Practice Abacus

So I just had to post about the cutest project I finished today. A little background: One of my students is having difficulty practicing. At first, she wouldn't sit down at the piano at all. So, I came up with my practicing incentives. Each student has a jar and each student has a practice sheet. Every day they sit down to practice (no time limit and without being forced to), their parent signs off on the sheet. When they come to lessons each week, they get to put a fuzzy pom pom in their jar. They also get pom poms for doing their theory work, playing a song amazing, and having a good practice. When their jar is filled, they get to select a prize from the treasure basket.

Well, this got my student to practice, but she would just sit down, play each song once, and they get up - less than 5 minutes. Her mom was getting pretty discouraged. And, at this level, a lot of practicing is required in order to remember and understand the notes. So, I researched ways to get students to practice and came upon this project: http://theteachingstudio.blogspot.com/2011/09/practice-abacus.html.

I really liked the idea of this Practice Abacus. It makes playing a song over and over a lot more fun when you get to move a little bead over each time you play. And it reminds you to play a song a certain number of times. So, I decided that my student needed this Practice Abacus and we'll see how well she starts practicing.

I tried to get all the necessary items for this project, but wasn't very successful, so I had to make some adjustments. I had the cereal box already, and I got the frame from the dollar store. But, I couldn't find any brads at the dollar store or at Target. And, the only beads with letters on them that I could find (other than in a huge bracelet creating kit and not overly expensive for just a few - at Michael's) were these tiny little letters that had tiny little holes. So, I couldn't use the ribbon to thread through the letters. Instead I found some stretchy string that is meant for those small beads (and they were pretty inexpensive). I really like the original Practice Abacus, but I couldn't find everything that she did, so here's how I did mine.

What You Need:

scissors

tape

beads with letters on them

thin, stretchy string

picture frame

construction paper

cereal box

stickers

marker

thumb tack

Step 1:

Cut the construction paper down to size to fit in the picture frame. Cut out one side of a cereal box, making it the same size as the construction paper. I taped the construction paper to the cereal box, but you could always glue or even staple.

Step 2:

Decide what words you want on your abacus. I chose 2 three letter words (wow and fun), 2 four letter words  (play and Maya), and 2 five letter words (music and piano). That way, I can tell her to practice a certain song up to 5 times in one sitting. You could always do 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc letter words as well.

Step 3:

Thread the beads through the string. Decide where you want your words to be. I used a thumb tack to poke a small hole through the construction paper and the cereal box for the string to fit through. I made the string maybe an inch and a half long...leave it long enough to move the words, letter by letter. I put the string into one hole, and then put the other side into the other hole. I then tied the string together on the back and then taped it down.

Step 4: 

Decorate your abacus after you have all the strings on the paper. I put star stickers and note stickers on my abacus. At the top I wrote Practice Abacus and at the bottom I wrote Practice Makes Perfect! Decorating the abacus makes it even more fun.

Here is the finished product: