Grand Staff for Musical Battleship
At the Yahoo piano teacher board this week, Lisa and the very creative teachers who post often came up with a game of Battleship using a large staff.  You have 2 players and give each one a grand staff. Each student draws some notes on the staff and they take turns guessing which notes to “sink”. For example, one student guesses C, third treble space, and if the other student has written that note it is “sunk”. Teachers suggested various ways to indicate a note is hit. You can laminate the staff and use an erasable marker. One teacher used push pins. If you have bingo chips you can use those. Place the students so they don’t see each other’s cards and you can give them another blank staff to mark which ones they have guessed so they won’t guess the same ones over and over. I hope I’ve written the directions correctly. If not, you can just improvise.
You can play the game with this staff. I made a staff large enough so we could use a dime as a note and move it around. Specifically I was having trouble with a very young student who could not see the “big picture.” The nice thing about this homemade staff is that you can print it (I used card stock) and send it home with the student. I like to show it to the parent and ask them to use it at home with the student. I tell them the bottom line note is G and just go up from there. Even some adults who have had music never realized how the staves are connected.
Hello Susan!! I was just going through your games and came across this post! Imagine my surprise! – the Grand Staff Battleship game on the Piano Teachers Group was my idea! 🙂 I was wondering if you would like me to send a picture of what my ‘battleship gameboard’ looks like. It’s a little easier to understand. I used a file folder (just a manila one) – and put TWO copies of the grand staff on the inside – one for the “opponent’s board” (for marking hits and misses) and one for my own board – for me to place my ‘ships’. (Kind of like the battleship board – where you have the opponent board up in front of you, and your own, laying down in front of you) – it’s really fun and easy to do. The students use a dry-erase pen for marking their own ships (5 of them) on the staff laying down (on the bottom half of the manila file folder) – then, they mark x’s on the lines where the misses are, and o’s for the hits of their opponent (on the board which is facing them as they hold it up). Please let me know if you’re confused – I know it’s hard to understand. I’d be happy to take a picture. Thanks!
Marci ti************@ya***.com
Hi Marci,
I certainly should have given credit to you for your great idea! At the time there were so many posts that I must not have known who originally thought it up. If you send a picture I will be happy to post it!
-Susan
My boys (and girls) will be thrilled to play battle ship during the next few weeks! Love the ideas!