My favorite way to help students remember the notes they can play and read on recorder is to have students make their own “cheat sheet”. Now ya’ll know that a “cheat sheet” is nothing more than a student created fingering chart, but there is something powerful about facilitating an opportunity for students to write down for themselves what they know. This is particularly useful if you are trying to remind students about what has been taught either the semester or year before. My 4th and 5th graders are about to pick up their recorders again after a two month break, so this will be a good review and reteach.
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| We start with a plain piece of paper |
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| Fold it in half |
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| Fold this in half again. I find that folding the paper is VERY important because it helps my students pace themselves. Especially for my students who need more support, folding the paper keeps them from being overwhelmed. |
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| I always write on my paper in marker so that my students can see the work. Often I’ll fold chart paper so that I can make mine bigger too. I ask my students to draw five parallel lines. |
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| Depending on the students and where they are, I may or may not ask them to draw a treble clef. |
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| After asking students to draw a blank fingering chart, I provide one piece of information, either the note, the fingering or the note name…… Then I facilitate the discovery, or the recall of the other information, either the note, the fingering or the note name. Some students are more certain than others, so some will just fill their chart in while others wait for confirmation. We watch carefully for error because the students know that they will be able to use these later. |
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| Unlike the pictures here, I encourage and model keeping my paper folded up. Keeping the paper folded up while writing helps students focus on one note at a time. |
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| Depending on how far a particular class has progressed this may be as far as we get. |
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| The nice thing about drawing with pencils is that you can easily use both sides of the paper. |
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| Another option if you want to have room for middle (low C) is to double up a note as I do with F and F sharp |
