Submitted by Rosemary Shaw, Connecticut

Idea posted October 9, 2003

This is both a fun activity for my students and a good opportunity for me to assess students' literacy. I bought a plain colored vinyl tablecloth and drew on it the staff and a treble clef. With two bean bags of different colors, students line up on both sides of the floor staff in teams. At an easy level, each student throws the bean bag and names the line/space number, then goes to the end of the line to work his/her way up for another turn. If a student throws over or under, turn is lost. Level II is to name the note names using a chart. Level III is no chart.

For fun we usually double the point scores and do predictions, where a student will name the note where he hopes the bean bag will land.