mentioned Friday, I’m doing a “Simon Says” game this week to reinforce our key signature theme of the month. I wasn’t quite sure how to adapt the idea to a private lesson, but after a bit of brainstorming, this is what I came up with.
I have the student spread out two sets of flashcards on the fallboard – one containing each of the key signatures on the staff, the other listing the name of each Major/minor key (I made a set for the sharp keys and a set for the flat keys, and we just use one set at a time). The student gets the whacker and I call out, “Simon Says…” and then either give the name of a key or say a specific number of sharps/flats. If I say, “Simon Says…key of D Major,” the student has to whack the corresponding key signature on the staff. If I say, “Simon Says…2 sharps,” the student has to whack the card that says D Major/b minor.
So far this is working really well and is helping the students think through the process of figuring out which key is which and how many sharps/flats it has. Plus, I also let them refer to the other cards in front of them if they want to. And of course, almost any game that involves the whacker is a winner! 
Great idea! We use the whacker for lots of games, thanks to your wonderful idea from way back! What a great place to use it again.
My students are also enjoying using a whacker – but ours is a full-sized fly swat (they sit on the floor to play). I’m gradually using all my different flashcards to teach all sorts of things, and I made corresponding cards with fly pictures on which they whack. eg I have fly cards saying A-G and “flat” and “sharp” so we can use them for note recognition, key signature recognition, might use them for circle of 5ths etc – so I only had to make 1 set of fly cards but I can use them with lots of flashcards or questions. A stopwatch keeps it fun and exciting and shows weekly improvements in a measurable way. Thanks for the ideas!
Hallo
(sorry for my pure English,
I hope you will understand)
I am playng with my students this game:
We are sitting around the table.
Every student have packet of cards.
There is a name of the Key Signature on every card.
The play is going clockwise.
The Student turn the top card.
Put it to the center of table and must to say how many sharps or flat it has.
If he say mistake or it take a long time,
he must to take all the cards from the table.
The first student without any card is winner.