Older students enjoy activities and movement in group piano class just like the younger students. Here's a fun way that I've had older students practice rhythms. We were working on 16th notes in 4/4 meter. They developed a different body percussion sound for each different note value of the song, "Fudge, Fudge." Check out the video of their body percussion movement and sound on a recent post on my Facebook page, Diane's Piano Studio.
This song is also a fun jumprope game. Students jump on the beat throughout the song, then begin jumping fast or "hot" on the last word of the song. We count how many times they can jump without missing. The picture is of a music teacher jumping "hot". I think she set a record out of all the students and teachers that I've taught for the number of times she jumped without missing. This picture was taken during an all day elementary music teacher training that I conducted recently in a Texas school district.
