On the goal setting form I had students fill out in August, many of my students expressed that they wanted to be better sight readers. In the past few months, my students have participated in a Christmas Sight Reading Challenge in which every day they practiced I said I would give a certain amount of money to a local charity. I am going to write more about this at another time of year. But, my students were so excited about that challenge that I wanted to do a holiday sight reading challenge from now until Christmas.
Keeping Track of Sight Reading Progress
Well, I suppose I have to show you the chart on which we kept track of their progress, because it was this chart and their creative decorating of each of their quarters, that gave me an idea for this next Sight Reading Challenge. Look closely at the picture and you will notice their creativity unfold from the left to the right. About half way through the challenge, some of my students even started decorating their quarters like flags, then pumpkins, then all kinds of things!
So, I began thinking that it would be fun for my students to have ornaments that they could decorate. In addition, I always need a little help decorating the studio for Christmas, so I thought that it would be even more fun for them to try to fill one of my walls with bigger ornament that they decorated.
Holiday Sight Reading Challenge
Well, I was right! They are very excited, so I thought I’d share with you how the Christmas sight reading challenge is working and what they are getting as a result:
- Each student fills in 1 little ornament on the ornament chart for every day that they sight read (see page 2 of the download).
- For every 5 days, they get to decorate a bigger ornament which I will then place on the wall.
- If their wall ornaments reach from one corner of the wall to the other by December 12th, they will get 15 extra minutes of games at their Christmas party on December 19th! (I have carefully measured the wall and each ornament to see how far they should get if each student gets one big ornament a week…the 5 days they are supposed to practice.) The chart of the smaller ornaments on the wall also helps students feel compelled to sight read as they know their peers will notice if they are not keeping up!
You can download the Christmas Ornaments and use them in your own studio (feel free to use them for other challenges besides sight reading). Let me know how you reward your students for sight reading! Better yet, let me know if you have a holiday sight reading challenge and how it goes in your studio.
What a smart idea! You are such a creative teacher. I am looking to steal this idea myself and maybe improv on it a bit. Thanks for sharing!!
This is such a great idea, Wendy! Was wondering if you would share the download of the quarter cut-outs that you used for your first sight-reading challenge? And you mentioned that your students would get 15 extra minutes of games at their next Christmas piano party. I’d be really grateful to you if you would share some the game ideas that you are going to use. I used your Stinky Socks game at our last party and it was a hit. Especially since I called it Liszt’s Stinky Sock as we were celebrating the 200th b-day of Franz Liszt. Thanks for sharing all of your ideas with your teaching colleagues!
Hi Diane,
Unfortunately, I got that quarter worksheet at a local teacher supply store. It might be pretty easy to create. For game ideas, try this link:
https://composecreate.com/more-christmas-games/. I’ve also done a jeopardy game with my students in the past. They love trying to answer questions about Christmas carols. You know the picture riddles: http://www.jokelibrary.net/xOtherAtoM/b_to_e/c4-puzzle/puzzles.html
There’s many more ideas. Maybe I’ll blog about it if you are interested!
Great idea about Liszt’s Stinky Sox!