Staff Notes Game - "Don't Eat the Poison Pumpkin"

For my piano group lesson today I'm adapting one of our family's favorite games "Don't Eat Pete" to review note names on the staff.

What you'll need:
Susan Paradis "Pumpkin Notes" Worksheet in a sheet protector
Bag of pumpkin candies (or candy corns, m&ms, skittles, pumpkin seeds, etc.)

How to play:
1. Put one piece of candy on each pumpkin note.
2. Send one person out of the room.
3. Pick a letter of the music alphabet to be “the poison pumpkins”
4. Call the person back in the room but don’t tell him/her where “the poison pumpkin” is.
5. The “it” person picks up candy one piece at a time and identifies the letter name of the note. If the candy is not “poison” the person is allowed to eat it. If the candy is “the poison pumpkin,” everyone yells “DON’T EAT THE POISON PUMPKIN!” and that person’s turn is over.

The whole point is to put off finding the poison pumpkin as long as possible so you get to eat more candy. You could even play this as a "lesson starter game" and write down the secret poison pumpkin letter on a hidden whiteboard instead of sending your student out the room.

For a shorter or "non-seasonal" variation, the Note Bingo(letter names on the staff) or Cover the Keys (letter names on the keys) Gameboards on Susan's site would also work fabulously.