I'm a Little Monkey Chart

I was going through some old pictures and found this one of my students, Gavin.  It reminded me of my favorite pre-twinkle chart.  I posted about it a while back, but I wanted to rehash it because it's such a great idea!

First of all, I give my students LOTS of these charts - like 10 or 20.  They cut it up into strips and mark off a monkey every time they play I'm a Little Monkey.  When they are done with a strip they tape it to another strip to make a really long ladder.  I love this because it gives the student a visual goal of what to work on and a fun visual reward when it's done.  Here is my daughter after she finished her chart:

Find this and lots of other printable charts and ideas at The Practice Shoppe.  

Multi-Mouse Making Our Practicing Fun!

This past weekend I had the fun opportunity to attend the ASTA Conference in my hometown.  I met a lot of great people who stopped by my Shoppe as well as others who were selling their own products.  One such product I invested in is the Rockin Rosin which is so fun to give away to my students.  They love rosining their bow with a fun-shaped rosin!

My biggest find, however, was a cute little mouse slap bracelet called the Multi-Mouse.  We call him Mr. Mouse over here and he's been a constant tool in our practicing this week.  I think this is a great little toy that can be used in a variety of ways from the smallest little pre-twinklers to the older students learning shifting and vibrato.

According to the creator, the multi-mouse has many wonderful uses:

1. Bowing arm path

2. Left wrist position

3. Left-hand shape

4. Introduce Shifting

5. Vibrato Technique

 I decided to test this out with my own kids and here are some of the pictures!

What really intrigued me was using this to help keep my daughter's wrist open when she plays.  She often plays with a "pancake hand" and I'm constantly reminding her to open her wrist.  Mr. Mouse is a fun way to practice with an open wrist.  What I've also noticed this week is that because she's not collapsing her wrist her low 2s are MUCH better in tune!

Mr. Mouse sits on the chair and waits his turn.

Even my 2-year-old who is doing pre-twinkle exercises is having fun with Mr. Mouse.

I thought it might give you a better idea of how I use this little guy if you saw him in action!

Here's a link to the video that the creator, Sharon, put together.

P,s, thanks to my 2-year-old, 5-year-old and 8-year-old for demonstrating in the video!

Practicing I'm a Little Monkey!

My darling daughter just finished her I'm a Little Monkey chart.  I'm a Little Monkey is a pretty standard pre-twinkle song with Suzuki.  It paves the way to learning Twinkle and requires lots and lots of playing.  My girl's other teacher, Ramona Stirling, uses this chart and I like that it's unique and different from the typical chart.

First of all, I print 5 copies of this chart.  This makes 90 repetitions.

We then cut the chart and tape it together to make a giant ladder.  Each day she would average about 5 Monkey songs and we would put stickers on the chart at the end of her practice.  

 After a few weeks, we finished the chart and she got a prize....such an exciting day for her.  We've taped it on the wall for everyone to see.  It's been a great accomplishment for her.  Now she is ready to learn the basics of Twinkle!

You can download this chart at The Practice Shoppe.