At the workshop I recently attended, I bought a magnetic board (from Lucy Chu of Ohio) that has the grand staff with a dotted line separating the bass and treble cleff. (The spacing makes it obvious that middle C is a skip below E line and skip above A line. And there are magnetic circles to place on the board.

Anyway, I've used it with two students so far. A four year old said "Awesome!" and a 5 year old asked me "Do you play with it sometimes, making pictures with the dots?"

It's a new toy, fun for me as well as the kids. It is enhancing my ability to teach note reading...and I like Lucy Chu's idea of there being a "button" on treble clef and bass clef (G, F). (There is a distict circle in the clef symbols on G and F respectively. The kids love getting to place the notes on the staff.

Just thought I'd share this. At least one member here has shown us some homemade teaching tools. (Also I'm up tonight after getting up to try to console my barking puppy who is 8 weeks old and came to us on Monday.)

Many moons ago, I used to teach the Technics Junior Music Programme and we sold a kit bag to the new recruits that included one of these

Funnily enough, I've really been hankering after one again, since I've started my daughters on piano, as the note-reading is proving the hardest part to get them motivated with. Particularly my eldest (7) who has a great ear and sound memory - I'm sending her down the road to a teacher who is really impressed with her abilities, but really frustrated at her slow note recognition!

http://www.e-znotes.com/products_1.html
Hi Ben, The magnetic board is available at the above website along with video instruction about teaching different things: note reading, interval reading, inversions etc.

I wish you well with your 7 year old...hope it puts more joy into note reading for her.

Thanks, Anne. I saw those earlier today, but I'm not so convinced by the whole 'blue for sharps, red for flats' malarkey. I also prefer the overall design of the ones that came with the JMP kit bag, so I'll be looking for something like that, first (and it would make sense to try to source something locally, rather than ship something over from the US).

Yes, better to buy locally. As far as color coded sharps and flats, those magnets can be used any way you please. Doesn't have to be the suggested use.

Is the board suitable for drywipe marker pens?

Yes, it comes with a dryerase marker and a cloth to wipe the board.

Basic but cheap, you could always make better music notes from magnetic sheeting available at craft stores, or use magnetic paint on a wall.

Magnetic Stave

I use magnetic note boards in my group piano classes; they are provided as part of the curriculum I use. Before they were available I actually did make my own boards from thin metal sheets that I purchased at an arts/crafts store. I would make permanent staff lines with a Sharpie and then use little round 1/2" craft magnets for the notes. It was time consuming but very cheap to make.

Here's another site that sells staff boards:
http://mywhiteboards.com/fuslinmusboa.html

I have one board from Lucy Chu too.
For those red, blue and black "buttons", I label them A to G on the top. I play some little game such as:
1. I will hand student a "G" and ask them to put the "G" on the correct place on the board.
2. I will ask them "treble clef line notes" then they have to put in EGBDF for me.
3. I will take a blank note without label put it on a random location and ask the student what note that is.
Etc.
I like this board, I have it since the very first year of piano teaching.
By the way, I do not follow the instruction about blue for sharp or red for flat, because I think that is too confusing.

Yes, I agree that the magnetic board is a very useful tool. I use it frequently with my young students and they love using it!

I usually get mine from the Music for Little Mozarts book series (Alfred's) -- they have a board that's magnetic one one side with a grand staff that comes with magnetic notes, and on the other side it has a dry-erase board with a grand staff. I order mine from JW Pepper.com . It's called the Activity Board and I believe it's around $15-20 dollars.

You can also make a grand staff on a sheet of felt and cut little circles out of felt that you can move around on the staff. You can also sew on a little pocket on the felt sheet to store your little circles of notes.

+1

Yes, I love the combo whiteboard / magnet idea. I believe I used a magnet set when I was very young at a Suzuki school for a year, about 30 years ago.

So then last year, I bought one for my 6 year old twins to use when they were getting started. They liked it a lot.

I think using one of these for the students to write notes on is also very important as I believe writing notes, (or letters, words) strengthens and deepens the connection in the brain for these elements. Moving magnets and writing on a whiteboard is much more fun than writing pencil on paper.

small piano,

Thanks for the ideas for games. Since reading your post I am considering labeling some of the "buttons" A to G.