Music Staff Monkeys

For young children, I find that concepts are more memorable when formulated into a fun game.  I incorporate games into nearly every lesson that relate specifically to concepts in their pieces.  For example  I improvised a quick game as a fun lesson starter for my 5 year old piano student who is using the My First Piano Adventures Books.  Since she's already adept at remembering the music alphabet and letter names, I upped the challenge by making a connection with the grand staff.  I had my giant staff set up on the floor when she arrived.  After she "found" the bass clef buttons that had popped off onto the wrong place on the staff and placed them above and below the Bass F line, I introduced the concept of letters on the staff by singing and pointing to the music alphabet lined up on the bottom of the bass clef starting with bass A.  The bottom line is the "Ground" (G) and then the letters step up in order (space-line-space-line-space-line, etc.).

Staff Monkey Game
1. Scramble 3 sets of monkey alphabet cards face down.
2. Take turns picking monkey card "ABCs" to place on the correct line or space by singing up the music alphabet as you point to space-line-space-line on the staff.
3.  The first player to get the all of their monkeys in a column on the staff wins.
Time flies when your having fun!