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Camps are the new “thing” in piano teaching and I want to tell you about the fun Basketball camp I’m planing in my studio for spring break 2017. If you want to hold a camp I suggest you start planning for it now, as it’s easy to buy a few extra supplies for the camp between now and then, and you’ll have lots of time to prepare!
I’m calling my camp MARCH MADNESS PIANO CAMP and made some cute graphics for it on canva:
I’m marketing my camp to boys and girls in my studio. Most do a sport or two besides piano lessons (i also teach Violin, thus the ViolinJudy name) and my camp will be a single day. There are enough activities here that you could really stretch them to be more! My studio setup is a piano with 3 great keyboards and 3 junky keyboards (well, they are actually okay, in good condition with pedals and touch response) a few ipads and tablets, an air turn ped and lots of headphones and headphone splitters. I love these fun shaped headphone splitters because i don’t loose them!
Here is how i figure out how much to charge for my one day camp: i take the fee (higher than the norm, i treat my babysitters well because i don’t use them often) i pay a sitter per hour and add 50% to that, then i multiply it by each hour of the camp. You are the best judge of how much to charge.
The one thing you really MUST buy for this piano camp are these really awesome DRIBBLE GOGGLES! I wish i could remember which piano teacher told me about these, because i’d love to give them a shout out, but if you don’t have some in your studio, you will want them even if you aren’t having a BBall Camp.
What are dribble goggles (i call them dribble glasses)? “Get young players into the game and focused on their dribbling skills with the Lifetime® Basketball Dribble Goggles. Sometimes, young players have the tendency to look at the ball when learning how to dribble. These basketball glasses prevent looking down at the ball and develop skills that will stay with them for a lifetime. by using the Lifetime® Basketball Dribble Goggles. Crafted from durable plastic with an adjustable strap system.”
They are GREAT for getting kids and even adults (one of my adult students asked to borrow a pair to take home!) to stop looking at their fingers and the keys while they play!
We start out our camp with some warm ups…
I use these basketball squeezies to exercise fingers
and then we do some call and response warm ups. if you have a hard floor in your studio you can just bounce a small basketball. the teacher bounces a rhythm and then the students play it back on the first degree of the scale…for your next rhythm they move to the second degree of the scale, ect. The kids love to take a turn making the rhythm, so make sure to switch every scale so everyone gets a chance. If you have littles or beginners who have not learned scales at your camp, have them start on a low C and keep going all the way up the keyboard to the top.If you have a mixed class, older kids can help the younger kids find the correct notes.
If you have carpeted floors you can get these basketball cowbells and do call and response rhythms with them.
I Love Love Love these Sportactular Warmups by Carolyn Miller!
Know that if you decide to invest in some of these items, you will be able to have a basketball camp every year, it will never go out of style!
Wendy Stevens has a fun Basketball Game here:
We will break up for independent study (keyboards and headphones) and play some of these fun basketball songs…
I will buy multiple copies of this because there are nice worksheets in the booklet as well and the price is right!
and it’s good to have a studio license (the unlimited downloads version; note to self, always buy this format this in the future to save time and money) of this great piece from Wendy Stevens:
http://composecreate.com/store/music/buzzer-beater/
and if you use Piano Adventures this song is great in Faber Piano Adventures Technique Artistry Book Level 2B No.24 Pep Rally (P.26)
Bastien has a Basketball song in the Pink Primer book that you may already own:
and Hal Leonard books have a fun Basketball Bounce Piece in them that is here…
and this Hal Leonard Basketball Bounce piece is ALSO IN PIANO MAESTRO app! If you know me, you know how much I adore Piano Maestro.
https://www.joytunes.com/apps
No, after all that practicing, it’s time for a snack. I’m making
an orange or clementine to look like a basketball by adding some sharpie and placing the ball in a cup with more sharpie drawn on to look like a basket. the backboard will be a healthy granola bar! I found this picture on pinterest but the link didn’t work, so i took a screen shot. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea!
Next we are going outside for this activity. You might ask each student to bring their own basketball so you don’t have to buy or borrow so many! You could print out the activity and every 2 kids a copy in a plastic page protector, but i’m actually going to let them play on my huge swingset and trampoline while i set up my old junky projector and laptop outside and project the powerpoint images to my garage door!
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rhythm-Basketball-Set-Vol-1-4th-and-5th-Grade-Lesson-Plan-Rhythm-Practice-1480581
If you don’t have an outside space OR have in-climate weather, here is another idea. Back inside, I have a small basketball hoop
that we throw the ball into…i place two pieces of tape on the carpet. if you answer the flashcard correctly, then you get to stand on the closest line to the hoop. if you are incorrect you have to shoot from the line farther away, but you will get three points if you make the basket! keep score on a dry erase board. I have used these basketball flashcards from melody payne’s teacher’s pay teacher store for a few years and they are perfect to use in lessons or at a camp. you can find them here https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Slam-Dunk-Basketball-Themed-Music-Symbol-Matching-Game-1175053
Susan Paradis has another idea for using this type of game over on her site:
Next we are going to break up and do some independent and group work using some apps on tablets and ipads.
I’m also hoping that NOTE RUSH APP will be willing to add a basketball themed background for their app in the spring! I love their soccer theme! Note Rush is an awesome app!
http://www.noterushapp.com/
We will have one more practice session, then perform some of the basketball pieces for each other in a mini concert. Make sure you pick pieces that are a level below your students’ ability so they can have fun and master them in a short time!
I love to have themed treats as rewards and I’ll give out one of these basketball candies as rewards after we play our basketball themed music for each other:
and
and if you like a non sugary reward, these stickers are cool!
We will end the day doing these FUN Rhythm Cup Explorations from Wendy Stevens using these awesome basketball plastic cups. You might let the kids take their treats home with them at the end of the day/week or keep them for the next camp!
I also found these cheaper cups:
I hope all of this information helps you to get started thinking about having a camp during your spring break. If you have the camp at the beginning of your spring break then you’ll have some extra spending money for a vacation for yourself (even if it’s the next town over) and we all need a vacation!
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